Hey everyone, before we start today's episode, I wanted to let you all know I'm opening up registration for my US Open doubles camp. It'll be August 23rd and 24th, the weekend before the U.S. Open. Eight hours of tennis over the two days and a follow-up private lesson over Zoom to make sure the positioning and tactics we work on throughout the camp stay with you moving forward.
The camp will be at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy on Randall's Island on the indoor hard courts, so I don't have to stress about rain for the month leading up to the camp. My previous campers can verify that I check the weather app every 15 minutes leading up to it. Everyone in the camp will get a Monday day session ticket to the U.S. Open, as well as an insane gift back.
As I mentioned in last week's episode, ADV will be providing the backpack for the camp. I've been using their backpack for the past six months. It has room for my rackets, drinks, clothes, shoes, my camera pull. I can basically fill it like a suitcase. It's insane. We'll also be providing awesome clothing from Viore, shoes from New Balance, and some tennis gifts from Yonex as well. If you're interested in more details, visit the link www.stokietenniscoaching.com in the caption for this episode.
I've run seven camps over the last 12 months, and I can honestly say it's the most fun and rewarding coaching of my life. Maybe I just have a really cool audience, but everyone who's attended has been fun, high energy, coachable, and supportive of everyone else in the So I hope to meet some of you in New York later this week.
That being said, on this week's episode, we've got Instagram's tennis coach and comedian, Connor Casey. Not only does he have some of the most relatable tennis content on the internet, but he was also a fantastic player at Ohio State and has invaluable tennis advice to share with you.
On today's episode, we discuss the different types of coaches, why he starts players with the backhand slice, his hottest tennis takes, and his best advice for the 4-0 player. So sit back, relax, and prepare to become a smarter tennis player. All right, Connor, welcome to the pod. Hey, hey. This is a big one. Actually, when I put the Instagram story up, I got a lot of people who were very excited. And I imagine because your content is funny, everyone loves it.
Is there any pressure that you feel like, because Instagram, you got to put out videos all the time. And are you like, man, how am I going to keep finding something funny for people to laugh? That's my curse, man. I don't run out of ideas. I'm not saying they're all good, but I certainly, my mind doesn't stop. You know, God bless my wife. God bless anybody who has to be around me because I feel like I have that.
I'm open, like I'm just a conduit to everything happening and it just goes into me. So thank God I don't have a lack of ideas, but I definitely get the fatigue of having to post every day. So, you know, I've started to do every other. So this isn't 60 minutes, but I do do a little bit of research before. Yeah, exactly. That used to be a signal for us. I heard that noise the other day. That was a sign that it was Sunday. It was time for dinner on Sunday night.
That was a sign for me that football was over and now I had to go back to living my life normally. Uh, so I checked you out and I was like, okay, I wanted like just playing background, all that stuff. And I came across your IMDB. So actually I want you to check your phone now. I sent you a text. I don't know how to share my screen. So if they're not listening on YouTube, but I found this. imdb stock photo of you where you're throwing like a blue steel yeah it is strong i i want to know like
Is there something I'm missing? Were you like a movie star in the past? What is going on with that photo? Yeah. So I moved to L.A. back in the day. I tried to do the acting thing. You know, I did acting classes in the backyard of an acting. acting people uh took my steamy got my steamy headshots done and and tried to make a run at it didn't work but hey
That is a steamy photo. So if you're listening and you're not on YouTube, you might want to click on the link just so you can see that photo. I might even post it on Instagram. Should definitely be your profile picture. So when I message you to get on, you know, I always kind of ask, what are people passionate about? What do you want to talk about with tennis? There's so many things. It could be technical, tactical.
And the first thing that you gave me was you were most passionate about tennis culture and etiquette. Yeah. So I would love for you to kind of expand on what that means to you and why you're so passionate. So people, we look at the sport of tennis and we look at Sinner and Alcaraz and all these great players on television. And that's their experience. That's 100 people in the world, guys and 100 men, 100 women. They're experiencing.
The greater ocean of tennis players are trying to figure out, OK, if my ball goes under there. How do I get it back without pissing them off? right and these are this is this to me this is the soil of our of our experience this is where beefs are cultivated friendships are made so so to me i love the nuance of the country club
the public court experience, right? All those little political games that are being played because, you know, not all of us can be on television playing. The reality is most of us are living in the sewers, tennis sewers. So you're coaching, I think you always say on your videos, like the C team doubles, or that's the joke that you have, but you're at a club.
So what are some of those things in the culture that you see that you're like, you know what, maybe it's not the healthiest or most conducive either to enjoyment or just improvement in general? Well, right away, it's the springtime right now and I'm at a seasonal club. So what you start to see in early spring before the club is officially open is you got people that come onto the courts and start coaching tennis lessons, but they're not coaches at the club.
