Hey, everyone. On today's episode, we've got Ian Westerman. Many of you know him from Essential Tennis, where he has over 300,000 YouTube subscribers. He has a successful podcast and even wrote a book by the same name as well. And on today's episode, we talk about the improvement process and the mindset and methods that are necessary so you don't get stuck at the same level for an extended period of time. So sit back, relax, and prepare to become a smarter tennis player.
All right, Ian, welcome to the pod. Hey, thanks, Jonathan. Really happy to be here. Congrats on all your work that you've done over the years. It's been a lot of fun watching your content, and it's a pleasure to talk to you. You're one of the original YouTubers. You were just telling me you started it 15 years ago, which is absolutely bonkers. You've got 300,000 subscribers. You've done camps all over the country. You have people fly in.
to where you are to work with you specifically. You have online courses. So you've seen so many adult recreational players. What is the most common issue that players approach you with that they're looking for help on? In a nutshell, I would say my specialty is changing old bad habits. So the top reason why people take the time... to come and see me here in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin is they've been on average playing tennis for quite a while. They've done the whole...
They've done all the lessons and the league play and the camps. Maybe they've gone to academies like Saddlebrook and all that sort of thing. They look back over the last five to 10 years of play and realize that they've just totally flatlined and they've stopped improving. And they've tried to get to the bottom of that and find a solution through normal.
means of like their local coaches and like i said going to training camps and stuff like that and they're still not improving and they just don't know why and so i'm the last resort like well Nothing like I'm trying all the normal means of like getting better at this game. It doesn't seem to be working. And so that's when they come and see me because their serve or their forehand or.
Well, strategy, like they can just tell based on the results versus their peers that they're not getting the results they want. And so that's when they come and see me. Typically speaking, why do you think it is? I'll look down the row of courts and I'll see a 3-5 lady, and she's been a 3-5 for five consecutive years, but she's taking lessons, she's taking clinics, and she's actually super motivated to improve. So why do these players get so stuck where they are?
Oh man, that's a huge can of worms, Jonathan. Okay, let's start with this. I think most coaches have developed the skill of providing the service that most of their clients want. That sounds like pretty logical on the surface, right? And so what most students want, what most members want in a traditional tennis-like club setting is...
And they don't say this and they might not even admit it to themselves. And they certainly don't admit it out loud. But your normal everyday tennis player, let's just say, you know, 3-0 to 4-0, like somewhere in that range, middle of the bell curve.
would much prefer getting a good workout and hit a lot of balls and get a couple tips on how to get better much much much more than leaving their comfort zone in doing something fundamentally different than they're used to doing and as a as a coach you understand that the only way to get significantly better is to do something different but your average human
doesn't really want to feel that uncomfortable. And so there's this, when you step back from it, this crazy, like insane cycle based on like the pop, you know, the pop culture definition of insanity.
of somebody showing up week after week for lessons for coaching never really doing anything fundamentally different but going through the motions of practice and repetition and like receiving advice Then 48 hours later, going out and playing a match, which there's no way in hell they're going to use some new server, some new forehand 48 hours later, reinforcing the habit they've always used for the last 10, 20, 30 plus years.
losing the match, being frustrated that their forehand or the serve's not better, and then another 72 hours later, taking another lesson, and the cycle just repeats, repeats, repeats. And so somebody at some point, and... This kind of depends on your personality. I think ultimately the onus largely falls on the customer. It has to be clear to say out loud, I want something different.
I don't want to go through the motions over the next 60 minutes. The player has to understand and has to say out loud, there's no chance we're improving my forehand. my backhand, my volleys, my overhead, and my serve in 60 freaking minutes. So please pick, like, let's pick one thing in this hour to focus on actually fundamentally improving.
