Adam Schaechterle: Player Identity And Building Lasting Confidence

Hey everyone, registration for my New York City Doubles camp is now open and we still have six of the 16 spots available. The camp takes place August 22nd and 23rd at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy indoor courts on Randall's Island. The camp features eight hours on court, a one year subscription to my online doubles academy, and of course the fantastic gift bag featuring an ADV backpack, new balance shoes, and gifts from Young.

We'll be working on pinching, poaching, covering lobs, doubles formations, volley technique, you name it. So if you're interested in learning more, visit the link in my show. On today's episode, we welcome Adam Schachterley, the Director of Tennis at Pepperdine University, whose men's team just reached the Sweet 16 a few weeks ago. On today's episode, we discuss how player identity shapes your development and how you can look to build meaningful, lasting company.

So sit back, relax, and prepare to become a smarter tennis player. All right, Adam, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much. It's great to see you and and be talking to you here, John. You survived the collegiate season. What a what a grind. Uh we were just talking before we started recording. You had to coach the men and the women at some point in the fall. You've got recruiting, you've got transfer portal, you just finished NCAAs.

The life of a college coach is super busy, so we definitely appreciate you joining us today. I wanted to pick your brain about a couple things because you're coaching a lot of good players, you're coaching against good players, wins and losses, the margins are fine. One of the things you mentioned was a player identity. And trying to build off that when you're developing your own players at Pepperdine. So what first of all, what does that even mean to you, like a player identity? What is

Yeah, it's it's uh it's a fun topic and it's one of the reasons that I probably most am have been drawn to college coaching because within the high performance coaching world, you know, there's the pro sector, the junior sector. and and where we're at in college, I find the identity piece is closely connected to my my job as a coach. Um and when I when I look at identity, I'd be really curious your take on this. Like I I first

believe that in you know, I'm I'm focused mostly on the men here developmentally at at Pepperdine. And I I think there are a few core uh characteristics or values that every men's pro player has. And so if you look at the top hundred uh over the last five years or you look at a grand slam level player, that's what we would kind of hit the marker of this is a player that's made it. This is a player that's playing the slam.

I what would be like the core values that you would say, okay, if you're playing the slams like the player has this? You know, some of'em for me, the surplus one the the physicality, what what would you what would you put in there? Are you talking about from like a physical standpoint? I'm just saying that you cannot play in Grand in in the slams without these characteristics.

Oof. I mean when I hear care the first thing that came to my mind was just competitiveness. And that's like a huge umbrella huge umbrella for me, but like That to me is problem solving. Of course it's effort. I mean, if you don't have effort, I don't know how you're gonna achieve anything. So of course you're trying hard. Of course you have emotional intelligence and you can problem solve out there throughout a three hour match, right? And

He's providing this challenge, here's my counter to that, instead of just going out and playing mindlessly. But I it goes without saying to me I think you have to be incredibly competitive. That'd be like top of the list. Then I would go serve for sure. I think it's very tough to be successful without a serve. And then I would say move. I love it. So I think those are really good values. I would probably add to that.

in the current game, you have to be able to create pace. You have to be able to receive pace. So you you just don't see guys you actually see some guys that win a future that don't have one or the other. and they're able to get their way through a twenty five K without any ability to inject pace into the rally or they really struggle when the other guy does. Um So I love I love your competitiveness, the the surplus one, the the movement.

From my side I would also say the ability to control the middle of the court is a is a really important aspect And when I'm looking at identity, I'm then applying that to our guys and looking at each individual player. How is this player able to win points at the level they're at right now? And how are they able to then in our program win points at the level where they can play?

And for me, then it starts getting really, really interesting as you start getting outside of those core characteristics. And then you start looking at their body type. You start looking at their ability to uh manage and understand risk, uh, I think is a huge factor for identity. You look at their movement capabilities, you look at their uh front court capabilities. And for me that's been maybe the the most joy uh and fulfilling part of my job because

You you know this from coaching at the college level, John. Like the the sa this college season is so busy to to break down a core technique and take a backhand and say, We're gonna take this two handed topspin backhand and and We're gonna completely change the takeback. We're gonna completely change the grip.

Um the likelihood of that working out at a high level at the col uh in the college game is just really difficult from how much time we have outside of the dual matches and just how stressful the dual matches are. But we've made tremendous uh improvement in players UTR and success level with the identity piece in and saying, hey, instead of building the rally this way, let let's try to build the rally this way, which is more rewarding to your strengths.