I got a guy here running a full academy out here with a garbage bag of tennis balls, and I have to go politely remind him that he's not a member. You don't want to ruin the neighborhood. chase him out with a tennis racket so i got to go through the nuances of him that he's not a member here to me that that gets a little bit distasteful when people are doing that then of course you got
You know, right now, like I did a video yesterday about a guy who there's always the coach, there's always those, they tend to be gentlemen that will circle a tennis lesson when I'm giving a woman a tennis lesson. And afterwards, he'll call her aside and, you know, tell him that Coach Casey doesn't. And, you know, those guys are everywhere. So I think, yeah, those are a couple examples.
There's probably a lot of times where I'd actually like want to ask that guy because maybe I finished a lesson and I'm like, man, I tried like crazy and it just doesn't look any better. I'd be like, hey, random guy walking around in a circle. You got any ideas? But it is kind of amazing that. I mean, it is so hard, especially in a lesson to really see like quality, tangible improvement within 60 minutes.
And yet someone who's never gone through a coaching program, maybe has watched a few YouTube videos is like, oh, I know how to fix that. And it's like, it is much more difficult than you would think. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. opinions with tennis. As soon as you're walking through your tennis... who you're paying and they give you a tip on that elbow to get it up high let's say and then you walk off the court
Mr. Random Guy tells you to keep that elbow maybe a couple degrees lower. I mean, now you've got two voices in your head. I mean, that becomes exponentially more difficult to deal with. Right. So when you're at home at your club and you're teaching lessons or clinics, are you more of like a tactical guy? Are you a technical guy? Are you more of a emotional, like, where's your head at? That's how you play your best. And it's like, what do you tend to gravitate towards?
Well, currently at the age of 40 something, I've become more of a, I like working with beginners. I like laying a technical foundation. Definitely. Love tactics, of course. I mean, I come from the old school serve and volley, so I'm always trying to get people to attack probably more than they should.
But I think us coaches, we go through stages, right? Like yourself, you played at Duke, you played some pro doubles, and then you had to transition into coaching. I feel when I transitioned originally, that's when I... professionals and high performance juniors because i was so close to it the wound was still very fresh so i knew the little tips and tricks right the pro tips that's what they needed and then as i've gone through my coaching journey
the regular juniors and the club players that were looking for more programs. And now I find myself in a place where I love laying a technical foundation, especially like I love getting a brand new person to the game. Like I love being your like guy. Do you find, I think most people probably go through the journey that I went, which is like you said, you played high level and then you're coaching either good juniors or other people your age and you had those experiences.
And so I was like, oh, I'm in the game. You know, that's competitive. And now in the last two, three years, I've definitely transitioned more to adult. But it is by far been the most fun I've had because number one, they can make massive gains, but also like they're so thirsty and like want to be coached. Yeah. Like I think it was one of my coaches used to call it dry clay versus wet clay. He's like.
He's like, once you get the guy in college, like the kids I coached at Duke were like, no, I got my game. Like, I kind of want to do what I want to do. I've been molded a certain way. But you kind of get the 40 year old recreational players just picked it up. And it's like this massive passion. And they're like, I'm.
Have you found that? Totally. I love that. I love that. I love the fact that somebody would trust me for one hour of their life to listen to me because, you know, I'd almost pay them to listen to me for an hour, right? It's huge. Absolutely. I find there's definitely a demographic. I think it's the backbone of our sport is the mostly women. Let's say they've had a couple of kids and they're into their 30s and they're sort of like, you know, my wife is going through this as well.
hero in my books you know she just gave birth and now she's sort of coming back online after such a traumatic yet beautiful, amazing experience. And she's trying to re-identify herself and find out who she is. And some of these women, they trust coaches like you and I to... introduce them to tennis, which is a huge privilege. and they're open and they're receptive to learning and we're rebuilding them and we're getting their confidence back. It's a magical experience.
So when you have someone come to you like that, who's new to the game, where do you start them? Like you go, hey, they come out and they've like, hey, I'd like to learn how to play tennis. Are you focusing on ground strokes? Are you focusing on targets? Are you focused? the the intricate details of technique like someone comes out blank slate two five what are you doing immediately gonna check the hand-eye coordination just you know classic throw them a ball see how they catch it see which hand
do a couple bouncing exercises just to see where that coordination lies and if let's say they're doing a good job of that we'll go on to some like you know hand eye with the with the racket I'll treat them the same as I'll treat a four-year-old, to be honest with you, right out the gate.
maybe even use some progressive colored tennis balls just to sort of get them making contact and getting that rhythm going. And let's say they're doing a great job of that. Like I'm not afraid, and this is a hot take in a way in the tennis world. I'm not afraid to go right to the slice backhand.
which is something that most coaches leave to the end, like the cherry on top of your game. I think it's great to use the slice early because, look, that continental grip, it's coming whether you like it or not. And a lot of coaches like to avoid it and players avoid it. And we go right into the back.
