North Carolina State University Athletics
Choboy's Methods Lead to Pro Success
1/11/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Jan. 11, 2011
RALEIGH, N.C. -
Although college tennis matches are mostly baseline battles these days, NC State head coach Jon Choboy insists his players include solid serve and volley skills in their repertoire in addition to flaming ground strokes.
Short range, that philosophy has jolted some out of their comfort zone. Long range, it has spawned success.
For example, Jay Weinacker transitioned from a predominant baseliner into an all-court player in Choboy's aggressive system and wound up as an All-America who set an NC State record for most career wins.
By sharpening his serve and developing a net game, Wolfpack standout William Noblitt made the NCAA tournament in doubles even though singles was his specialty.
Now there's Christian Welte, another former Wolfpacker, who is making strides in his first full year as a pro.
Also, Choboy's former Brown University protégés, Jamie Cerretani and Adil Shamasdin, cracked the top-45 world rankings in doubles and Chris Drake broke into the doubles top-100 before becoming a college coach.
That's the idea. Choboy is about developing players for the future as well as building a program, which he has done at NC State. (The Pack reached the Elite 8 in 2007 and have been rated among the nation's top 50 teams the last five years.)
"We want to change the mentality... dictate points, be aggressive,'' Choboy said, expounding on his tennis theory. "We work a lot on transitioning to serve and volley, the attacking part of the game.
"It takes a while, (but) the dividends are pretty high when you get comfortable. To play beyond college, you've got to have the ability to win points" rather than simply slugging it out and waiting for an opponent to err.
While athletes are always aspiring to reach the professional ranks,
convincing a successful ground-stroking player to come in and finish points quickly isn't always an easy sell. Initially, that suggestion left Weinacker in a state of frustration.
"My first semester he made me serve and volley and I lost a ton of matches,'' said Weinacker, now a club pro in Birmingham, Ala., his hometown.
But Weinacker, though initially out of sync, stuck with Choboy's plan and is glad he did.
"Moving forward (with the attacking game), is the No. 1 big reason I won so many matches,'' Weinacker continued. "I never would have made All-America. It was the key to my success."
Welte, who has posted wins over several opponents ranked in the top-300, might not have gotten to the pro circuit without Choboy's mentoring.
"When I came (to NC State) I did not have an identity,'' Welte said. "We worked on serve and volley, on being aggressive, not relying on defensive skills.
"You have to be a lot more aggressive, hit big shots and finish points (in the pros). College players don't transition grinding out points."
Chris Drake, currently the head coach at Dartmouth, also benefited from Choboy's coaching and attack-mentality.
"I came in as a baseline player who won matches by not making many unforced errors,'' Drake said. "Jon encouraged me to come forward. The fall before my junior year he had me play two tournaments where I would serve and volley on the first and second serve. I struggled with the results.
"I got comfortable, put it together (with ground strokes) in the spring and really made a jump. He transformed me as a senior and I came forward all the time. It's a big piece of why I was a successful doubles player on the tour. He kept long-term development as a priority for all of us."
Choboy, a three-time, all-conference performer at Canisius who later competed on pro tours, says he developed his coaching philosophy largely by observing the game.
He contends that the attacking approach, rather than the stay-back-and-grind it- out style, was a key to one of NC State's finest moments, a 4-0 upset win over rival North Carolina in 2007 that sent the team to the NCAA Round of 16. That was also the same year the Pack gained an all-time high national ranking at No. 18.
"Our philosophy was take the game to them,'' Choboy said of the win over UNC. "It was the culmination of working two to three years.
"There's a common thread to it," the Pack coach added. "We get very good people, who are very hard working and very competitive. They come to us to work -- and develop."
• By A.J. Carr