And I don't want to think about anything else today because if I just keep hitting the same forehand the same way for the next 10 years, I'm going to go crazy. But unfortunately, I think most... players who are motivated and who are passionate about the idea of improving just kind of defer to the coach because after all like they're the career like experts they've got you know all these impressive you know
numbers and like rankings like next to their name up in the pro shop and so they just assume that the coach knows exactly what they need to do and what they need to hear to actually get fundamentally better but Because most of this player's peers don't want to be uncomfortable. The coach is used to just providing very surface level activity. I wouldn't even really call it.
coaching necessarily there's a there's a lot of activity a lot of balls get hit there's there's a lot of movement a lot of excitement a lot of like high-fiving and saying great job and if you're an exceptional athlete and you have excellent coordination and talent, you can keep leveling up just with that general activity level and just being on the court a lot. But for most of us normal humans,
We're going to plateau with that kind of activity level very, very quickly. And it takes something fundamentally different to actually make changes, which is what is required to actually get better. There's a saying out there that everyone wants what you have. They just don't want the way that you got it or the path that you had to take to get there. And I was hitting with a really good player.
She was one of the best juniors in the country. She's around 250 WTA now, and she's got an awesome backhand. And one of my adult players walked by and said, hey, do you think I'll ever be able to get that backhand? And he's like 40. And I was like, well, I mean, I don't know. I mean, physically, you'll probably have to hold up. I was like, yeah, you definitely can. But it's just going to take the same that it took her to get there, which is 10 years, you know, probably 15 to 20 hours a week.
She probably cried once a week growing up because it was so stressful and so difficult. And she had to change her grip. And so it actually got worse when she was 14. And if you do all that, I actually think when you're 49, like you could have a pretty good backhand, but you're not going to be able to take a lesson from me. And at the end of the summer.
have what she has and it took her 10 years and she's a stud athlete i think that's just missing the whole process is not really worth it for some people at the end of the day i think no it's not because Like I said, if you take a lesson and the context around that lesson is I have a team match 48 hours from now.
This player is not going to fundamentally change the way they hold the racket two days out from whatever important match. They've got teammates. They've got their doubles partner that's counting on them. They've got, you know, everybody's up.
up watching you know in the viewing area uh with snacks and drinks not like this that's not a reasonable ask of a normal everyday tennis player because there are social expectations there are personal expectations And so I think the normal weekly cycle of like a drill session, a private lesson, a team match, maybe some kind of social events on the weekends.
I think there needs to be a much more honest and transparent conversation and a much more fundamental understanding of what it takes to actually change habits for a normal everyday human being. Not a young, talented, you know, this is apples and oranges. This is like a young, you know, fundamentally like inherently talented human has a trajectory that.
It's hard for a normal everyday person, an adult who just picked up tennis 10, 20 years ago, to understand the growth trajectory that's just normal and natural for that kind of talented young athlete. And the process, unfortunately,
I think adults view those reps of that player that you're working with on the court and somehow apply that same process to themselves. I think a lot of coaches... make the same mistake and just assume that if i just repeat low to high enough times and i feed enough balls by the eight hundred and seventy second time that i say low to high
It's finally going to click and they're going to get it. And it just doesn't work that way for an already developed adult who has embedded deeply rutted habits by that point. Like saying it one more time is not going to change anything. They're not going to do it different just because you repeat the same phrase for the 800th time. Meanwhile, the 11-year-old nationally ranked junior player.
You only have to say it twice. And she's like, oh, sure, I'll just do it that way. And that's not the way that the process works for every day like club athlete. I had someone reach out to me on YouTube and they wanted to work on their serve long distance. Right. And so he sent me a couple of videos. This is like the story that I always think about.
And he sent me some videos of his serve. And he did this weird thing where he kind of stepped across. So he was very open and facing the court by the time he was even about to hit the ball. And so the first Zoom lesson we do, he says, hey, before we get started, I know I take this weird step with my foot. I was like, yeah, like I noticed that was probably like the first thing I was going to mention. I said, why do you do that? And he goes, I don't know. And I'm like, well.
do you think I have a secret tip for how to stop stepping? I'm just going to tell you to step to your other foot. There's no secret there. He's like, yeah. I was like, do you think you can do this right away? He's like, yeah, I think I can. I was like, oh, then you should do that.