That's what they see on TV. If I get a receptive, let's say more of a creative player who's willing to really trust me and put some time in, I'll go to the slice. We'll work on a bit of the maneuvering of the ball, getting a little, you know. cut on there a little pop maybe right and i think it's immediately laying a foundation of of tennis iq because for me the slice is where the dna of the game lies
It's been around since the 1800s and they're still using it, right? It's not like serving volleying, which had its day. We all wish we'll come back, but I don't know if that's going to happen. So I think it immediately is building a strong IQ for the players. And I'm game to start that early. It's so funny because I never hear people complain at the recreational level about, oh, they hit so much topspin. It's usually like a derogatory like, oh, like they just like.
Yeah. And they don't like it because they don't like playing off a slice. And then I'm like, but nobody likes it. So why don't you learn it and give them something they don't want? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's got a stigma, the junk ball. Right. So what are your best, if you teach that early, then like what are your best technical cues or what do you tend to focus on? What are your key principles for hitting a good?
From the shoulder is generally where I sort of see it coming from. I've got a couple tricks that I learned from this really good technical coach named Louis Cahier. I have a bit of like a lucky life. Like I was his apprentice before he got big. So, you know, I was there watching him do all this magic and I stole all of his tricks and I still have them and I use them religiously.
Yeah, so I tend to leap from the shoulder. I like to get into sort of like the easy, what I would call like audio cues, I guess, like our tactile cue, like a cat. Yeah, you know, for me, a lot of the stuff as like yourself, I love all your videos with talking about, you know, big swings and big targets. I like giving them a target right out the gate.
to hit towards and i mean coming from the ground you know left foot to right foot transfer if they're a righty footwork you know so i guess you know the way they say it this was from louis he goes you either build from the ground to the hand or the hand back down to the ground so you'll go from the foot you'll start from footwork once that footwork is working nicely
momentum shift, and then you'll get into the intricacies of the hand. Or if they're, let's say they're a bit more of a hand, it's just working out that day, you might start with a bit of that. That's super interesting. So how do you decide that just based on the player? Like, I think I had Andy Fitzell on. I don't know if you know him, but he was saying how.
He can watch someone hit a ball and decide pretty quickly what their brain type is, that Myers-Briggs. And I forget what the letters were, but he's like, oh, when you see people who are a little bit more like with their finger. He's like, oh, they're like an ISTJ. And if you see like the big body movers, they're a certain way. Is it, would you start at the hand if you see someone who's more likely, I'm more hand.
like more feel. So would that be how you decide which way you're going to go? Or do you typically tend to lean one way or the other, like ground up or hand down? I would look at the player for sure. I think talented players tend to be a bit more with the hands and feel and even using metaphors. I find with lefties, I just say like, get a cheeky little cut under there and they understand what I'm saying. Right. So with righties, you know, especially.
for that hour and they want to allot their time i'll probably get stern with the footwork, but also Just like, and I was thinking about this yesterday, just with lesson plans. So let's say we've done a ton of footwork already and they need a little bit of a break. I might transition to some and get in with the hands. So it could be more just about what's happening on that day.
You mentioned big swings to big targets, and I want to address that because obviously that's a huge thing for me as well.
Is that your number one coaching mantra? You said you have coaching mantras. Is that the biggest of them all? I think so. I think so. Because for me, big swings, big targets is essentially... such a freeing mantra it it it alleviates that pressure of trying to go for the lines you know it demystifies the concept of of angle and everything if you're taking a bigger target if you realize
right the center of the net strap like you can hit a ball that passes the middle net strap and it lands right in the corner but if you're targeting So to me, that's just liberating. It liberated me as a player. And where I love big swings, big targets the most is on the return to serve. Now, big swing, I might say, you know, big target.
go for it I might not I might cut out the backswing but I'm still saying attack the heck out of the return of serve because I think a bad habit that happens with tennis players is they come to the sport and they think the serve is attack the return is defend and when they return They start chipping the backhand. They get a defensive nature. They tighten up. They try to be safe on the return. Once in my tennis journey, I realized that the return of serve is an attack. It completely changed my...
swing big, you know, take a big target, but you're attacking the return. And that was a huge thing for me. So you mentioned aiming kind of above that center strap, which is something I did in doubles. And I've heard someone describe the court as like an hourglass. So like everything's going to pass through that middle part of the sand. But then when you get out there, it can be wider. So your ball cleared the net.