What do you do so like some players I guess view themselves a certain way. I've definitely had players who are like, This is who I am and this is what I do well and you watch videos and you're like, Well, I could probably I have some uh compelling evidence that you're not what you say you are. Yeah. But also, you know, you have an ultimate goal. So in your case, it's people who want to go pro.

So you go, okay, well every pro has these things and we're kind of reverse engineering and go, We have to develop those things. You're not gonna be the one unicorn who succeeded serving seventy five mile an hour first serves. Like it's just not gonna happen

So how do you get over that when a player sees themselves one way, but it is in direct opposition to probably where they need to go or what they need to do? Like how do you bridge that gap and get you guys on the same page when you kind of know it's the page you need to be on?

Yeah, I think that's an awesome question and from someone who's been in the trenches and had those conversations uh A lot of times that comes from a player that, for example, views them as weapon based and then they don't really have weapons that work at a high level. So they're they end up making a lot of errors and you're you're doing the math with them.

Okay, like you want to be weapon-based and hit forehand winners, but I'm counting eight forehand unforced errors in this set and I see two winners, like that math is not is not gonna work to the success level. So what I've found is that most players uh care about winning more than they care about identity. And so helping the player understand how this can lead to winning. And I love your I love your phrase reverse engineering. For me just using ex an example of that, uh Tim Zybogel came here

Um he became an all-American, uh made the semis of NCAAs. He came in as a high eleven UTR and his his ability to do damage with his forehand, backhand, and serve was really limited. Um, his ability to finish points at the net was incredible.

But when we played thirteen UTRs, he could not get to the net with any kind of authority to to e he was oftentimes playing defense in the front court because of the quality of his shots leading up to the And so when you use the word like reverse engineer, for him it was, hey, we need to he he had never hit a forehand, he was left-handed, he had never hit a forehand off of his front foot.

Everything was off of his back foot, leaning back. He had a buggy whip forehand, Nadal style. So there was no uh getting the string path actually through the ball. And so for us it was taking a guy that was like, hey, I'm gonna smoke in mirrors and kind of chop my way to the net and bunt the ball around and then just run forward and try to surprise the guy. And showing him tape that, hey, at the thirteen plus UTR level

the smoke and mirrors approach and the surprise attack, it it's just not going to be possible because your ball is moving too slow and your core position is starting too deep to make this front court approach. And so let You look we all have this vision. He he won he ha agreed with the vision of I want to be a front court player. I want to be someone that uses my continental skills to finish the point.

And so from there it was, okay, we've gotta we've gotta change your footwork, we've gotta change how you control the middle of the court, we've gotta change your transition game so that when you do come forward

it's finishing volleys or it's at least neutral where you your your magic and your superpower of being at the net can take over versus you're you're just scrambling and diving for balls. And so that reverse engineering process I think if you can have the player buy in and see the long term vision, then it makes I mean it certainly was frustrating for him as we went into the process then of changing the the swing path of his forehand uh

getting him to recognize how to how to get his front foot down and transition his weight from from the backside to the front side and stand on the ball and really really power with his

There's frustration moments, right?'Cause he's been doing it one way for ten plus years. But I think the frustration for him was worth it because he's seeing the connection to where we're going. And so I think that's Yeah, uh the identity piece for me, at least at the college level, is really tied to also the the individual and the technical work because if the player is bought into where it's going, you know, then I think you can

So where I would encourage, you know, you have a lot of listeners that want to get better and they I would encourage them to be really uh In an ego list way, honest about their own game. What do I do well? What do I not do well? How do I win points? How do I lose points? If you have a way that you're you're winning points consistently, then I think finding ways to steer the rally to rewarding those skills.

is something that a lot of players don't think about. They're immediately looking at themselves and if you take a player like Tim He's looking at it. I gotta hit the ball better. My forehand technique isn't good. My backhand technique isn't good. Okay, that that that might be correct, but why are we changing the forehand technique? Is it just because you wanna look a little bit more like what you see on TV?

Or is it just because a pro told you that your your swing doesn't look good? Or is it really serving a purpose to help you win? And for me that's where the identity piece really is. Just a quick shout out to ADV who sponsors this podcast and who I've been using personally for a while now. The short version, they make high quality, minimal gear for competitive racket sport players. Function is the priority always.