And he fixed it right away. He fixed it right away. And I left, but it actually had a profound impact on my life in general because I was like, what are the things that I'm doing that I'm aware of that do not contribute to my success?
that I continue to do because I'm on autopilot. So the player coming to you might go, hey, I've been trying to swing low to high for 10 years and it's not working. Well, if you're doing something that's not working, you need to stop doing that immediately. And if you find something that is working,
You need to figure out how you can do more of that. So that simple, like that little interaction I had with that player has definitely helped me in my life because there's definitely elements outside of tennis where I'm like, I'm doing X, Y, or Z. I'm eating this food. It's not helping my life.
whatever it might be. Could it be that simple though, where players could just kind of look at themselves and go, here are the elements of my game. What is not working right now? I'm doing certain things. I'm practicing X amount or I'm hitting these types of serves and it's not getting better. So I should just stop doing it. It is that simple. But unfortunately, humans frequently conflate simple and easy. And those are two wildly different things.
As you were describing like your own personal, you know, daily habits, just like a stupid like random example for me personally recently, I shave in the shower. Sorry if that's too much information. And I like having a mirror in the shower. and i had to replace my mirror that that previously had a little slot to hold my razor blade so i was used to finishing shaving putting my razor back on the mirror
And when I replaced the mirror because it was just getting old and dingy, like I was fogging up, the new one didn't have that slot. And it was fascinating to me how many weeks it took before I stopped just knee jerk you know response taking my razor after finishing shaving and going towards the mirror it took me like a freaking month now informationally like i ordered the mirror on amazon
i threw the old mirror out i put the new mirror up in the shower like i know what the change has been in my environment but it took a solid month for me to start automatically putting my razor over somewhere else in the shower now this has nothing to do with a huge like dynamic environment of ball traveling 80 miles an hour and i've got my partner over here and i've got two opponents over i'm trying to like keep track of at the same time and figure out like what direction should
Should I be moving? Where should I aim my next shot? I'm just freaking standing there in the shower. But I still have this like deeply embedded neurological pathway that tells me when I'm done shaving, I put the razor over here. You're just stupid everyday like example. But if changing that habit took me a month, removing that step from that student's stance on their serve that opens up their hips prematurely.
with all these other like i gotta also place the ball in the right spot i've got a target in mind and i'm trying to keep in mind like oh they hate their backhand and all my last three serves like once they're forehand and now you want me to also not take this like fundamentally impactful movement out of my technique that i've been doing for the last 10 20 years like that that mirror had only been in my shower for like two or three years imagine it was there two decades
It probably would have taken me freaking two or three months before I started putting my razor like in the in the correct spot in the shower. But I don't think it's well appreciated how hard changing habits is. And a second thing I'll throw in real quick before I bounce back to you. I think there's this under this undercurrent of expectation that the biomechanically correct way of moving our bodies should be natural.
I think natural and biomechanically correct are largely conflated by both players and coaches, sadly. When in fact, if you've been doing something biomechanically incorrect, for five years ten years twenty years and then a coach asks you to do it biomechanically correct it will feel the opposite of natural it's it's very tempting to think Well, whatever feels right is probably the right way to do it. Like if my body is made to move in a certain order, in a certain sequence and athletically.
energy needs to flow through my body and you know in a certain way well when i do it right certainly it must feel good right it must feel right but sadly we get in our ruts we get into our habits and that's what feels right to us And then when a coach asks us to do something different and it feels bad the first time, unfortunately, it's natural for humans to be like, maybe that works, you know, for this coach's other students. But man, that just felt awkward. It's, you know, so awkward to me.
There's no chance that's correct. And they just hop back to what they're comfortable with. And it perpetuates this crazy cycle of coaching and lessons and just staying stuck in the same rut for years and years. So these players... come to you, they're stuck. They typically don't want to be uncomfortable. What is your process look like to helping them take a small step over that weekend or however long they're there for towards better tennis? How do you start that process?