And then it looks very wide, but everything's happening where that sand kind of sifts through the hourglass. which for me was a great visual. But when you have a target in your mind, are you then aiming at a spot like that over the net? Or do you have a spot in the court that you kind of have in the back of your mind where you're like, oh, you know, middle of the box depth and width wise in the deuce court? Or are you seeing a spot?
Above the net definitely would be the choice there. I think the closer the target is to you, the more likely you are to hit it. So I've even done... lessons and exercises where I'll put the targets a foot in front of the player and say, hey, if your ball can pass through this gate. it's going to hit that target. And it happens. And again, another liberating experience, right? The closer the target is to you, the easier it is to hit. So build targets that...
It's interesting because I literally just wrote that down before. I had what could probably only be described as like the backhand yip. when I was a freshman in college. So I actually wrote an email and I addressed it to the freshman class at Duke. And I, that subject was missing. And I said, I've lost my backhand. Yeah. Can someone find it for like, I was like, I couldn't even drop feed it to myself.
And I went home and what my coach did was he put a hula hoop, attached it to a basket. He put it about a yard in front. But it was waist high. And he said, I want you to hit through the hula hoop, but it must go through on the way. Yep. And he gave me zero technical advice. He said, just figure out how to hit it through there, but you can't swing down and hit it. Cause obviously that'll go in the net. And I did that for like an hour. I was like, Oh.
No technical advice. It was just a target in front and swing up through that short target. Good coach. Great coach. One of my best. But that I found, I think I still aim to a... the court, not an air target. But when I am struggling with a shot, I visualize a hula hoop in front of me and I just go, all I got to do is hit in front of that. And if I'm close to it, like how far can my shot
Another thing is using concrete, using objects on the court as targets. So, for example, you've got the umpire chair beside the net and you're warming up. Okay, I'm going to get everything above. To me, that's another little one, like finding things in the atmosphere that you can use as targets. Do you find there are any issues? So the example I use is I told a girl the other day we were working on something.
And I said, oh, you know, take your racket back faster. And so she did. And she had a forehand and it wasn't great. But I said, oh, that was better. And she said, that wasn't good. And I was like, whoa, I never said that was good. That was far from good. It was just better than the one before. So I said the word better. She heard the word better.
Do you get concerned when you say big swings? My initial thing is like, oh, but I don't want the 3-5 lady crushing the ball because she probably doesn't have a closed racket. Do you find that when you say big swings that people either literally take a bigger swing versus a confident swing or acceleration? Is there any issue?
I want a conversation to happen a lot of the times with these players. People are fighting their own battle in their head. They have their own preconceived notions as to what big is and small swings are. If I ask Rosemary to take a big swing... And she goes like this and hits the ball 100 miles an hour and does almost an exaggerated version of what I asked her and then turns back to me and says like that. Now we got a conversation going. Now we can find what works, right?
So I actually don't mind that. I don't mind when they overcompensate or really take my advice literally and make a mistake and then go, hey, coach. Where it gets tricky is when they slowly are hesitant to add, and then it becomes you trying to get a horse to water, right? You're trying to think of all these creative ways to get them to just try it before we can start to scale, right? So yeah, I mean, look. To me, some of the greatest moments in technique happen when you mock the coach.
Coach says, high elbow. They go, oh, like this? I go, you finally did it. Right. Like so often. So I'm all for it. That's so true. That's so funny. The analogy I always use is like if you had an ice cold pool and you went and dipped your toe in it.
You would never get used to it. Just jump in. It's going to be awful for two minutes and then you're fine. But most people technically change. They just dip their toe in and they go, that didn't feel good. And they just do that for like five years and then they never get it.
Just cold plunging the toes. Exactly. Yeah, it doesn't work. Do you have a, if that's your biggest mantra, is there another philosophy mantra that you use in general, whether it's doubles, singles, mentality, is there another huge one that you lean on? I mean, attack, attack, attack is a big one because I believe that attacking is a three-shot game minimum.
watching you're you the second that you decide that you're attacking you've now committed yourself to at least the next three balls so let's say you know it's the It's the serve plus one. You've smacked the serve. There's your attack. You get around it. You're hitting the serve plus one. There's your second attack. And then perfect world. Your third attack is like a put away volley or an easy short.
So, so you like, clearly you are more of an attacking mindset, the old school servant volley, continental grip coming in. So what would you say to that? Like my first, the first thing that came to mind was like, well, what happens if. I hit a good plus one, but then you hit a good defensive shot off that. Am I going to switch my mindset or am I just kind of committed?
depends who you are me i'm probably i might even you know it depends what your shot tolerance is too right like that let's say you bang the serve you bang a good plus one and then they hit an incredible response and you're john isner and you're going Okay, now I got to rally six balls before I get my next attack.