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Do you see any danger? So you're talking about a a top level collegiate player coming in and hoping to eventually become a Maybe I'm like the destroyer of dreams here, but like your number ten guy is probably not gonna be making money on the professional. But maybe he is hoping to be a very solid contributor at six singles.

So to win at six singles is a lot different than winning a challenger or being top hundred. Like the skills you need to have are very, very different. And a three five player hoping to become a four five player, like I don't think they have to control the middle, right? But sometimes what I'll see as like a three five player

comparing themselves to Alcaraz. Like they're literally watching Alcaraz hit forehands and they're trying to figure out what they should do. And it's like this is not even we're not in the same universe here. This is a different game. And so sometimes I see players trying to reverse engineer something well like you said their physical skills or just their physical abilities and it's like you're trying something that's so far

That you're actually spinning your wheels when you're just trying to get to a certain level. A three five trying to get to a four five really probably just needs to get. Honestly, it's not like they're playing so aggressive. And at least I know we were talking about how the level's gone up at six singles when I was at Duke, like game plan number one was make balls and scream.

Like that like hey, we can win a lot of matches if we put the ball in play and we compete. Now the level's gotten better, but do you see that as an issue where people sometimes are Going above their pay grade, like if your number ten guy was telling you that he needs to do something to make Wimbledon next year and this is why he needs to structure his practice a certain way, is there a danger?

I'm wondering if you have some microphones in our locker room because uh we we have had those conversations with our our eight and nine guys and yeah I think it's just the nature of tennis and it's also the nature of like how media is is delivering tennis product right now. If you watch ninety seconds of tennis T V

And you're watching the 90 second highlights of Cinner versus Alcaraz, it's like, okay, every time I'm sliding on one foot in the corner, I just need to slap it overhead speed down the line on the line. And that's what tennis is these days. And so I I think That that's a really important point from you. I I'll give an example from our current team. Uh David Fix was our sixth guy this year. He started seven seven and five. He finished the year seventeen and five, so he won his last ten matches.

And and really was the catalyst to our team making the the Sweet Sixteen and and he won his Sweet Sixteen match against Baylor there and and gave us a great chance to be in the lead eight. And for David, one of the biggest changes in his identity Had nothing to do with technique, had nothing to do with fitness, had nothing to do with adding a new weapon. It was he structured more points.

using his inside in as a setup ball instead of using his inside out as a setup ball. And it just simply came from being on the practice court and this is where I think there's some combination of of watching some tape, of of being uh self-critical in an honest way, but then also it can help to to feel uh I I like to actually still be on the court. I I don't hit the ball well enough to really push the guys. But as as we were hitting uh earlier this spring, I just felt, man,

the way that you snap the outside of the ball, like the torque that you're getting. This is this is David, our sixth guy, when he's hitting his cross court and inside in ball, the ball just felt a lot heavier to me.

um than his inside out, which even with my uh 4-0 level backhand where that I'm slicing most of the time, I felt pretty comfortable holding up uh against his inside out. And so then that took us down a path of, hey, when you get the first attackable ball you are 80 to 90% of the time playing that heavy inside out or fast inside out.

The points then oftentimes reversing, his backhand was his weaker is his weaker side, and a lot of times players were able to get a cross court backhand and neutralize the point and flip the point. And by him snapping the inside in more often, he was able to maintain control of the point and reward himself with more forehands. And so that sounds

extremely simple and I think it is a lot more simple than retooling his game and and adding shots and and overthinking or as you said looking at Alcaraz or center. It was a pretty simple fix but I I as a coach I like simple fixes that ca reward the player with with ten consecutive wins and so Uh I think that's an example of sometimes the the identity piece is short term and it's just a a shot selection. Um I if you want to use a tour example

I would look at Rafa and the way that he defended his backhand early on his career. Uh, a lot of times he would play that ball. heavy and it was kind of in between down the line in the middle and that would end up pushing the the rally back to him hitting more forehand. I think later on in his career a lot of guys understood what he was doing with that with that rally but

that would be an identity piece for him where he's not at that time for ten years of his career, he wasn't worried about cracking the backhand flatter or adding new shots. It was simply about This is how I'm gonna arrange the rally and this is the target that I'm gonna use to reward my strengths. And so I think from our level at the college level all the way to the highest level of slams and even at the 3.5 4.0 level. I think players can make a big jump in in their game.

just by taking either their best shot or their worst shot and figuring out Where is the best place to play this? On the court, with what kind of shape, with what kind of speed, and does that lead to me being able to structure the point to my strengths or trap the other person into their weakness? And that alone can can be a big part of identity. I just started uh an online doubles academy. It's called a subtle ad in the middle of a podcast.

