Hey everyone, on today's episode we've got Brian Baker. Brian had career-high rankings of 52 in singles and 29 in doubles on the ATB Tour, and recently helped Wake Forest win the 2025 Men's D1 National Championship 4-2 over TCU. On today's episode, we discuss how his team trains so they can be loose in matches, his doubles philosophy on what to cover and what to leave open, and his best advice for the 4-0 player. So sit back, relax, and prepare to become a smarter team.
All right, Banks, welcome to the pod. Thanks. Happy to be here. I have known you, I don't know, actually, when did we first play? Was it like 10 or 11? I know for sure in like the 12s we would go against each other. I mean, I can't remember a first-time matchup, but... I would say had to be within 12s or 13. Right. You were always the guy in the southern section. First of all, you were one of the best players, if not the best, always.
So it's like, you're kind of like a measuring stick. Like I'm at home practicing in Chapel Hill and I'm like, okay, well Baker's in Tennessee, like doing something. And I remember Everyone's got their own skill set. I had a pretty good serve. I was taller. I was like relatively fast. I just remember you hit the ball so freaking clean.
Growing up, was that a thing of yours? Was that something you and your coaches worked on? Or was that just kind of like an innate skill where you're like, I just tend to strike the ball pretty much? Yeah, I mean, look, I think everybody has certain... skill sets and advantages that come easier for them than other people. I think I was blessed with good hand-eye coordination.
There wasn't any specific drills that were... you know created just by hitting the ball you know more in the sweet spot or anything else i wouldn't say necessarily my brother and sister were like amazing ball strikers and we were doing the same thing so i think a little bit of that was just you know, was a skill set of mine that luckily, God-given talent that I had. And yeah, I mean, look, I had a tennis court growing up in my backyard. I played a lot of tennis.
I think it was one of those things where I was competitive at a young age too and liked winning. And so, you know, like you said, there were other measuring sticks and you're always out in the backyard. You know, okay, like in five years, you know, I'm going to play U.S. Open. I got to do this or that. So, you know, I think it was just a combination of a lot of hard work, a lot of practicing, and then, you know, God-given talent with hand-eye coordination.
So it's cool for me just to know I've known you forever. It's been almost 30 years. And obviously you had a great playing career, going to pros, being top 50. Now you coach for the USTA. Now you're winning NCAA titles. So like I've kind of seen and like monitored your whole journey. And I never had the joy of experiencing an NCAA championship. And I know you're not like a poet and the most emotional human I've ever met. But I would love to know what it felt like for you.
You know, in the games leading up when you're like, okay, it was a 4-2 match, so it's still close. It wasn't just like a walkover. So were there nerves? And then kind of once you realize you're going to win it and you've won it, I just want to know what that feels like with all the hard work you put. Man, it's probably tough to put it perfectly into words, I think.
We knew we had a good team coming in in January. I remember talking to some friends and probably even our friend groups just that we would have a shot this year. We work really hard, so... You know, the success wasn't a surprise, but I think anytime you're... a favorite going into a tournament.
You don't know exactly how your team's going to handle it. And, you know, are you going to play a little bit too tense, too tight? It was probably a good thing that we lost one match in the ACC semifinals. I don't think we necessarily needed more motivation, but I think just showing that, hey, like, you know, you can lose if you don't play the right way. And so I think.
Going into the tournament, we were confident, but at the same time, you always have doubt. I mean, you always are sitting there thinking, have we done enough? Are we going to be able to play our best tennis when we need to? I'll give credit to the guys. They really played out.
out there with a mature mindset, and I think, you know, we lost the doubles point once to Kentucky, and there were a lot of tight first sets, and that was around the 32. And then, you know, we had some easier matches, but the Columbia match was a tight one, six three-set matches across singles.