Depends on like it's the third set. You know, maybe I just pull shoot and go for a winner off this next ball. If you're somebody who has a bit more gas in the tank, maybe you take that defensive one, neutralize. and get back into the rally and look again. But I think that whenever you commit to the attack, you're hoping, best case scenario, you're going to hit three. Or sorry, you're committed to three.
you know best case you hit one right that makes sense i i i'm definitely a thinker i think a lot and so like for me i do a lot of drills where i actually have people change their mind like i might feed them a ball and i'll move to the left and that means they have to So I want them to have like some type of ability to switch. But also at the same time, there's a lot of people out there who don't think.
And so like, I do like the simplicity of being like, Hey, it's just going to be attack, attack, attack. And sometimes it might not be the right play, but at least you're fully committed.
choose something instead of being uncommitted to nothing yeah oh my god at ohio state so to give you a feel like my mind is where it's at you can look at my page and see what i focus on I was at Ohio State and I was so into thinking and creative and looking for the drop shot and maybe I go for this here and there that we had a literal playbook that I had to stick to. My coach would call. He would stand at the back fence and call every single serve. I didn't get a say in my serve.
I wasn't allowed to hit a backhand down the line. Every back end I had to hit was cross court. I had to work on my slice 15 minutes a day. It was mostly slice. And I had to volley with my momentum. So every volley I hit, I had to hit it in the direction that my momentum was already going. And if I deviated from the plan, even if I won, I was right to the track.
Ty, well, I got some questions about Ty later, but the last topic you mentioned to me, and I want to get into it because I have no idea what it means, so I'm super excited for it. The third topic you said you were passionate about was the current deconstruction of the game. Yeah. And I have no clue what that means. No. Fill me in. Talk to me. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. So pickleball comes out of nowhere. And now we are on our back feet having to justify why tennis is a good sport.
And why it's, you know, we're kind of hanging our hat on the fact that it's a real sport and that it's harder. And so we've put into this identity crisis right away as tennis players, right? We didn't ask for that. And now I'm justifying why. And I'm not even saying that as a slag on pickleball. Like pickleball is doing its thing. I got nothing but love for the pickle people.
Party on, pickle people. But we're in a position now where we're going, wait, hold on. So that put us into an existential crisis. Now you got the PTPA, I believe. Surging this sort of attack on the ATP, the WTA, saying that they're not treated fairly. There's a lot of good points that they're bringing to the table. What that's doing now is making us deconstruct the tour.
Is it unsafe? Is it too much tennis? Are they treated unfairly? Is drug testing, like now you got drug testing, people are getting caught for contamination. You know, 0.01% and we throw the number one player in the world out for three months. So I think there's so much stuff that's happening. Then, okay, to add to that, Riley Opelka comes out and says that doubles isn't even a sport. So we got this massive deconstruction happening, which I think is very healthy. I think there's going to be a...
a shiny light on the other side of the tunnel, but we're certainly, we're certainly going through the dark right now in some ways. So what would you, in terms of increasing the popularity or the health of tennis in general, what would be your first step? God, you know, my old head mind, which, you know, the old head, no, we got to bring back servant volleying. And like, you know. Faster courts and, you know, team tennis and luck.
That's me being nostalgic. That's me going, oh, college tennis was the best because it was a team environment. Me and the team, we got to go out for the Olive Garden when we won. And that was the best part of my life. Why don't the pros just do that? Right? That's a bit silly. Serving volleying, looking back at the way the sport used to be played and it was more artistic and stuff.
I feel like that's an outdated way to look. I didn't care when my parents were telling me that Billy Joel was better than Daft Punk. So I don't know, to be honest. I think a shorter season, I think... it makes sense, you know, less tennis. Like right now, like, you know, a couple of weeks ago I watched, I think it was. Demon Hour versus Rublev, and it was just a Tuesday in the middle of March, and I'm going...
Like what tournament is this again? And then like a couple of weeks later, they're playing each other again. Like I lost that because it's so accessible now. It's like I get to watch the greats play every week. You know, football is so great because you only got to watch it on Sundays, right? So there was something beautiful about that. Maybe we can... Did you watch that F1 documentary Drive to Survive on Netflix? Have you seen that?
I didn't, but I've heard it's great. Okay, so I'm the farthest guy. I drove a Honda Accord, this old Honda Accord, for like 20 years. I couldn't care less about a car. And if you've driven with me, I certainly don't drive quick. That sport has nothing on me, but I watched the documentary and now I watch every race. And what I love about that, which I wish there was a way for tennis to do it is.