Um, but one of the reasons is because like the whole point of that is so people can send me videos of their game and I can see what they're doing and go, hey, you all there's information everywhere. There's videos, there's There's stats telling you what to do, and people don't do it right. And you're talking about improvement, getting better, identity. You've mentioned it a couple times. Do you think it's possible to do any of that?

without watching yourself on video. Because I think if you're not watching yourself on camera, like you said, you want to have an hon honest conversation about your forehand. I know how I my forehand looks in my Like I know that and I've seen it on camera and they are not the same swing. And I know I remember every winner I hit, but I don't remember the errors. So can you do this without video?

I I think if you're really serious about developing and improving as a tennis player Video is an essential component of that process, whatever your level is. And that's happening on the tour level, it's happening at the college level. And it can be as simple now with some of the apps that you have, you can whip out your iPhone and take a 10 second video to look at your serve technique or to look at your volley technique and and go slow-mo on it with some of the apps.

But what we found at Pepperdine is that the m the most productive aspect of the video review tends to be where video review and honesty meet. And that's what you referenced. the player has a a a view of of what they're doing and a lot of times it if the coach uh or the instructor at at a at the at the level uh

of the local pro is trying to tell the player, here's what I see. A lot of times it can become opinion versus opinion and feelings can get involved and it can be like, no, I I'm better than I'm good at that and you're criticizing me and you're putting me down. But a lot of times when you flip on the tape, it's like, hey, do you see this? Cause this is what I see on the tape. Can can you see that? And and the player really quickly says, Oh yeah.

I I see that I wanna get better at that, or I see that that's a great aspect of my game and I can see the damage that it's doing. And so I think the video takes a lot of the feelings out and it's it's really helpful in in the development of tennis players because our our egos as tennis players tend to be a big part of the process.

Monstrous. There there's a golf coach that I follow online and he's super analytical and he's awesome. He works with a bunch of pros. And one of the things he said, I I said, my dad has like his own little theory about his own game, you know, but it doesn't line up with your stats for the everyday golf. And he said, Tell your dad he's not allowed to have an opinion about my

And I was like, Oh, I love it. And and I I view video the same way. Like if you sit there and you go, I think my forehand's good and I watch your forehand, like you said, and there's two winners for every eight errors, objectively your forehand is not good. Like that's not efficient, right? And so it's like it's not me telling you that I think it's bad. It just this is what it is. This is how we can fix it in improvement.

So I think that's a huge thing. While we're talking about how bad everyone is watching themselves on video, the other thing I want to talk to you about today was building confidence. And so that's a massive thing. It's different from everyone. I'm curious for you specifically,'cause I I've had a little breakthrough with my golf game recently. How do you specifically gain confidence in an athletic realm? Is this me as a player that you're referencing or me as a coach?

It's a good question. Give me both if you can. And it's not a 50 minute answer. But like, yeah, I want to know how you get confidence in judgment.

Yeah, I think a huge part of of confidence is winning and there's a connection there. And I think as tennis players, that's something that I've seen a lot of times through coaching is, you know, it winning is connected to confidence almost regardless of the level of winning. a great story about this from the the Florida team that won the national championship when Ben Shelton was playing five. Their number one guy Duarte Vale had played like six the year before and he was

Not so sure about playing lower level college events, but the next fall, Brian Shelton really felt like that was important for him to just get some wins under his belt. They went back and forth. He only wanted to play pro events or the very, very premier college events. and they finally agreed to go to a Clay Court event in Wilmington with zero rank college players and he felt all the pressure of

Hey, am I really this level? Like I'm going down to the the the, you know, mid major level of college tennis and He went there and and kind of battled that and won five matches and his confidence just took off from there. The the winning really led to an injection and He ended up playing one for that Florida team that that won the national championship and had his very best year in college. And I think that balance of

