Every September, the same thing happens on the public courts around Sarasota. School is back, the brutal midsummer heat is finally easing off a little, and juniors who spent the summer grinding show up for fall with a vague sense that they want to “get better this season.” That’s a fine feeling. It’s also useless on its own. A goal you can’t measure is just a wish, and wishes don’t hold up when a player is down a break in a September match and starts pressing.
I’m Michael Boothman, and I’ve been coaching in Sarasota for more than twenty years. The fall stretch — roughly now through the holidays — is one of my favorite windows of the year to set goals with junior players, because there’s enough runway to actually move a number, and enough real competition on the calendar to test whether the number means anything. Here’s how I think about it, and how you can help your junior set fall goals that survive contact with a live opponent.
Start with a number, not a feeling
One of my Six Pillars is Confidence Is Built, Not Given. Confidence doesn’t come from a coach or a parent telling a kid they’re great. It comes from evidence — from a player looking at a number that used to be lower and knowing they moved it themselves. That’s the whole game with fall goal-setting. If we can’t attach a number to the goal, we can’t build confidence off it, because there’s nothing to point to when the doubt shows up.
So “improve my forehand” becomes “hit 8 of 10 forehands into the deep third of the court in a live crosscourt rally.” “Serve better” becomes “land 6 of 10 first serves into the wide box on the deuce side under a scored game.” The skill matters, but the measurable target is what turns a good day into stored confidence a player can withdraw from later.
Notice those examples are live-ball numbers, not basket numbers. That’s deliberate. A junior can look terrific feeding themselves 40 forehands against no pressure and still fall apart the moment a ball comes back with pace and spin. The goal has to be measured inside conditions that look like the thing we’re actually training for. I’d rather a player hit 6 of 10 in a real rally than 10 of 10 off a friendly feed, because the 6 is the one that shows up on match day.
Pick two or three goals, not ten
The most common mistake I see with fall goals — from motivated juniors and well-meaning parents alike — is trying to fix everything at once. Forehand, backhand, serve, movement, mental game, fitness. By October the kid is overwhelmed and nothing has moved.
Fall is about eight to twelve productive weeks before the holidays scatter everyone. That’s enough to genuinely move two or three numbers. It is not enough to move ten. So we choose. Usually one weapon we’re sharpening (a shot the player already likes and wants to trust more), one leak we’re patching (the shot that’s costing points), and one physical or mental target (a movement pattern, or a between-point habit). Three numbers, tracked honestly, will do more for a junior’s fall than a laundry list ever could.
Write the numbers down and revisit them
A goal that lives only in a kid’s head fades by the second week. I ask my players to keep their fall numbers somewhere they’ll actually see them — a note on their phone, an index card in the racquet bag, whatever they’ll look at. Then every couple of weeks we check the numbers. Not to grade the kid. To show them the line moving.
This is where parents can help enormously, and where I’d gently steer you away from a trap. When you check in, ask about the number, not the outcome. “Where’s your first-serve percentage in the wide box these days?” is a great question. “Did you win?” is a fine question for after a match, but it’s a lousy anchor for a fall goal, because a junior can play beautifully and lose, or play scared and win. The number is the thing that’s under their control, and control is where confidence is built. (If you want more on how we track progress with real numbers rather than vague praise, that’s the core of how I coach every player.)
Let the fall calendar be the test
Numbers you only ever hit in practice aren’t finished yet. The reason fall is such a good goal-setting season in Sarasota is that there’s real competition to be found — junior tournaments, team practices, high school seasons ramping up, and plenty of informal match play if a family goes looking for it. That competition is the exam. A goal that holds up in a practice match against a friend, then holds up again in a tournament first round, is a goal that’s actually been achieved.
The United States Tennis Association’s junior competition structure makes it straightforward to find age-appropriate events across Florida, and I encourage families to enter the fall not to chase a ranking but to test the fall goals under pressure. When a player has been tracking their live-ball forehand number all fall and then executes it in a tight third set, something clicks. That’s the confidence we were after the whole time — earned, measured, and theirs.
What a good fall goal looks like, start to finish
Put it together and a well-built fall goal for a Sarasota junior looks like this: a specific, measurable target (“6 of 10 first serves to the wide box in a scored game”), trained inside live conditions rather than off a basket, written down where the player will see it, checked every couple of weeks for movement rather than perfection, and tested in real fall competition. Two or three of those, honestly tracked, is a genuinely productive season.
The kids who come out of the fall most confident aren’t the ones who were told they were great in September. They’re the ones who can point at a number that used to be lower and say, “I did that.” That’s the whole point. If you’d like help building fall goals that fit your junior specifically, that’s the kind of thing I love talking through — you can always reach out and get in touch.
See you on the court.
— Coach Michael