They let you hear exactly what they're thinking in competition. Right. So they make a turn and they get cut off and I can hear his radio to his coach going, that dude just cheated. Like he's such a jerk. It's incredible. It's real time. I'm feeling. They also do give up some tactical stuff. So there's a little bit more access and personality, which just drew me into the personalities. I don't even care about racing, but now I watch and I love tennis, but a lot of it is.
Like I used to love when Hingis and Venus Williams were like going to bump each other or maybe it was Leia. I can't remember who it was, but like I used to love that little bit of animosity and hatred. And I wish there was a little bit more access. to not only the tactics of what people are doing, but a little bit more to their thought process.
I mean, that brings me to my hottest take, that Federer and Nadal kind of ruined tennis in a way. Obviously, Federer is the goat from a beauty standpoint. This is what Roger Federer and Nadal did to the... On top of being two of the goats, Federer is so poised, so curated, so beautiful that he kind of put into the game that you have to have this curated perfection on the court and...
Nadal comes out and says, you got to play every point as if your life depends on it, right? A generation come up thinking, okay, I got to be perfect on and off the court. I got to fight for every point like my life depends on it. And they were besties. So I think now we have a generation of players, not their fault, but they were inspired by, you know, curated life. Now, it doesn't help that the cameras are in their face all the time and curation off the court equals big bucks.
You don't really want to have an opinion, right? Because Democrats and Republicans both buy Nike. You got to fight for every single point. You can't do the Pete Sampras and get the early break and get the early break and tank your return games, right? That's what I used to do. You know, I used to think you get an early break.
Okay, well, I'm just going to cruise on my return game. Now it's like, oh, you're down five love in the third. You got to fight. That is a scorching hot take. You undersold that one. That is very, very... I just think in general, and I know people are worried about it, but there are times in Formula One where those drivers do not make themselves look particularly great. They either look whiny or they're complaining or they look like a jerk. But the value of that sport has gone up like...
400% since they did documentaries. So it's like, yeah, you had a tough moment. Guess what? That makes you a human. And then you apologize and you move on or you had a fight with that driver. And guess what? You guys are playing Padel, you know, next year because you made up because you're a human being and you said you're sorry. And I feel like.
Like you said, people are trying so hard to be perfect that for me anyway, I know I get bored. I'm like, oh, that's not who they really are. Like no one, no one. the time so now I feel a distance between that player instead of being like oh I know who that guy is and I've gone on the journey with him and I've seen him at his lows and I want to see him now win a slam I don't feel like Yeah. Well, you know what? The last time I had it in our sport was when Kyrgios was going at Joker.
They became buddies a couple of years ago, right? And ever since then, I was like, okay. Like, I liked how he was calling them out and Djokovic was sort of taking... some chirps back and then they played at Wimbledon and it was like is Kyrgios gonna you know dethrone him and talk trash and everything afterwards they were hugging and playing doubles and since then I feel like I'm still I'm waiting I'm just like you I'm waiting for that next little beat
All right, we've got Instagram questions. You had a ton. So the first great question was, what are some of the most common mistakes you see players making on a daily basis? all right give me the number one the most common mistake you
Not using height. Originally, I know it's a boring one. Like coming right out of the gate and hitting low and hard over the net in the warm-up. I can't stand that. That's the number one sign of a... rookie you know the best players in the world are hitting rainbows to start the day and then slowly bringing it down so that's a huge one And another one is just like living shot to shot, like zero concept of, okay, this shot's going to get me this ball.
You know, it's just ball to ball. Just like instinct, like a bug, just like in the moment, just reacting to things instead of like planning ahead what you might get. Exactly. Yeah. The hummingbird. Why do you think it is that... I've never seen a coach that says you should hit lower and you watch pros and they hit higher, especially in the beginning. And then the three, five adult who has.
one 500th of the experience and expertise of those players decides to hit lower. Why do you think there's that? Honestly, maybe because of the two-dimensional view we get sometimes in tennis. I think that's what I blame it on. You're looking down at the court and you can't see the arc of the tennis ball. I also find that disconnect with the open and closed stance. It's like we're in the year 2025 and I still have to sell people on the open stance for him.
Like, didn't Richard Williams sell it in the 80s? At least in the movie King Richard, right? The fact that there's these weird little disconnects are mind-boggling to me. Next question. Similar vein, when you're looking across your club once it opens up. What is something that you laugh at the most when you're watching like your C-teamers that like maybe you wouldn't want to admit in the moment, but you're like, that's really funny.