Stanford, we had a lot of tight matches where we had to win a three-setter. There's two three-set matches going on at the same time. And then even in the final, I feel like the doubles point, we won easily. But then, you know, like any good team, TCU fought back. two or three set matches going on to try to win it and you know I felt good that one of those would probably win but
I felt really good at the beginning of the third. And then there was one moment where I think Charlie was serving two all deuce and DK was three all 1540. So you're sitting there and you're like, wow, like, you know, things can get a little hairy here. I think when Charlie broke to go up 5-3, DK had match points. And then I don't know if that freed him up or, you know, maybe made the other guy not play as good of a point, but the guy missed a plus one.
Then we had two guys serving for the match, and I don't know. If you've watched a ton of college tennis this year, but if there's anybody that's ever going to serve out a match to win anything, you want DK Suresh doing it. And, you know, I was actually very comfortable knowing that if he was the guy going to do it, we were going to get it done.
Then it just, you know, I think all the emotions coming together when you finally like the last points done. And I think it takes a while to process it. I think I'm actually more excited now than I was probably for the first 24 hours just because you're so tired. You don't really, you know, everything's kind of crazy and a million people are messaging you and stuff. But I think now sitting back,
You know, you can actually kind of appreciate the work that went in and all the success we had this year. I mean, we went 40-1, and, you know, look. you're not going to go 40-1 every year. So I think we've played enough tennis in our lives to know that at the highest level, the margins are small, and you really got to enjoy when you do do well because it's not going to happen every year.
I'd love you to elaborate because my next question was going to be that you were 40-1 and I was going to ask if you thought you said it wasn't, not an advantage, but maybe a good thing that you actually lost in the semifinals of ACC's.
And I can see it both ways. Like you said, it could be a motivator, like if guys were getting a little too confident. But then it also could be like, hey, we're not bulletproof at a certain point. So that could raise more doubts. But either way, you're still the favorite. heading into NCAA. So was there anything as a coach and coaching staff that you consciously did? to help them be looser or help them
viewing yourself as a favorite or an underdog is ultimately kind of a waste of time. Like you still just need to go out and just perform at your best, whatever that might be. So was there anything you guys did to help them relax and just see if they could perform at their optimal state throughout those two or three weeks? Yeah, I mean, look, I think we do it for every match. I think it's one of those things where you take pride in your training, you take pride in your preparation.
You know, we always tell the guys you're the most prepared team going out there. And, you know, if you care more in practice, then you can just go out there in the match and play as free as you can. And yes, that's very easily said, very hard to do. But I think it's one of those things where if you know that you deserve it on the inside and you know that you've put the work in, yeah, you can still have a bad day. especially in team competition where there's seven total points.
You like to think that you're going to get the job done more times than not when you feel like you've put the work in, you have a talented team. Yeah, we just kept preaching that you go out there and you leave it out there. And all we ask is that you guys prepare hard and you compete hard. You do those two things and we think you guys are going to win. And that was kind of the message. pretty much throughout the year, throughout the tournament was that you guys have put the work in.
go out there, compete hard, you know, prepare with all the hydration, all the other stuff. And, you know, we'll do our best to coach you in the match. But at the end of the day, that's so minor, I think, compared to everything else. It's really just... getting a little lucky with injuries and not having anything major at the end. I think it was a good thing that we lost.
At least I'm going to tell myself that because, you know, otherwise then maybe you're a little bitter for not having the perfect season. But I do think it was because not necessarily that we were getting cocky or anything like that.
I think there were a couple guys on the team that, you know, maybe were playing away, playing to their competition where they were just doing things well enough to win. And they needed a loss to kind of go back and, you know, start playing the way that they needed to. I think Luka Powell would tell you that. I think Dostanich would tell you that. I think there were just a couple guys that probably didn't play their best in that match.
Once again, I don't think it was unnecessarily a humbling thing. I think it was more of a, hey, we got to practice the right way for the next couple of weeks. And I want to start trying to enforce my will, my game on my opponents more than. Maybe the way that I have been winning and just, you know, having, I think everybody that's ever played tennis.