Winning connecting to confidence is a really important piece. What's hard about that is we can't always control that and we can't always just manufacture wins or find a level where a player is is gonna do that. So I think another huge connection to confidence, uh, for college guys that I've seen over the years is their fitness level. And it's something that can be directly controlled. And so you know, there's something about benching

uh a weight that you've never benched before that makes you feel like the man. There's something about, you know, taking off your shirt and having an eight pack that makes you feel pretty good about yourself. Uh and I think there's something about feeling an hour and a half, two hours into a really physical mess.

you know, number one, that you're not as tired as maybe you typically would have been, but number two, if you're if you're feeling across the net that the opponent is in a is more in the chamber physically than you are, I think that can lead to a lot of confidence. Um so those are two that I've seen you know, pay huge dividends. I think what you and I as coaches are probably more interested in is

The more difficult confidence. Those are kind of the easy confidence. The the low hanging fruit is is winning more matches and getting fitter. And so I'm I'm curious from your perspective, like what some of the creative ways to help your players find confidence.

Okay, so I don't know the answer. I don't know the solve for this, but I can tell you so I'm I'm probably the opposite where results don't matter as much for me as much as Me understanding the process to get what I want and knowing that I can actually do it.

So like I've never driven, I live in Charleston, I've never driven to Salt Lake, Utah in my car, but I'm confident I know how to drive and I'm confident I know how to stop when I'm tired. So I'm like, could I do that? I'm like, oh yeah, I could do it. But I've never achieved that before in my life or driving cross country, whatever would be.

So when I step into a match, it's like, well, have I ever beaten a guy ranked this? No. And I start looking at what it would take. Well, can I serve 120 on a dime back then? Yes. Okay, I can do that. Can I make enough returns? Oh no. I can't. My returns suck. Like I can't bluff that confidence and go that I have the skill that I don't have. So for me, I know when I'm feeling confident, it's when I go into any athletic event or any event at all and I go, here are the challenges that might pop up.

Am I capable and skilled enough and practice enough to have an answer? And if the answer is yes, then I'm like, oh, I feel great. Right? If the answer is no, even if I've been winning matches or done something similar, I'm gonna be And so I always feel like my my goal for myself if I'm competing, or my goal for my players, is like here are the problems that might pop up on the test.

And do we have answers for them? If the answer is yes, you should feel really confident. Like if I knew all the all the questions to an upcoming test. I'm not sweating the night before. I'm just like, oh, it's A, then B, then A, then C. Yep. I'm gonna get a hundred. So to me, that is I've seen guys on my team win those lower level matches and they get confidence, but then they go play someone twice as good.

And they get shellacked'cause their skills are just not good enough. They felt good going in, but it wasn't enough. So I I think it's At least in my experience, I find that like true confidence. And like you said, the wins and losses are uh a little bit out of your control, right? But if you go in there and you go, I know this is what it takes and I know I can do it, to me that's like true self belief.

So what we try to teach here and it's it's maybe reversing it a little bit, but I I think that the best tennis players that I've been around, this is at the pro level, this is about the at the h very highest college level, they are actually skilled in confidence building and confidence protection. Thank you.

And I I think in our sport your your confidence is almost always under attack. You know, it's it's crazy. Uh the the closest sport is probably baseball, a sport of failure where being really good is is hitting three out of ten. And I think the best baseball players from some of the sports psychologists I've talked to, the best baseball players are are really good at confidence building.

as protection as well. And part of that is not making things a bigger deal than they need to be. Like, hey, I had a good at bat. I I took a good swing at it. I lined something right at the shortstop. I I hit the tar out of that ball like I'm okay with that. And so I think that the best tennis players I've been around, they have that kind of attitude for the most part. Um

But for us, what we're trying to do, i I really learned that being in the trenches at at Notre Dame. You were at Duke at the time with with a guy named Quentin Monahan. And what I saw with him that was different than other players that I had coached. is the skill set that you talked about. You know, he had no weapons whatsoever when we started. And he was a three player who was unranked in college tennis. Um, good competitor and and made a lot of balls.