Probably the service motions, the little routines and then the service motions. Like one thing I see all the time, and I don't like laughing at people. If anything, it's almost... I've gotten to the place where I've been in tennis so long that when I see a really confusing or unique service motion, I'm intrigued by it. It's like, ooh, fascinating. How does she get power? this three times and then tosses it 40 feet in the air like you know it's it's like unique and it's like a exotic bird
That's so funny. It is interesting that there's a lot of motion before the toss. Yeah. And I'll always ask someone, I'm like, what do you think the acceleration comes from? Or like, what do you think the most important part? So do you think lifting your arms before the toss or... all this like you haven't done anything yet you're just moving around which is fine like there's no problem with it it's just
Yeah, and I do the same. And then I ask them to try to do their serve without it. And if they can't, that's a red flag, in my opinion. We got to fix that. A huge thing with the serve is bending the knees to toss the... So they bend down with the knees and then they straighten. And I said, you can toss that ball without bending your knees. That thing weighs 28 grams. You don't need the force of the gram.
That's really funny. Okay. How can you tell when you are either watching someone online or you travel and you're at a club? How can you tell or what do you look for for you to decide if you think that teaching pro is quality or... If they're intimate in a way, like when they're giving their feedback... Okay, so a bad coach, and by the way, very guilty of this.
yelling from my side to the other side the whole time at no point go like no not the whole time i'm guilty of yelling so i would say the thing that i i would is a bit of a red flag, is if they spend the whole lesson at the net or on the other side of the court coaching from that side. If things aren't going well, a more seasoned coach will come onto the other side of the court.
get closer to the player, talk to them, maybe do some hand feeding. And if that starts going good, they'll go back to their side. A coach unwilling to do that and just yelling and then, oh, let's get a break. And then they take a break. That's usually problematic. It doesn't mean they're not a great tennis mind. I just don't think they're really getting through to their player.
Same vein, but how should someone go about, there's a three, five lady, a four or five dude, whatever, and they move to a new city. Yeah. How do you find the right coach for you? What should they be looking at in themselves or what should they be looking for? So quickly, I have a sub stack where I'm going through all the different types of coaches right now. And in that, so the tennis coach archetypes. So for example...
I call them the hedgehog. I'm subscribed, by the way. I've been reading these, but yes, please elaborate. I believe every tennis club you go to is almost the same. We have the same archetype of coaches at these clubs. At least, you know, if they have a staff of coaches. One is called the Hedgehog. The Hedgehog is your blue collar.
cut-of-the-mill tennis coach. Let's say you're a tennis player at 3-5. You like playing your one hour of tennis a week. You're not looking to completely change your grip, but you want to continue to improve. I would give you like what I would call the hedgehog coach. This is somebody who's blue collar.
They tend to be a bit lugubrious. They're conserving energy because they know that being on the court is all about energy and they've got to do seven hours that day. So if you find someone who's a bit more... slow, has a couple of tips under their belt, I'd say go with that person, right? If you're looking to completely change your grip and really get to that next level and you're willing to go nuts with your game, find a coach who's a bit more...
They fancy themselves more of a rock star. I call them the fox. They're sort of in and out of the club. They like a challenge. They've got a lot of energy. You'll take some of their energy and you'll use that into building your game. Uh, so yeah, I think it depends on what you're looking for, but you can check my sub stack for all the archetypes of coaches and you can compare what you're looking for with what they offer.
Can you share this without maybe revealing Substack stuff, but what coach are you? You know, I'm a hybrid. I would say I've been a lot of them. I would say quickly, like I'm a bit of a cult fox guy.
Like I do have my, I'm trying to build a cult. It's not going that well, but I'm trying. I get distracted. You know, finding the content has sort of... slowed me down a little bit but i was certainly the guy who would zip into the club teach a couple lessons change some forehands and then go back to my job as a writer for television and come Interesting. The Colt Fox. I like that.
Okay, this one, next one's going to be difficult, but I want you to give me your second hottest take then. Okay. Besides that Federer ruined the game of tennis. So the question that this person asked was, what is one piece of advice that you and I disagree? So I want you to give me your hottest take for advice that you would give a player that you know is a little bit out there, but you believe in. And then I'm going to see if I agree with you.
Poaching should be the norm in doubles. No, you just gave me a hug. That's incredible. That should be the default. I wanted to just litmus test that. Um, what would you... I just want to know your, like, I'll give you, I'll give you one of mine. I'll give you one of mine. You can tell me if you disagree with this. Okay. So in my doubles camps, people like when your partner is returning, sir.
The other person is at the net and they're on the service line and they're calling the line and like whatever else they do. And I go, why are you standing there? And they're like, well, I got to call the line. I'm like, well, they can probably call the line without you. Number one. Number two, my stance is that you're at the net to play.
And when you're that far back, unless you're an elite mover and processing at elite level, you're never going to end up getting close enough to the net to play off. So, yes, you are in good position if their opponent picks off a ball and poaches. You can reflex a little easier. But now you've removed all offense for your game. So I actually like people to stand much farther up in the box when they're the returners.