If you're competitive, you learn more from losses than from wins just because they hurt worse and they sting worse. I can remember pretty much every devastating loss that I've ever had. I don't know if I can remember most of my wins. I mean, I can remember a lot, but not.
near as many as the losses and so i think it just makes you makes you think about it more you're probably gonna train a little bit harder in practice and if that gave us an extra five percent of motivation and um you know and practice better then that's all we needed
do you remember your boys 14's backdrop orange bowl singles lost to yours truly does that one still sting to this day you know that one should i should remember that one because i'm sure that one did sting um I can remember a few of the wins, but...
Unfortunately, was that at like Biltmore or was that at some like third site? That was at Biltmore and that's like, you know, obviously all the international guys like pull out of the backdrop because they don't even know what a backdrop is. They're like, what is this? You know, you lost and you still have to play.
Exactly. I remember that was like my career win, so I'm going to hold that one over you forever. It might be the only time I ever beat you, but I'll take that. Did I at least win a set or was it straight? I'm pretty sure it was straight. Oh, man. You did a good job of blacking that out. I mean, it was 26 years ago. Yeah. I guess I'm just such a small fish that it's like that one doesn't even register. Back draw to tournament. Who cares?
So if you guys are the most prepared team or one of the most, and you work really hard and that allows you to free up like, What does a typical training day look like at Wake when you're not in season with a match the next day and whatever? You're in the fall, you don't have a fall tournament, or you feel like you can go full bore. What does that day look like for an average player?
Yeah, I mean, look, I think I can do it more like weekly or in doing that because every day is going to look a little different. But, you know, I think it's one of those things where early on in the year. You have a plan for every player, short-term, long-term. How much is the emphasis going to be strictly on tennis? A lot of these guys, the reason they're in college is they're not physically as mature as they need to be to go out and play 25, 30 weeks a year on tour.
And the fall is probably the best time. The spring, it gets so chaotic. The fall is the best time where you can actually put in a hard training block physically and actually be able to train. get enough of a base in the fall that you can actually train through the spring and not feel like you're overtraining. I think that's actually the big one is our guys were able to train in the spring.
because they had trained harder in the fall and built up a better base. Whereas I know some people, you're a little scared, like, oh, I don't want to do too much. We've got a match in a day or two. Whereas you see guys on tour all the time, they're training pretty hard even through Grand Slam. just because they're used to it. So I would say definitely like three times a week, going hard in the weight room, doing conditioning. The other days we used Matt Little, who is...
Andy Murray's trainer for a long time. He's not currently in Winston, but we kind of use his programs and talk to him you know daily and figure out for each guy like how we're gonna do it and I think you know just being able to do a lot of more movement stuff, more functional movement stuff that actually applies to tennis, which I really think if your footwork and your movement is good. You can be a good player. If it's not, it's almost impossible in men's tennis these days.
So, you know, I'd say a typical week on court. I'm still, you know, growing up in the USTA system where there are a lot of Spanish coaches. We do a lot of two-on-ones. We do a lot of... the individual part of it do like some two-on-ones a lot of live ball stuff we will do feeding but a lot of live ball stuff and then a lot of point play in practice you know I think it's one of those things where certainly there's times for heavier
you know, weeks of just working on a shot, drilling, grinding, not playing a lot of tournaments or playing, you know, a ton of points because you're actually trying to break something down and build it back up. But I'm a firm believer that... You know, if you can work on the things that you've been working on and point play situations and actually be competitive with it. And when I say competitive, not being afraid to lose.
Doing things that are gonna help you get better but still being competitive enough that you're trying to win instead of just being like I'm not good at this and letting You know some practices go that in my mind is the best way to kind of get better just because you're getting tons of the muscle memory of all the drilling and all the, you know, I would say hard yards. And then you're getting to put that into point play and set play and modified point.
you know, going on in the afternoon and, you know, it's, it's, it's a tough long days. And, you know, I think another big proponent of kind of like in the fall, if training is. You're not trying to be stupid and just break guys down every day and get them injured and, you know, make them mentally, you know, tapping left and right. But I do think that... If you can push guys hard enough and get guys to work hard enough to where they're kind of at their breaking point.