So I stopped the normal crazy cycle of 60-minute lessons. And so for the last 13, 14 years, I have gone way off on a tangent of... spending as long as we need to on each individual skill. So I'll spend two hours, three hours in a row on one skill that's part of one stroke. So we'll just work on like timing of unwinding of the hips on a forehand or a backhand for two hours straight. And God bless my students. They freaking do it. And at the end of two hours, we have.
That's undisputable proof because, yeah, I will not coach without video. I would rather go work at Walmart than continue my coaching career, but I can't use video. I would stop. because it provides instant insight. It provides instant awareness to the student that they otherwise would not have had. It provides instant proof.
that I don't have to convince this person because when I show them their serve side by side versus their favorite player, it's so immediately obvious. Holy crap. I thought I was at least in the ballpark. but it's not even freaking like okay now they're like ready to make big changes so it shortcuts a tremendous amount of dialogue it shortcuts a tremendous amount of convincing arguing
And so not only that, but the video provides immediate proof of improvement, which acts as this awesome flywheel of inspiration and motivation for the student. 30 minutes later, I can show them. Indisputable proof that, look, you already look like a better athlete. You're already doing it better. You are making progress. And that is unbelievably inspiring and motivating for everyday players.
for the most part, have never seen themselves. And they've been relying on the verbal feedback from somebody 60 feet away from them trying to explain what the hell they're doing. as they make like a thousand different body moves within a half a second. And there's just so much data that's lost through that process of just verbal communication.
by slowing things down showing them proof of their shortfalls then showing them proof of their progress we can make very big significant changes to fundamental habits in very short periods of time that they've been trying to fix for years in the 60 minute like crazy cycle of normal lessons and then going and playing a match the next day so over over over a decade of like refining this process of doing the video
and the principles of what steps to take and progressions and focusing on one thing at a time. I feel like I've kind of carved out my own little process and way of doing things. And that's what motivates people to come and spend time with me. When it comes to video, a lot of times I work more with people remotely tactically because, of course, I don't really think I'm going to be able to help your technique.
from 2000 miles away in one lesson. Yeah, exactly. You could. I'm not that good. So we'll work on tactics. And a lot of times people don't want to video themselves because they don't like what they see. But I think the alternative would be worse if you watch yourself.
if i were to watch a video of you and go man i love what you're doing i love this this and this and you're still a three five that'd be more soul crushing because i'd be like man i'm already maxing everything out i'm still not better like i wanted when i was getting recruited
I wanted the college coaches recruiting me to tell me all the things I sucked at. Man, I'm watching you, your split steps think, oh my God, you're this backhand, you do this too much. Because then I go, man, I've got 15 things I can get better at. So if I'm a 4-0 now,
And Ian sees 50 things. Yes, we're going to focus on one at a time, but this is so exciting because I have so much room to grow. Instead of looking at yourself, seeing something you don't like, and then just going, well, since I don't like that, I'd rather just kind of stay where I am. Your natural attitude and perspective towards growth is highly unusual. Hopefully you appreciate that you're highly unusual, which is why you achieved highly unusual results.
There's a lot of natural inherent traits that you have that allowed you to play at a 1% of 1% level of the game. So we can't forget that. And so I think it's important to remind ourselves of that. routinely that you know we're working with accountants and stay-at-home moms and doctors and lawyers maybe they have that same kind of growth mentality towards their career
or maybe towards their relationships with their children or with their family. But they've by and large seen tennis as an outlet for exercise and socialization. And now you're asking them to apply. a very elite mindset to what is supposed to be a fun activity. And in my opinion, for most people, those two things are kind of at odds with each other. Not everybody. I'm generalizing here.
