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Ryan Shane: In his Own Words

LastWordonSports has been following 2015 NCAA Champion Ryan Shane’s senior season and transition to a full time touring pro. Just off having won a 3rd NCAA team time with UVA, Ryan Shane reflects over his senior season and blogs about his thoughts on his upcoming hard court season.

When I look back over this season, I feel that my senior year at UVA was my most important one yet, and I have no regrets about returning to school for my last year. After my third year I had a lot left to learn. Most of my career I didn’t have to deal with the pressure of defending a major title, or having everyone gunning to beat me. By returning to UVA for my last year I feel that I learned lessons that will be extremely valuable to me moving into my pro career. One of the biggest things I learned is how to deal with pressure. Obviously there was more pressure on me than my previous years so it was something that I had to learn how to deal with. I feel that I did a fairly good job managing my expectations as the year went on.

Playing at UVA was by far the best thing for my development both on and off the court. There is no way I could have accomplished what I have, or what I would like too, without going to UVA. Not only did the staff help me grow on the court, but more importantly they helped me grow off the court. One thing that I think really helped me to get where I am is that everything you do off the court translates onto the court. This is one thing that the staff really tried to show me and help me to understand. The moment I truly believed that and bought into the process is when I started to take off. The coaching staff that UVA is one of the best. They truly care for each of the players and want only what is best for them. This is something that I felt from the moment I arrived at UVA. This was one thing that was extremely helpful for me, having coaches that you know really believe in you and want you to succeed makes it very easy to listen and trust them. Being surrounded by such good coaches and great players made it the perfect environment for me to grow and mature. My four years at UVA were crucial for my growth and development.

There were a lot of other factors that made the year tough, such as no-ad scoring, but I feel it only made me tougher. I also suffered more losses than I ever had in previous years, although I was playing only in the #1 singles spot this year, but I felt that I was able to bounce back and keep moving forward and working on things that needed work. This is crucial to prepare for my pro career because I will be losing almost every week and I will need to know how to deal with that. All in all I feel that my over all college career has prepared me for professional tennis extremely well and I am excited to see what I am capable of.

Ryan Shane

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