They know where their breaking point is and they know what they have left in the tank when they're already thinking they're all the way done. but they're really not done. And if you can do that, you know, 20, 30 times, imagine then when you're playing matches and you're like, okay, I've already felt this way 20 or 30 times. Yes, the nerves are different. But it's like, man, I've felt so much worse than this when I think I'm tired and I know I have more left.
that that's kind of that freeing up feeling to know like I've already been in this situation this isn't anything new except obviously you know you can't recreate playing in a national championship every day but you certainly can recreate how tired you are
You know, how do you play when you're tired? How do you think when your brain's tired and all those things? Going back to the NCAA final, you were mentioning that at some point in the remaining two matches, you guys were basically tied in both third sets. but you were up 3-2 in the match, and because you won the doubles,
Had you lost the doubles point, now you're at 2-3 in the match, and that's a lot more pressure knowing you have to win both, and both those players would probably feel that. So winning the doubles point, absolutely massive.
Do you have any, you yourself were a great doubles player. You were top 30 in the world at one point, which I don't even know. Do you players even care anymore? Like when they know you were like 30 in the world ATP, are they like, oh, that's cool. They're like, dude, that was so long ago. Like who cares? Yeah, I don't know. I mean. I guess my last match was in 2017, so probably for a couple years it mattered.
I think now, I mean, I can still get out there and hit the ball with the guys so they know I can still play and they respect me. But yeah, at some point that's going to be like, holy crap, that was so long ago. It doesn't matter. So yeah, it's getting, it's vague on that line.
Right. You might as well have been playing like on black and white TV at that point for these guys. But you're an incredible doubles player. You obviously know how to coach it. And obviously you guys had success as a doubles team. So do you have any core doubles philosophies, principles? that you guys either use or that you've used throughout your career that you think people at home could use more in their own. obviously depends a little bit on the level, but I do think...
The biggest two things in doubles still are serve and return. And then the third one is positioning. And I think... We were great at doubles last year. We were great at doubles this year. I think we were 38-3 in the doubles points, which... That's six games of no ad scoring. I mean, that was pretty impressive. It starts with having good players that actually... you know, buy into that they're good doubles players and you have good chemistry with their partners. But I would say...
We don't do anything crazy, but I believe in I-formation. I believe in getting movement. I think if the court looks too big as a returner, it's way too easy.
You have to be willing to get beat in the small areas and shake it off. I think one thing that I learned when I started playing doubles, probably I was always good at doubles, but when I actually transferred, transferred that just playing doubles it was more you know cover the areas that you're supposed to really well and just don't worry about the areas you're not supposed to cover because i think sometimes players when they're a little tentative at the net
They're trying to cover too much, and then they don't really cover anything very well. And so I think that stuck with me, and that's something I've been preaching to our guys, and it's just trying to educate them. I mean, we practice doubles, but we're not spending just an inordinate amount of time on it. But I do think when we practice it, it's really just trying to educate the guys on what's your responsibility.
you know, what are the easier shots to hit out of these positions and as long as you're covering these areas well. Then if you lose in the other areas, that's not your fault. That just means that the player hit a great shot or probably your partner didn't hit his spot on the serve, something along those lines.
I mean, I think that's the, for the longest time, that's kind of the British philosophy. That's most of the top doubles team's philosophies is that we don't think that you can do it consistently enough or under pressure. And so if we... cover if we take the middle of the court and you have to hit it around us and we're at least hopefully executing somewhat on the serves, then
you know, you'd like to think that you're going to be pretty successful. And, you know, I think we did that, and we have a couple guys on our team that serve really well, and we have a couple guys that return well, and we tried to pair those guys together. And I think, you know, it worked out well. And you have DK, who I feel like you just throw somebody on his team and, you know, they're top 20 in the country. So it makes it easy.
I think he could, actually. That was your best attribute, though. I'm saying now with me at the net. I still think you guys would be good. Yeah. When it comes to helping them understand, I love the way you said that. It's like covering the big space, giving up the small space, educating them. This is going to be a two-part question, but the first part is do you feel like they have bought into that idea?