But on average, I think that's the case for most people. And so asking them to cross that bridge over to that growth mindset perspective is a big ask. And I really respect and I try very hard to communicate my appreciation.
in respect to my students for walking onto the court with me and putting themselves in that position because the vast majority of their peers will not put themselves in that position like you said now back to the first description that you led that question with on its face is absolutely crazy you said my student wants to get better but doesn't actually want to know what is wrong and how wrong it is
And that just on the surface is nonsensical. And so this is where I think it's critical as a coach to evaluate each individual student as a unique human. and try to get as quick of a read as you can on what is their level of depth of motivation to really actually make changes. And everybody says they want to get better, okay? Let's just put that out there.
otherwise like duh otherwise they wouldn't sign up for a lesson right yeah of course like i want to get better but there's a huge range a big spectrum of different degrees of investment of actually being willing to be uncomfortable know the truth be faced with their shortcomings these are things that are kind of antithetical to like human existence like we've been trained over generations to
not expose our flaws because that's what gets us pushed to the outside of society. I'm going a little overly deep here, but there's a kernel of truth to it. There's an instinct we have to protect ourselves and to remain safe. And so the majority of players out there aren't willing to take that journey with you, no matter how much you try to push them to do it. So I think the most important thing as a service provider, as a coach that provides utility to a client is.
They're going to tell you always, oh, of course I want to get better. The better you can get at asking questions and kind of probing to figure out how invested they really truly are, the better you can provide a custom. service to them that keeps them where they want where they actually truly want to be regardless of what they say out loud so 2400 or so youtube videos later
You've made a lot of content. And I think I don't even know how many. I started my YouTube this year and I'm already like, man, like how is there 2,400 things, a content that you can put out there for the game of tennis? Like it's definitely a difficult game, but man, that's very, very impressive. So out of all the content you've thrown out, what are you most passionate about in terms of like, man, I really just wish my players knew this tactic or knew.
This footwork or they have to master this stroke. Is there anything where you're like, man, I definitely need almost every player to know this element of the game. What I'm most passionate about is the improvement process. The great questions you've been asking over the last 10, 15 minutes or so. People leaving their comfort zone, exposing their flaws, charging at them like head first. Let's find a solution. Let's get uncomfortable together.
And I'm joining in, like in the process, like the cameras are rolling on me too. And I enjoy being in that growth environment with somebody else where. We're kind of both walking the tightrope together. They're leaving their comfort zone. I'm leaving my comfort zone. And we're partnering together to try to find a solution. And my favorite content to make, unfortunately,
gets the least amount of views and the least amount of traction because most people would rather stay comfortable and not know the truth. So any content where I talk about this kind of holistic process of... improvement doesn't get any clicks. So that's sad, but that's also just human nature. But in a nutshell, those are my favorite topics to talk about because there's a small percentage of everyday adult tennis players
does have that passion and that drive to actually leave their comfort zone and do something fundamentally different. And those are the people that I love spending time with. But the 95% that isn't on board for that. isn't really interested in talking about it. And so that's just the way it is. Have you ever seen that image of the black door? I don't think so, no. I'll send it to you and I'm going to throw it up on the YouTube video.
Coach Creasy, who used to coach at Clemson when I was at Duke, he's the person who I found it from. But it's basically like, what's behind the black door? And people approach it and they're scared and they're anxious. And right before they open it, they're so scared of what's behind, they just retreat.
And so they go in a circle and they never find out what's behind the black door. And they learn to be scared. They learn to be nervous. They learn to not challenge themselves. Some people go up to that door and open it. And behind it might be failure. Okay, that's fine. But now they've learned. They've learned courage. Now they're past the black door and now their cycle is moving forward. And so I always think of that as like, man, what will happen if...
I do try to change my grip on my serve. Like that's scary. Like my serve might be bad for a year. It might, it definitely could be, but ultimately if you're trying to grow that serve. you've got to take that plunge into that scary world of like, man, I don't know where this is going to go. And again, that's if you say you want to improve, because one of the things I definitely, I have this conversation with most of my kids is, are we here to have fun or are we here to get better?
Very rarely on the Venn diagram, but sometimes those overlap. But sometimes getting better is really just not that enjoyable for a lot of people. Now, I personally enjoy the improvement process. But some of my kids would be like, I don't want to work on my hip rotation on a forehand for three hours. I want to play two up, two back games. And I go, that's awesome. Tennis is a fun sport. You deserve to have fun, but just realize that you might not be winning your next USDA match.
because you played Russian Crush for two hours. I think you just explained that very succinctly. Yeah, the overlap of fun and improvement, unless you have a particular personality, is very small. for most people. And yeah, I think you just explained that perfectly. And also, yeah, I love the black door analogy. It's absolutely perfect. And so I just want to, at some point in our conversation...
