Captain Chesley Sullenberger’s heroic landing of US Airways 1549 into safety with no victims on the Hudson river last year was largely credited to his great communication skills with the entire flight staff. He was modest when he said he just did what they’d been trained to do. But in addition to his command of the aircraft, he had good command of the crew via communicating them through the intense moments of their descent into the river. Had he not communicated well, the outcome might have been much more sinister.

Tennis players are not facing such crucial decisions during a game and people’s lives certainly are not determined by the outcome of a match. But the amount of on court communication a player has to deal with is hardly given enough credit.

I get self conscious playing tennis in the park, when there are two people sitting on a bench watching us play. And more likely, waiting for us to finish than really watching. But the stuff they might say and comments they might make could really mess up my game.

I think about what professional tennis players have to deal with when they’re playing in front of a 24,000 people crowd on Arthur Ashe stadium. Can you tell 24,000 people to shut up?

But the crowd is only one of the elements of on court communication. Here are some of the other ones:

– 1 umpire
– 8 linesmen
– 6 ball boys
– 1 opponent (if playing singles)
– 2 opponents and 1 partner (if playing doubles)
– photographers
– journalists
– fan booth and relatives
– spouse
– coach
– physical trainer
– tournament trainer
– TV greeter before the match
– TV reporter after the match
– and of course, the player himself

Whereas communication is not always verbal, all of the above points demand eye contact and interaction, or at least attention. Best case scenario, the crowd loves you and the umpire is your childhood friend and there are no questionable calls or annoying people in the crowd, yelling things out before between serves. In all other scenarios, tennis players engage one way or another in some form of communication with all of those people.

And, of course, they have to play some tennis meanwhile.

Goran Ivanišević once said he fights 3 battles when gets on the tennis court – one with the opponent, one with the umpire and one with the ball boys.

The ball boys? The kids that run around the court to fetch your tennis balls so you can save your breath? How could they be a reason for frustration? And since tennis is a very mental game, such frustration could cost the tennis player precious concentration moments.

As the game has become so much more physical and demanding, balls get worn out not only quicker but also differently and their bounce can change only after a few games. Over the years players have become increasingly picky about which ball they use for their first or second serve. We’ve seen Djokovic study them one by one before he makes up his mind. Gasquet on the other hand would insist on using the same ball if he just won a point with it. And, the ball boys are already “trained” to return that same ball to him.

I’m not sure how much of this is superstition and how much is logical, but one way or another, it probably pays to know how to communicate with the ball boys.

Both Federer and McEnroe worked as ball boys when they were kids. Not only did they display sheer passion for the sport (these are often volunteer roles), but also they watched the pros and their behavior from the best possible seats in the stadium. They’ve seen ball from the best angles and studied tennis players’ game and shot making in real time.

Having such ball boy experience on your résumé makes you familiar with the whole ball retrieving ritual, but more importantly builds some ball boy “vocabulary” and awareness. Now Federer personally greets the ball boys and other staff on the court before he starts the match. Is that a merely a gesture of politeness and general courtesy he’s naturally known for, or does he just want to get on their good side?

Given the amount of communication that happens on the tennis court, both verbal and non-verbal, I think the ball boys and how the players work with them might indeed affect their game.

John McEnroe is a great commentator. He’s got the latest gossip and he’s packed with history. But my favorite part of his work is his ability to blast out a strong opinion about a tennis player’s game and give you food for thought for a long time.

For example, he would question Djokovic’s decision to switch from Wilson to Head and even suggest that his game slipped as a result. He would call Andy Roddick a “one trick pony”, maybe because of his huge serve, but lack of follow up aggression and diversity through the rest of his game. Such comments are not only bold and daring, but also help me take a side and shape my own opinion.

The flip side of such open commentary though, is what I wonder – can players “hear” those comments real time, as the match progresses? Is it possible that live coverage TV comments affect the outcome of a tennis match?

If McEnroe says “he’s gonna have to dig really deep to get out of this”, or “Federer looks clearly in control of this match” and the crowd in the stadium heard that comment, wouldn’t their faces change? What about their body language or behavior? The things they say during breaks, the whole crowd rumble, chatter or other white noise, or lack of it? Wouldn’t that affect the players on the tennis court?

I remember one time Federer’s dad was on camera as McEnroe introduced him to the TV audience. Fed’s dad was wearing one of those radio headset and he could hear McEnroe, so he politely waved at the camera. That was cool. Real time interaction! Takes us right into the game.

But what if the camera was on someone’s coach, and McEnroe said “I don’t think your guys is coming back after the second set…”. Wouldn’t that kill the mood a little bit for the coach and consequently for his player?