I mean, I think they like winning, so I think they've bought into it enough. Are we doing it at the highest level? Probably not all the time, but I think... for college doubles and you know they've played like some of our guys have been lucky enough to get help at the wild card for the you know uh for the atp tournament here in winston and they made semis You know, guys have done well in futures doubles. So I think, yeah, they're getting it.
I think there's certainly things that we talk about after the fact that we can do better. certain guys are better than others, but I think as a whole,
We're certainly one of the better teams at doing it. Yeah. I mean, because that's my daily battle as an online coach or with whoever I am is you know people say oh they can always go down the line in my alley or for sure whatever the low percentage shot is and of course i i see it happen all the time i just see it happen way way less than anything else and you're just playing on
So would you have any advice for someone listening out there? They've probably heard that. They've definitely heard me say it a million times. Is there any way that you would communicate that to them other than just like basically these are just facts and this is where the ball goes? Or how do you send that message out to my listeners right now so they can start abandoning their alley a little more often and like advantageous?
I mean, look, I think it starts a little bit on does your partner serve decently well and can they hit certain spots because... And if we get technical a little bit, if you're in the deuce court and you're a righty serving to a righty and you go backhand body, that's probably not the time to cross as much and take middle just because... Geometry says that that ball is easier to pull.
than it would be to go inside out or across court. And so, you know, there's certainly reasons why we do things that we do. If we go backhand body in the I formation, we're probably going to move left and bank on the guy trying to pull it and just have one of our bigger guys get really tight on the net and squeeze it off. If we went forehand body, we'd probably move right just because if you go line, you can't really swing at it as aggressively. You kind of have to massage it a little more line.
I think at the end of the day, it's one of those things where as long as you're putting doubt in the returner's mind, That's what you're trying to do. If you're a really good volleyer and you have a good skill set, you're athletic, then yeah, you should probably position yourself more aggressively and actually let guys see the smaller areas a little bit more if you're not.
I would at least get some movement going, even if your partner is covering behind you, things like that, just because once again, I was a good returner. That was one of my strengths. Sometimes I could play the biggest servers, great servers. If their partner wasn't doing enough, I felt very comfortable returning. I could play guys that didn't have good serves, but they played really well I-formation together.
I got better as I saw it, but at least the first year out there, I struggled. I think it's one of those things where doubt makes you uncomfortable. It doesn't make you swing as well. That's probably the biggest. thing that I would say is just create doubt and sometimes you can do it certain ways other times you know you can do it with eye formation moving you can do it with
Australian formation, you could do it just occasionally, just going when you don't even tell your partner. But I think as long as opponents don't really know what you're doing, then you've done a good job. For those that don't know the format, you mentioned it, but going 38-3 in collegiate doubles is impressive because it's one set and it's no ad. So, I mean, look, I can never beat Federer in a best-of-five match, but if you said play him one point...
Right. There's at least a chance I could win one point. I mean, anything can happen to that. So the smaller the format, the more variability there is. You obviously don't have the luxury of getting off to a slow start when that's the case, getting down a break 3-0. that's going to be pretty tough you only have a couple games to come back so was there anything you guys did in the warm-up or the mentality to make sure you guys got off to quick start
I mean, obviously you preach. We tried to actually take the pressure off in doubles and just go for your shots, play loose. The real match starts in singles. Obviously, as coaches, we care about the doubles point a lot. I think if you make too much of a deal about it and like we have to win the doubles point, your guys aren't going to play as well. So I think it was one of those things where...
We know we're good at doubles. They know they're good at doubles. Go for your shots. Play loose. If we lose, I'd much rather lose that way than playing tight. you know, then you get six more points in singles to take care of business. But yeah, I mean, I think... Like most teams, you warm up a little closer to match time just because there's no warm-up with your opponent in college tennis. So we probably go for half an hour, 35 minutes of hitting, and then we'll do like 15 to 20 minutes where...
