I had the privilege of competing against Barry University in my college time ages ago and I always thought that they were an extremely well-coached team. Now, all these years later, I am using their facility to train with Amanda Anisimova, and I have spent a lot of time hitting with their head coach Thomas. Below is a conversation I had with Thomas on various subjects, and I sincerely hope any tennis player, parent, or coach can find it valuable. Hleb: Congratulations on your team's national championship win! Can you describe the journey that led to this victory? What were some of the key fac ..read more

In this post, I want to stress the value of still playing the game and why that is important. Not only playing tennis an excellent thing for our health physically and mentally, but moreover, it helps us with developing the ever-important skill of empathy. Competing at any level helps with understanding and sharing the feelings of our players. For all of the tennis parents and coaches out there, please consider these things that I have been guilty of in the past: 1. Only working on strokes ( when we play ourselves it comes as a reminder that shot selection is often more important) 2.Perfection ..read more

I had the great pleasure of meeting Christopher while coaching and playing prize money tournaments in Germany. While working with his player at the time, top WTA pro Mona Barthel, Christopher occasionally needed to give her confidence by beating up on someone and he called me. That beating was a start of our relationship and soon he enjoyed beating up on me himself with his ridiculous angle shots. During that time, between my lessons on court I was happy to learn many things from Christopher, namely what it is like to bring energy and enthusiasm to every session. Christopher took the time to ..read more

Yuval Solomon is an incoming senior on Wake Forest's men's tennis team. He is a 2018 National Champion and currently is training in South Florida, anticipating a return on campus shortly. Yuval was kind to answer some questions for me that I believe bring value to those out there coaching junior players or players themselves. What misconceptions do you see juniors have about college tennis? You know, I think some think that it gets easier once you get to college, but time management is really crucial. Moreover, for those that homeschooled this is no longer an option, you have to attend class ..read more

Hello tennis world, it is 2020, which means a new and exciting year ahead. For Junior Ore, a New Year's wish came true when he received an invitation to practice with current world #1 Robert Farah and multiple Grand Slam Champion Julien Rojer. Indeed impressive how well the top doubles players return serve, how stable their reaction volleys are, how fast they get to the net after their serve. Junior is looking forward to making his ATP Challenger tour season a success ..read more

I first met Adam during my time at UNF. He came into the locker room and I immediately realized he was unlike any other coach I had in the past. Soft-spoken, respectful yet passionate, and firm. He worked hard for the players and for that, they worked hard for him. Adam inherited great talented players at UNF, but he was able to add more talent and preside over some of the best seasons of the program‘s history. Today, he is running a very successful program at Pepperdine over the last three years. In the 2020/2021 season, Adam led the team to a conference title, the team's first since 2013. T ..read more

One day at the 2014 US Open Playoffs, I just won my first round against Clemson's Difazio and I was walking by the courts at the USTA National Center in Flushing Meadows, when I saw a guy who was locked in the battle fighting like I have never seen anyone fight before. Little did I know, but I would then follow to play this guy for 3 hours 7/6 in the third in the semis. This match started a long New York rivalry and friendship. Gary is one of the hardest working people I know, and has a unique perspective that I am grateful to share with all of you. You can find Gary at https://www.tenniswithg ..read more

You had quite an outstanding junior career with an extremely difficult school schedule, how did you manage both? The truth is that time management was always a challenge that I considered to be a privilege. I was lucky enough in my youth to have the opportunity to participate in several activities; primarily tennis, chess, and the piano along with my academic curriculum. Although this busy schedule required sacrifices in certain areas such as my social life or a less rigorous tennis training schedule, it allowed me to develop more broadly in my skill sets and I always found creative ways ..read more

This post revolves around what it takes to be a traveling coach. Some of the roles of a coach on the road include: Driver, psychologist, surrogate parent, travel agent, hitting partner, medical consultant, organizer, and, most importantly, disciplinarian and friend. The coach must devote their attention to the player's needs and attend to them as required during the tournament. During matches, the players often are looking for support and positive reinforcement from their coach. Nick Kyrgios, after beating Karen Kachanov in five sets last night at the AO 2020, credited his team with much-need ..read more

I want to advocate for playing more doubles, particularly for junior players. Some of the benefits of playing doubles for kids are emotional control and the development of leadership qualities. Moreover, there are a variety of skills developed that help juniors with their primary strokes (serve, return, groundstrokes) as well as secondary strokes (drop volleys, reaction volleys, overheads, swing volleys, and half volleys). With such a variety of skills used in the game of doubles strategy and tactics become significant. Players learn to use a variety of ways to win points. Another significant ..read more