OK, maybe not everybody in the crowd has a radio headset with the streaming broadcast coverage the US Open had for American Express members. But even if their coach or fan booth heard those comments, whether through a radio headset or a mobile device, they might still communicate them, though non-verbally, to their player next time he looked at them.

That’s what I call the “commentator effect”. The possibility that a commentator might influence the outcome of a tennis match with their commentary.

The Isner – Nadal match in Indian Wells got one of the commentators to commend John Isner’s focus, concentration, self-belief and not least – his big serve. He even compared receiving a big serve like that to being the goalie for a penalty kick in soccer. The goalie doesn’t have time to read the ball and plan his plunge. At best, he can guess and jump to one side. Same with a big serve. You don’t have time to read it. You make a guess and swing at the ball. Hopefully at some point that becomes an inherent instinct, a reflex.

They say you should only stick to one type of backhand play. Either one or two-handed backhand. There’s no official USTA or ITF tennis rule that says so, yet most tennis coaches will advise you to stick to one or the other.

I started playing with one handed backhand when I was in high school. Maybe because I was used to playing table tennis. But 5 years later, when I picked up a tennis racket again, I felt like I had to play with two hands. Maybe because the rackets were heavier this time.

Then I saw Federer and Justine-Henin’s backhands and thought they were the most beautiful shots in the history of sports. Not to mention the longer reach, not having to run around the ball so much, disguised slice shots and natural inclination to come to the net more.

So now I’m thrilled when I manage to hit a clean and if possible powerful one-handed backhand. It’s particularly rewarding when I create some crazy angle that’s probably only possible if you hit the ball with one hand.

But I’ve been playing some guys lately whose serves are just too much. They just boom the ball when serving and blast it like a baseball during rallies. Those are the times when I’m tempted to switch to two-handed backhand. And sometimes I do. The one-handed backhand is just too weak for such returns.

So I wonder what the right thing to do is. Stick to two-handed or “evolve” to a stronger one-handed backhand?

As much as I wish I had more opportunities to play tennis, I have to admit that it’s that uncommon to run into other people who happen to play tennis. What’s more uncommon though is to have a decent dialogue to figure out if you might be a good fit on the court. It normally goes something like this:

– So, you play tennis?
– Yeah, and you?
– I do too.
– Cool. So, you’re pretty good?
– Um, yeah, depends who I play, I guess… And you?
– Oh, I haven’t played since I moved here last year, but I’d like to hit some day.
– Yeah that’d be nice…

Hmmm…How much does that tell me? I can’t tell how good (or bad) he is. Unless I ask “What level do you play” and they say – “Oh, I’m a 4.5”, there’s almost no telling. And, of course, not everyone knows the rating system.

So, I’ve started using other discovery questions, like “What racket do you play?”. If they say – “I use a Head Liquid Metal” or “I love my Wilson K Factor”, then at least I know they care about the weight of the racket, balance, playing style, maybe strings and tension, etc. They’d be at least 3.5. If they say “It’s red”, or “Nike” (yeah, I heard that once, too) then I know their racket is probably 50 bucks from Big 5 and they haven’t used it since high school.

What do other people ask during the discovery dialogue? “Did you play in college?”, “Did you play on a team”, “Do you play in USTA leagues”? Or do people just wait for the other person to share a highlight in their experience “I won the local ladder in my neighborhood”, “I play at least twice a week”.

How do you know how good the other person is? What would you ask them?

Help me finish that list. Feel free to vote for other “winners” in that category add new candidates. Hopefully someone at Tennis Channel will take note and at least change the types of ads they run (if not remove them completely).

1. LATISSE – GROW LASHES – How to grow bigger lashes!

2. THE BELLY BURNER – Get blazing abs by wearing a belt.

3. E-HARMONY – How to find a wife or a husband online.

4. CASH FOR GOLD – How to get paid cash for your jewelry.

5. THE SLAP CHOPPER – How to chop vegetables.

Why can’t all TV be like Hulu? If you really must run ads for lack of a normal way to monetize your service (like charging your customers), then at least let us choose our commercials? Is that hard?

Imagine going to a restaurant and, instead of just paying for your food, you are forced to watch pampers commercials till you’ve paid up.

… more candidates for the top spot:

6. ROSETTA STONE

7. SHAMPOO FOR ITCHY DRY SCALP

8. 1-800-PET MEDS

9. NEW YORK TIMES

10. PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE

11. GEIKO INSURANCE

12. LONGINES WATCHES

13. FRANKLIN TEMPLETON INVESTMENTS – Gain From Our Perspective, after watching our commercial 6,000 times!