And they go, whoa, that is like way different than what my coach at home says. And I go, yep, you can do it my way. You can do it their way. It's your game. But I actually like the returners net partner to start much closer to play offense. I like the thinking on that. I'm just going to steal it. I like it. I think I was in autopilot mode with telling my players to stand back.
You're right. You're never going to really get fully into that aggressive mode. And by the time you get into the defensive mode, they probably hit the ball past you. So lingering in the middle is probably not doing you much good.
I see people always just a half beat behind. Like they start back and then they go, oh, I should close. And by the time they close, they don't even get close enough. Yeah. Now the ball's by him and they got to back up again. And so I see them like running like crazy. And I'm like, you accomplished nothing.
So yes, there probably will be five times in the match where they poach and they put a volley by you that you could have reflexed. I get it. There also might be like 40 more chances where you can play off. Okay, so we just gave each other two warm hugs. Is there anything else we can do? You know, the thing is we're both doubles-minded guys, and doubles is such a game of figuring things out and implementing these strategies, and they all kind of make sense.
Singles is a bit more of a testing each other out game. Doubles is better than singles. I mean, you're going to probably agree with that. You enjoy doubles. It's more fun. Um, maybe we're just both brilliant. You know, that would be it. It's it. It's it. I got two more actually while I get you and I can edit these out if it's too long. This is one of my longer episodes. I want to know, and a lot of people want to know your best tie tuck. So Ty Tucker, this story starts with me benched.
for getting caught drinking the night before the Big Ten and being thrown in the drunk tank. And then I came out, won my doubles, by the way, and then lost my singles. And he said, So for the next two weeks, I'm benched, yet I'm still allowed to come to practice. It's unsure of whether I'm going to get kicked off the team or not. We have the NCAA tournament coming up. We got to play Vanderbilt first round, who are our rival.
The day I'm benched, but I'm still traveling with the team, usually I play court four, okay, in one double. The day of the match, three guys on my team pull a mutiny. Two of them decide they're not playing. They're transferring. One guy goes to Miami. The other guy goes to Arizona. They're literally gone, okay? Our bench wasn't deep enough. So now I got to play. Okay. He can't bench me anymore. He comes over to me and he says, you're playing.
I go, well, you know, shoulders a little tight or whatever. He goes, you know, you win, you're back on the team. Okay. Long story short, it'll be in my book. I go out, I beat my rival 7-6 in the third, hitting a jam serve on match point because you got to go blue collar on match point if you play for Ohio State. I didn't go for the ace. Win match point, Tucker comes over to me. He says, one more.
But hey, he stood true to his promise. I love so many elements of that. Just the pure outcome-based, if you win, you're back. I love that. That is so on brand. That's it. That is freaking hilarious. And last question, as always, what is your best advice for the 4-0 adult recreational doubles player? 4-0 adult. Okay, the 4-0. You're in your own head. The return is an attack.
I've run 4.0 clinics and revolutionized guys' lives with that tip. Take that return inside the court. Especially the second serve. I want you a meter inside the court or three feet inside the court. When you're making contact with that second serve, take it on the rise, go after it. And if you miss, hey.
If you're that person's partner, give them permission to go for that. That's awesome. I love that. I love seeing your stuff online. Where can people find you, your content, all your sub stacks, all that? Where can they? Definitely find me on Substack. On Substack, I'm coming out with a lot more long-form writing. I'm going to have a lot of informative stuff with coaching, but also just comedy and releasing chapters from my book.
If you do an annual subscription, you get some exclusive one-of-a-kind clothing items you can't get anywhere else. Find me on Instagram at Tennis Coach Connor Casey, where you're probably watching this right now. And yeah, find me at the bar.
during happy hour. I absolutely love it. Thanks so much for coming on. And then you're going to have to noodle the rest of the day and find something that we really disagree on. That way we won't be best friends. But it was so great meeting you and having you on the show. Thank you.
All right, I want to thank Connor for coming on the show today. So many good thoughts and obviously entertaining. While there's a few good points he made that I could focus on, the main one would be that it's okay to laugh and have fun on your crazy. When I hit a horrible volley in Padel, my partner usually says something like, great hands, and then we both laugh. It's okay to release a little stress and find the humor
And when you get in that mindset, it makes you more receptive to coaching and growth. So don't be afraid to enjoy yourself, laugh at the struggles, and enjoy yourself. One more reminder to check out my website, www.stokeytenniscoaching.com for information on my New York City doubles camp. My last camp sold out very quickly. So if you're interested in attending, click on that link and reach out. Thanks again for listening. I hope you just improved at tennis without even hitting a ball.