But I remember we added a weapon with his inside out forehand. And he immediately took that as like, Yeah, like now I have a new weapon, therefore Of course I'm gonna win much more at a much higher level. And and I it didn't occur to me at the time just how magical that belief was of him saying, like, yeah, I was in the lab. I was doing individuals with Adam. I added a new weapon. Therefore

I'm no longer gonna gonna produce the same output. I I'm I have a new weapon, I'm gonna beat more players. And he kept doing that where it was like he had no first serve um free points. Now he's getting One free point a game. And you know, he was serving 112, 115, but he was indoors at Notre Dame able to sneak a free point with his first serve. And then his confidence immediately went to now I'm able to beat a higher level player. And that snowball just kept building and kept rolling.

to in one year's time he went from a three player that was unranked to twenty-one and three at one and six in the country and beating Cam Norrie in the quarters of NCAAs. And for me as a young coach,

I didn't I was not in charge of what was happening, you know. I'm just trying to help him on the individual court and help him get better. It wasn't until actually two or three years later, when I saw other players not doing that, you know, they would add a new weapon to their game, but then they would put themselves into the same pecking order when they would go out and compete. that I realized the magic of what Quentin had had done. And so now the way that we apply that at Pepperdine is

we do something where I ask the guys to seal the rep, we call it, which is if you're in practice and you have a really good repetition of something new that you're trying to add, we ask them to make a physical reaction on the ball. So Pump your fist to yourself. I'm not asking them to just yell and scream or things like that, but maybe it's a little racket nod shaking your racket to yourself. And the the physical uh or the image that I give them is

eating confidence. Like we want their belly to be full of confidence and we want them to nourish their confidence like you would when you're eating food. And it's it's Coming from that learning experience that I had as a coach with Quentin, I really watched that snowball build and I watched him like eat confidence and eat confidence and not let it go. And the kid in one year's time was like a completely different competitor and he took the cord.

His chest was out, he looked like two inches taller, he looked like he could beat anybody. And and that's something that we've tried to now replicate and teach. I do think some of it is natural and some kids just uh some kids, some some young people, some people in general are more

comfortable uh growing confidence and maintaining confidence and believing in themselves. But I also firmly believe that it's something that you can learn and it's a skill that if you want to be great in tennis at whatever level that you're at. The way that you talk about yourself, the way that you uh build confidence, and the way you retain confidence.

I don't know if I've said this on the podcast before, so if I have, I apologize to anyone listening, but Chuck Creasey uh Clemson used to say that they did, you know, they were famous for all the running that they used to do. And people told me that what he would do is he would have them run as fast as they could, run a mile. One guy would run, they had to be in amazing shape. So let's say one guy ran a five minute mile and the other guy ran a four fifty mile.

The next day he would have them run and he would give the guy who ran the five minute mile a 10 second head start. And he go, okay, now you're running for the loser has to do 10 more miles. But it should be even. You guys were 10 second difference today. I'm it's even Steven. And he said the guy who ran the 450 won almost every time. Because they knew they were fast

Even though technically there should be no advantage, they thought they were faster and the other guy thought they were slower or knew they were slower and in the end there was that little bit of extra will. So when you said pecking order I always come to that. I see it all the time. Someone will be like, Well, I'm a three five playing a four oh or I'm a twelve U D U T R playing a thirteen UTR and they should be better.

I find when you drill it down and you get very specific about what is the difference, you might learn it's not as big of a of a gap as you thought it was. Why are they a through thirteen UTR? Oh, they're just in a little better shape. Well, I can do Like that's it'll take me three months and I'm there or they serve five miles an hour faster or like Quinn they have a four hand weapon and I don't. Well am I capable of generating that over a couple months? Of course.

And then the gap is kinda closed. So the pecking order thing is very real. I don't know if you see that still the

I I think it's we're really trying hard to upset that pecking order and kind of turn it over, both as a a at a team level but then also at the individual level. And so that's where the magic of a player who's always thought they were in one, you know, in one segment or in one stuck area and and when they start When they start upsetting that and they start climbing that ladder, it can be really special and fulfilling to see as a coach, but I think it can actually impact that person's life and

I I I'm not trying to be overly dramatic here for the people that are tuning in to to your podcast, but I think that is something that at any level in tennis, going from a four oh to a four five in tennis,

is probably gonna make you a more confident person as well. You know, it's gonna it's gonna impact your relationships your with your spouse. It's gonna impact if you're selling real estate, you're gonna have a little more bounce to your step. And so For me that's one of the the reasons that I love coaching and the reasons that I love the in particular college coaching is Seeing how someone learning to build, protect,

acquire confidence and and go as you said, like, wait a second, I c I can be better than I thought I can be. I can achieve things that maybe I didn't think I could do It it's really special to to be a part of that process. But I think that all comes down to the the player understanding. It's amazing how many people are willing to follow a coach's instructions when it comes to work or drills.