We'll do some quick hands drills, some knockoff drills, overheads, and then we'll actually have our guys play. It's not always the same, but we'll have them play at least eight to ten points where they're actually playing real doubles points. They're probably not playing exactly how they are in the match, but trying to get them to get some of the nerves out.
playing some actual points before they go on the court instead of you know just saying hey just go out there and now you got to play with no warm-up so I'm not sure if we do that any better than some other teams but I do think that like you said It's tough in the college format. Anytime you're playing one set to six, no ad, and you get behind and you're...
playing some guys that serve well, you're kind of thinking, oh my gosh, there's not many opportunities to get back in it. So it's very important not to just donate an early break or anything like that, unfortunately. We didn't win 2-0. I mean, we did in some, but we had a lot of matches where we had guys. be clutch at the end and kind of have the last match going on and get the job done. So I credit the guys to being clutch and just
I think when you win as much as we had, I guess deep down, you're just expecting to find a way to win. And maybe some of the opponents knew that and maybe weren't sure. Today's Instagram questions are brought to you by ADV. They craft high quality functional gear for all racket sport players.
I actually have a Padel tournament this weekend in Florida, and I'm just bringing the backpack with me as it can easily fit all my clothes, shoes, and Padel racket while still fitting on the plane underneath. easily the best backpack I've ever owned. And I have a link in the show notes for 10% off. So I highly recommend you check it. Alright, we're going to get into some Instagram questions.
The first is obviously being the top school in the country, playing in the ACC where there's so many good players. You get your eyes on six singles matches, a match times, whatever you guys played, 41 matches. So you saw a ton of good tennis. But that being said, there's a difference between the number one team and the number 40 team and the team that's number 100. What are some things you see, generically speaking, across the board in singles where you see guys losing matches?
And you're saying kind of like the difference between... Yeah, like when you were out there, this person wanted to know, the basic question was, when you're out there, what mistakes do you see players making that separate a guy who's 100 in the country from a guy who's number one? Yeah, I think the generic vague answer a little bit more would be belief. I think there's a lot of teams and a lot of players that can get close, but they're not going to win that match.
because they're hoping they can win, whereas the other guys, like, I'm going to win. And I think when you see a lot of these matches, there's a lot of tight sets, like a lot of 7-5, a lot of 7-6. But the better players and the top teams tend to win more of those, or a lot of them, just because I think...
they believe in the big moments that they're going to execute and do it. And I think that starts with making a first serve on break point or on deuce. Are you missing a second serve return when you have a break point on yourself? Are you kind of playing the way?
that got you there successfully? Or are you changing your style in the bigger moments? And I think, you know, that's probably what I see the most is that the guys are capable of playing a high level. They just can't maintain it under pressure. and they probably aren't trusting themselves. And then a little bit of it, I think, is also some fitness. In third sets, I think some teams, when they're playing the higher teams, they have to get pretty emotionally spent.
get their level even to get it to a tight match and then it just seems like they lose a little bit of steam sometimes at the end. you know, most of the time to the naked eye when you see the guy's head. It's pretty close. It's the same out of futures, like the number one seed versus a guy that's, you know, losing first or second round most weeks.
But when you get to four all, 30 all, or four all, 15, 30, and then the guy makes two random unforced errors, it comes down to, in my mind, it's just under pressure. What do you own? And, you know, the better players own a little bit more and their, I would say, baseline game is a little bit better to where they don't have to take risks.
to have to play at a high level where somebody else is having to probably play a riskier shot selection, having to go for a little bit too much. And under pressure, you just don't make it as often. So obviously hard work will help you build belief, self-belief. Is there anything else? Because I agree with you. I see that when you said people hoping to win, like I know I felt that at times when I was playing someone better than me. It was like, I hope I can hold on. horrible thing to have.
But outside of just working your tail off, is there anything else you think players can do to help build that self-belief so when they get to a big moment or a situation where they haven't actually had that success yet? Like some of your guys had never won NCAAs yet, but they had the belief they could do it. Is there anything that you think people can do out there to help build that self-belief?
