USU men's tennis making significant lifestyle changes

USU men’s tennis has incorporated new lifestyle habits hoping for better performance results  

By Weslie Hatch

From the way it eats, to the way it sleeps, to the way it trains and competes, the USU men’s tennis team has decided to create a standard of excellence that goes far beyond the tennis court.

It began with Clancy Shields, the head coach, figuring out he needed to start practicing what he was preaching.

“I was telling the team to eat healthy, get enough sleep, be fully present in practices, etc.,” Shields said. “However, I was fat and out of shape.”

Shields said he was still eating like an athlete and “putting whatever junk I could get my hands on” into his body.

He said getting the team to change its everyday lifestyle was going to have to start with himself so he needed to actually live what he was preaching.

According to Shields the result of this was inconsistent energy levels, erratic mental clarity, and the inability to get on the court and practice with the team. He said he was not being the best coach he could be. 

“I want the team to live a lifestyle of being the best in everything it does,” Shields said.

He decided to start a weeklong juice cleanse. Shields said the team thought it was just a mental challenge Ben Mullis, the assistant coach, had put forth and he wouldn’t stick with it. But the athletes soon started asking questions.

After becoming educated about juicing, the team decided to add it into its training table and loved it. Coach Shields started seeing the benefits on the court as well as seeing them during training days. 

According to Shields there have been players who have been resistant to the new approach and others who have jumped on board “full steam ahead”.

“I like trying new things,” said Jaime Barajas, a sophomore on the team. “I felt like changing how we eat was going to be something different but I knew it was going to help us in the long run.”

According to Barajas, the team has been eating healthy for a little over one month. He said while traveling for fall tournaments no one ate bread and the team tries to only have one cheat meal a week.

“Before we started our juice cleanse, and decided to eat healthy, we took a body fat test,” said Barajas. “Personally I’ve noticed the benefits of changing my habits because after the first month we took another test and I lost body fat.”

Shields said because the team found success in making this small change, it soon started to think about other areas it could explore to get a competitive advantage. He said the athletes started challenging each other to focus on getting eight hours of sleep and to hold each other accountable.

“What started out as us demanding self improvements and being the best we can in everything we do, changed to demanding it out of each other,” said Shields.

Shields said the team ferociously competed against each other in practice to propel each other’s games and they have challenged each other to become a little bit better each day in all areas of their lives. 

“The team has to commit to this standard of excellence everyday,” said Shields. “At times the athletes may falter, but the great thing is they are not doing this alone and they have a caring team to help them through.”