I want to make sure to commend you for opening that black door of content posting because you don't have to do that. You know, like you could you could totally just keep showing up. you know, for your daily lessons and not put yourself out there into the world for criticism and critique. Because I know you see those comments. And just as humans, again, like evolutionarily, we're trained to focus on the negativity.
You're providing an incredibly valuable service to the people who do share that attitude and that mentality, maybe even that life perspective of discomfort and improvement day by day by day. So thank you for the work you're doing to put yourself out there. It's really important. You know, it's so funny. You asked me, I started this podcast three years ago.
Did my first episodes with Jessie Pagula, who I grew up with, so I know her well. So it's not like I was nervous. Oh, my God, I got this top player, Rajiv Ram, who I played doubles with. So people I was comfortable with.
And I recorded it and then I went back and listened to it and edited it. And my wife was like, oh, well, you know, how did it go? And I said, well, you know, it went fine. I think I'm going to rename the podcast to I Suck because it's horrible and I hate hearing the sound of my own voice. And so, yeah, it is, it is really scary and all that stuff. But again, I love that you're so impassioned about, you know, the growth process because it is like energizing.
When you're like, man, OK, if I listen to a podcast now compared to three years ago, I'm like, OK, the audio might sound marginally better. Hopefully the conversations might be better. I have improved. That's awesome. Just like you said, you have a video of a stroke. And so that can be a very exciting thing.
I do want to, you have a lot of great content that I've watched. I'm always trying to get different ideas from other coaches. You say it a different way. You show it a different way. And it might resonate with players a little better. I've seen some really, really good doubles content from you.
Just in terms of tactics, positioning, is there one or two things that you love sharing with doubles players or common issues that you see from them that you like helping them improve with? I think positioning, anticipation. In general, everyday doubles players are reactionary. They're defense-minded. They're playing it way too safe. They view the game as, I like to say, team singles.
Okay, yeah, we're technically on the same team, but I'm responsible for this side of the court. So I'm going to make damn sure that nothing gets past me over here, aka towards the alley. You're responsible for your side of the court. And then when both people have that attitude, we can just drive a, you know, taxi a 747 or like in between the two players, which is everybody like knows on paper, just like I knew.
I needed to put my razor somewhere else in the shower. But even though they know they shouldn't leave the middle open because their fundamental attitude towards doubles is whatever you do, don't get beat down the alley. The middle just gets wide left open. positioning anticipation uh proactive movement and then along with that like where are your eyes um it's fascinating to me how how locked into the ball tennis i just
published a video like a month ago called Don't Watch the Ball in Tennis. Because players are so locked into watching the ball, they are not reading and anticipating what's going to happen next. If you watch the ball, the best you can ever do is just keep pace with what's happening in the present, but you'll never be able to anticipate what's coming next. In a nutshell, I think those are my top topics that I like talking about.
So moving forward, and we can keep this on brand for this episode if you'd like, but what would be your best advice for that 3-0 to 4-5 player who's listening? They're hearing about growth mindset. They're hearing about your improvement process. getting uncomfortable, what is your best advice for them moving forward if they actually are very serious about improving their games? Record yourself today. That's number one. Step one is awareness. If you don't know...
what you don't know, then we're just guessing. And guessing is a terrible strategy for improvement. A ways back in this conversation, you're talking about the technical feedback. to a student, there's probably 30 things you could potentially tell a student about their serve, their forehand or whatever. Where the art of coaching comes into play is even though you see that long list of biomechanical flaws,
which one of that long list of things is going to move the needle the most for everything else that's built on. This is what I'm personally like most fascinated by in the process of coaching. Like taking a step back, like, scanning through the video, and then trying to pick the one thing that, yes, will make a fundamental improvement to whatever that skill is. But then what I'm most fascinated by is...