Yeah, I mean, obviously the best recipe is once you do it once, you can keep telling yourself you've done it before. But before you've done it, I think it starts with what you're being coached with every day, what you're being told. You know, some people I think are just born with a little bit more confidence on how they do things, and some people have to see it more before they can do it. Yeah, 90% of it is. doing it in the training, muscle memory.
But I would say it's more being okay, losing, playing your game. Then... you know trying to be somebody that you're not in the in the bigger moments and if it's not being successful but you're still playing your game then obviously you can go to the
Go behind the scenes and adjust and talk to your coaches about what you have to do to take the next step. But I think most of the time, it's just your soft selection kind of goes a little bit. And when you say you're hoping to win, you're probably not.
you know playing the normal way you're you're probably going for some shots that you don't normally go for and um yeah it's a tough question to answer just because i think everybody's a little bit different but i would say generically It starts in practice, and then... You just gotta hope that...
You know, you can execute in your game in the bigger moments. And once you do it once or twice, you're not going to do it every time. You're certainly going to have periods where you don't execute and you lose confidence. But at least you can tell yourself that you've done it and you've had that feeling. I think our guys, even though they hadn't won NCAAs, they'd won a lot. They'd won national indoors. They've won regular season ACCs. They've done a lot.
you know, already in their, you know, individual careers, whether that's individual matches or even on pro tour. So I think for them it was more, you know, like I said before. Try to play as free as you can. Play your game just because we know that we've prepared you as well as you possibly can be prepared. And now you just got to go out and, you know. try to go hunt other people down and not play like you're the guy that has all the pressure on you. And they were able to do that.
You've been a stud player forever. You were in all the USDA junior development programs. You had all the best coaching. Like you said, you were exposed to a ton of great coaches. I was with most of them as well. You have pro tour coaching. You've been exposed to everybody. What is the single best coaching advice that you've ever received?
I know. Needed that question prepped. By the way, I can always edit out this long one minute pause while you think about it. I might need it because I've had so many good coaching. Yeah, I mean, we can edit this out, but stay healthy. I mean, really? Honestly, that was the big one for you. That was mine. Hey, stay healthy. You'll do good things out there. I think it's what I alluded to earlier. care more in practice. so that you can free up a little bit more.
I don't know if Roger necessarily took that one to heart everywhere but at the same time everybody that sees him practice sees in practice most of the time it slams when he's just warming up for matches not when he's in an actual training week because i've heard i've never practiced with him in those but i've heard he's an absolute beast in those so I would say care more in practice. I would say make sure that you've trained hard enough in practice. so that you feel like you've experienced
you know, the suffering that you're going to in a match so that it's not a new feeling. You know, one of the things, I would say one last thing that's a big part of my philosophy and, you know, I've learned from other people and it's just something that I've... The way that I coach and the way that I told my guys at USTA and I tell my guys now is I care way more about your low level than I do about your high level. And...
Not to say that we're not going to try to turn you into a top 50 pro and we're going to work on all the shots that you have to have to be a top 50 pro because we're going to work on that stuff. When you don't win tournaments, you're not consistent if you can't win on your bad day. And yeah, you're not going to win as often. It's going to be tougher. But if you can win enough matches on your average to bad days, that's what I think really were the training, the fitness.
the mental toughness, problem solving, the easy days are easy. Everybody can win when they're playing amazing. But when you're not, when nothing's going right and you don't feel your best. you know some of your better shots aren't clicking the way that they normally do or the way you want them to that's when you kind of see like who's going to be really good so you know i think that's probably the biggest one is
Do all the details right so that your low level is better. Absolutely love that. And this last question is going to be brutal for you because you live in the clouds and you are elite in everything you do. But I want to know your best advice for the 4.0 adult player. Well, my wife has like a 3.5. Do you coach her? She won't listen to me. I need to have somebody else.
coach her but she doesn't play very often but I was happy that she decided to sign up for like a doubles league this year and she's enjoying it more so but I would say I would probably say... Number one, have fun. Because if you're not having fun, you're not going to play as much and you're not going to enjoy it as much. But I would say...