If I tell you, John, hey, you're going to get better and you need to spend 15 minutes a day serving the cones, you need to run uh one mile as fast as you can three times a week. I found the buy in is actually pretty easy in in that area, regardless of what level of tennis that I'm coaching. But if I'm telling a player

Hey, I really want you to fist pump after a good rep. And it's super important to your process. It's not about me. It's not about me being American. Like sometimes we'll coach an international kid and they'll say, like, I don't want to be the yeller in college tennis. That's not what I care about. Okay, this is directly related to you building your level. you need to racket nod or you need to turn and fist pump after a really good rep and it's huge for your confidence.

there's some kind of like stubbornness inside of us as as humans that almost like get scared of what the effect might be. And so I I'm not sure why that is, but I thought it was worth commenting. Like it it's a really difficult um There there's some kind of stubbornness in a lot of players to to do

I can tell you why that was for me because if you watched me play, I there was one time and I'll I'll never forget it'cause Ramsey like made a point to say something. My senior year, I made a good run to the finals of like our regional. And I beat some good players on the way and in the semis it was like five all maybe. I serve in volley, hit just an absurd half volley at like thirty all on my serve, like massive moment. And I like

Shook my racket like that. And everyone was like, Whoa, he's really fired up. Like this is This is like as big as it gets for him, because normally you're gonna see nothing, right? I would say for me, because that's it's something I would definitely go back and change about myself as a player. I think the difference is when you're telling me to pump my fist or to behave a certain way, that is me.

If you're asking me to hit a shot, that is what I do. Yep. So if you come to me and you say, Hey, your serve's really weak, I'd be like, Yeah, my serve sucks. Or like if you're talking about my golf game right now, yeah, like I can't hit out of the bunker. Like, that is something. If you say you're too excited on the court, I feel weird.

Or I'm I'm too flat. That is like it feels almost like a character thing. And so for me it was always tough. USDA coaches, college coaches were always trying to get me to be more pumped up, but it felt very Against who I was. Now, in hindsight, I'd be like, hey, guess what? Grow as a human being and experiment, and you probably would have unlocked a level you didn't know existed. But that was my it wasn't as much stubbornness as it felt counter to who I was as a person.

I think you nailed it, John, and I think that's a good thing. You know, if if there's a takeaway from this discussion on confidence that I would want your your listeners to to hear from us is just the power in being a confidence merchant and really trying to acquire it, learn how to grow it as fast as you can, learn how to protect it.

we as tennis players and I was this way, I I'm I'm sure you were as well, like the muttering under our breath and the like talking about ourselves as if we're just terrible and and if we oh, you always do this, you you're messing up again, you know. y you suck, you're terrible in these moments, and reversing that And being okay with getting outside your comfort zone to reverse that and just understanding this is.

a chance to get better and a chance to improve myself that's more important than forehands, more important than backhands, more important than any other aspect of tennis. And you you nailed this at the beginning, like the best competitors in the world. are the best players in the world. And confidence is so closely tied because

the confidence is where the belief comes from that at five all, thirty all, when you're on the dead run, you are going to hit the forehand where you want to hit the forehand and you are going to win that point. And so

for for me as a coach I just I think not enough players maybe appreciate how important and how vital confidence is and then Once they've admitted that or once they've accepted that, okay, now how are you on a daily basis working on your I think that's such a big piece of of this tennis.

Adam, I love talking to you. As always, like I said, I know your season was incredibly busy and then you gotta get in the portal now and find all your play I don't miss college tennis at all, by the way. When I hear how hard you guys are working all the time and how you gotta scramble for players. Um but a lot of respect for what you guys did. You had an awesome season. Uh good luck next year and we'll be following. Thanks so much, John. I appreciate you.

All right, I want to thank Adam for joining the show today. We go way back. We coached against each other when we were assistants at Notre Dame and at Duke. For me, the big takeaway that you can move forward with after this episode is figuring it out your end goal, clearly seeing what that player looks like, and reverse engineering your schedule and improvement plan to reach that.

I think a lot of times we're all just vaguely trying to improve, but sometimes our effort goes wasted. So figure out if you want to be a 3-5 USCA champion, if you want to try to reach a 5-0 level, or if you just want to be active and enjoy yourself and hit function. All are great options, but it's nice to know where you're going and what you need to do to get there. As always, thanks again for listening. I hope you just improved the tennis without even hitting a button.