There's often a cause when you pick the one thing correctly, very frequently two or three or four other things that I noticed in that list. correct themselves because the underlying principle or underlying movement that informs the other movements built on top of it automatically kind of clears up. And so it's kind of a really fun game to try for me to try to pick like what that thing is. Not tell my student about any of the other things.
And then two hours later, it'd be like, oh, and by the way, you also fixed like this and this and this and this because we shifted this one fundamental piece. So step one is big picture like awareness. What the hell are we even doing in the first place? Step two. And this is why coaches are worth the, a good coach is worth the investment is, okay, I observed these 10, 20, like 30 problems I have with my game.
because i know i can only focus on one of those things consciously where do i start out of that checklist of thirty things which one of those things should i knock out first and then what's number two and then what's number three that takes a tremendous amount of insight and experience and perspective to be able to accurately essentially prioritize like that checklist for the student but until there's that third party
understanding of what they're even doing in the first place that whole process is is impossible so yeah record yourself make a big list try to pick the thing that is at the very base of the pyramid That's the most foundational, fundamental thing. And knock that out. And then repeat with number two, repeat with number three, repeat with number four, so on and so forth. You have literally helped millions of tennis players out there, which is incredible.
for you to think about. It's an amazing work that you've given the tennis community. I am one of those million or 2 million or 3 million people. So thank you so much. This was a very unique episode, but also, like you said, a very necessary one because the growth mindset in the process, like a lot of times on here, we'll talk about technique and tactics. And actually a funny story was when I started my Instagram page.
I shared something and one of the girls I was coaching was like, what's our little secret? Like, I don't want you sharing that. And I said, don't worry. Like no one else is going to use it. You don't use it. I'm still telling you, you're there. She's like, that's a good point. And so.
more people can start using information if they can kind of get uncomfortable and go through a lot of the processes that you broke down today. So I can't appreciate the time enough. Thank you so much for your knowledge and your wisdom. And thanks for coming on the show. That's really kind of you, Jonathan. And right back at you, there's no, nobody made you take that step and put yourself out there publicly on the internet.
Sure, there's lots of positive feedback, but it comes with a lot of negativity as well. And that's its own challenge. You kind of have to jump over that hurdle each and every day. Wouldn't really understand that without going through it themselves. I know, you know, what it takes to wake up every day and look at the platforms, do the work, put it out there, hope it does well, but then it doesn't. And like the constant cycle of creation.
and disappointment, and obviously, occasionally, you know, successes. It's a lot. It's a lot. Emotionally, it takes a lot of time. It's much harder than people realize. So the fact that, and you've got nothing to prove, right? You have... What you have that I don't have is the bio, right? And so, frankly, you don't have anything to prove as far as most people are concerned because of your level of success as a player and as a coach.
So the fact that you have all that traditional reinforcement and feedback and like positivity behind you, but then you're also taking that big step into the unknown and sharing with the general public.
In a way, that's harder, and I respect that more than... somebody somebody like me you've got more to lose than i do and so i really respect the fact that you're doing it and you're helping a lot of people too so so thanks for sharing all of your knowledge and wisdom as well i know you're going to help a lot of people
All right, I want to thank Ian for joining the show today. Sometimes the struggle with coaching is players aren't interested in tennis vegetables. If you want to lose weight, you eat vegetables, you exercise a lot, and you drink a lot of water. That's boring. It doesn't get clicks. And if you want to get good at tennis, sometimes the topics or fundamentals are extremely boring. But the idea of growth mindset, getting outside of your comfort zone, and videoing your practices are essential.
Actually, no pun intended there, but they're essential to the improvement process. So if you want to make a leap in your tennis game this year, embrace discomfort, focus in on only a few items to work on, and then get to work. As always, if you've enjoyed this episode and you're a regular listener to the show, I would love if you could leave a rating and a review.
Less than 5% of my listeners leave reviews, and I get it because I don't leave reviews for every podcast I listen to, but they really help the show, and it makes my day when I hear how the show has positively impacted you as a player or a coach. Thanks so much for listening. I hope you just improved to tennis without even hitting a ball.