I'm trying to think of the last time I tried to coach a 4-0 player and what I'm working with here. By the way, if your wife's looking for a coach, add Stokey Tennis on Instagram. You know, it's already there. I mean, my four-year-old kid. asked me to play every day, and so he still won't hit a backhand. He'll only hit four hands or he'll cry. You know, probably, God, this is such a bad answer, I would say. I'm like, that's a bad answer. I mean I think it probably starts with
You've got to be able to serve and spot your serve. Even if it's not a great serve, you need to be able to spot your serve because most amateurs have a weakness on one side or the other. And can you at least start the point on your terms more often? And also, you know, are you limiting how many free points you're giving? Are you double faulting and all that? Because my dad, you know, was a 5-0 player for a long time. Now he's no longer.
75 years old doesn't move very well and but it's like you know someone has a weak backhand you can still serve it to their backhand and you know use his brain and be able to do that so I would say you know, being able to spot your serve. And then, you know, at the end of the day, it's a little bit more about just consistency. I've seen a lot of your stuff and I agree with it.
you know how many points at that level are won with winners and how many are lost with errors so i think one of the things is you know you certainly are going to try to work on improving shots and that comes with missing and practice missing a lot but At the end of the day, are you, you know, trying to win every point? Are you okay with sometimes letting somebody else mess? And I think as long as...
You know, we get that terrible, you know, you're a pusher or this or that. But I think it's one of those things where I would say even at the level that I'm coaching. I'm trying to get my guys to aim further away from the lines and can still hit quality shots. So I would say that's another one. Stop missing wide and in the net. If you miss long, we can deal with that. But if you miss a little less wide and in the net, you're going to win more.
For the record, since you've known me forever in our group chat, One of our members likes to call me Moonball McGee because I'm always like putting some post out there about being consistent or playing with height. For sure. For the record, can you confirm for the audience that I was actually the opposite of that as a 14, 16, 18-year-old junior tennis player? Yes, I can promise that if I could keep John back at the baseline for...
you know, three to four shots, I was feeling good about my chances to win that point. So it's the most ironic twist of all time that I'm defending the moon baller and the consistent player now when I was like, This rogue, wildly aggressive netcrasher. All about skill sets, though. You know, it's one of those things where in today's world,
you would probably have a chance to be successful against certain players just because no one ever sees it. Like, that's another thing right now is that nobody comes in as much because, yeah, the technology, the passing shots are easier with some of the string. Athletes are a little better in the corners, but I would love to see bringing back some faster courts. And, you know, yes, a lot of people like to watch tennis and see these crazy long 30 ball rallies. But I think.
you know, tennis purists seeing contrasting styles. That's actually what makes it more fun is not seeing the same point over and over and over. It's actually seeing some different styles. I complained a little bit. Our courts had to be some of the fastest outdoor courts in the nation this year. And I was always like, ah, you know, it's harder to practice sometimes and do some drilling. But I actually know that it helped us.
In our transition game, it helped us being a little more aggressive with plus ones, helped us return second serves a little bit more aggressively. And look, we did great on the road. So there was no problem. We didn't lose one match on the road. We lost one on a neutral site. I think... Being able to play to your skill set and do that is also such a great thing. Well, I'm proud of you. The whole group is proud of you. It's an amazing accomplishment, and thanks for joining the show today.
I appreciate you having me on anytime. All right. I want to thank Brian for coming on the show today. I know how hard they work at Wake Forest. So this year's accomplishment is so well. My favorite comment he made was when I asked how they prepare to play loose in the big moments, and his response was that they just train the same all the time because they treat them all as big events. He mentioned carrying more in practice and making that a huge deal so that matches seem more fun and relaxed.
Absolutely. A few reminders, I still have four spots open for my New York City doubles camp. I'm providing the link to that in the show notes for this episode. And I'm still taking on a few remote students for the summer. And all of that information is at that same link, www.stokeytenniscoaching.com. Thanks again for listening. I hope you just improved attendance without even hitting a...