10 Minutes of Tennis: Environment is Everything

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With that said, let's get started with 10 minutes of tennis.

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As always, I am Shaun Boyce with the Atlanta Tennis Podcast and GoTennis.

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Good morning. This is 10 minutes of tennis with Justin Yeo,

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World renowned, tennis coach, Australian in Puerto Rico.

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And today's topic is called "Environment is Everything."

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I got to say everything like that.

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When it's in all capital letters, you got to go, "Environment is Everything."

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That way. Exactly.

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So, Justin, what do you mean "Environment is Everything?"

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Is that literal? It's the trees, it's the wind,

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it's the soil, it's the court.

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Yeah, is it really everything?

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There really is everything.

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I like that little one.

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You brought in the elements of what is your surroundings is everything.

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But it really is.

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You can go all the way to stay enough your cell phone before you get on the court.

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You know, your environment is everything and your environment will shape

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and definitely affect the match.

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So, the reason why it's such an important statement

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and everything's in capital letters is that sometimes you're not aware of certain things around you

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in your environment that is affecting you that you can change your mental state.

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You can change the way you play.

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You can change the way you finish this match crappy.

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And then, when the next match, because you recognize things that were in your environment

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that affected the last match, you know, environments like,

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I say the kids all the time, let's make sure the discussion is focused and positive and comfortable

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on the way to the way the match.

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Because otherwise, if it's apparent and it didn't, they're all out each other.

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There's your mind will not turn up to the time, you know, because it makes it really tough or

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there's just a really tough kid and they still pulled out the match.

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But it is very important for parents, children, adults, everyone to understand that your environment

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watching around all the time before, after it's during is everything to your match.

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You know, if we put it, you know, that job, which, you know, talks a lot about

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a mental state and that he'd realize a couple of things and switches his mind and switches the

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way he's thinking and form his result changes. So when we're talking tennis,

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now the environment is a lot, you know, Chip. Let's just talk about your US Open.

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Bansy trying to play a United States American player in the US Open, in our garage.

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Good luck. Because your environment is going to get claps on a double falls or between serves.

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It depends on what time of the day you played, whether the honey content is going to be quiet or not.

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I mean, come on, man. Yes, your environment is everything.

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It makes me think of years ago when I was watching baseball and I would listen to the Atlanta

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Braves going into New York and going in, whether it was the Metz, the Yankees didn't matter,

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walk in and all you hear is Larry. I mean, just given the players all kinds of hell and it's

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just New York. And I mean, Australia is one thing because you got the Aussies and they're a unique breed

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and the French expect you to act a certain way and Wimbledon's got its own thing. In New York,

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you just got that if you don't have the the Medvedev kind of thick skin, like you're going to give it

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back to the New Yorkers, that's that's an environment that the professionals worry about and they've got

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to deal with we're more of okay, my kids are on the playground and my husband's over there on the

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grill working on things or my wife's there walking waving with the baby walking by in my case with my

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one year old and trying to play tennis match and trying to stay focused. Some of it is blocking it out

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but how much of that do we want to bring in and take that deep breath and say okay, I'm going to take

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the wind, I'm going to take the humidity, I'm going to take the sun and use it to my advantage.

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How much can we pull in and actually use, like I said, to our advantage?

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Yep, 100% and you're again, so the whole theme of today was your environment is everything,

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it really is everything, everything you bring, everything you're during, everything to after.

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Afterwards to me is absolutely critical. They're a matter of place, go I play like crap,

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I wasn't my day or I was or was well, no. What did you play well? What affected you? Did the

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wind effect, did the sun effect you? Was was the chord effect you? I mean I played some chords,

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many chords where I'll make the fall of the chord is definitely for whatever reason, whether it's

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irrigation or whatever, but the fall of the chord is different so you're playing uphill,

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I want to end the play downhill and the other end. I mean there's so many things that the reason why

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everything is in papillettes is because it is everything and it's very important to understand it

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because when you do, you grow as a player, you're better as a player and you're actually

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sometimes turned things into your advantage while learning more about your advantage.

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Yeah, and I think bringing that into the advantage is one of the things I've tried to do with my own

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life just beyond tennis. It's being able to say, "Oh, you know what? This could be a difficult thing

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or this could, I can take this in a negative way." I'm just going to embrace what's happening, whether

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it's a windy day, I think of, I don't know how many years ago I'm watching Andy Murray play in the wind

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and Roger didn't like the wind and actually neither did Rafa, which I found interesting, but Andy

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was the kind of guy just kind of, "Oh, you know what? This is going to be a weird match. I've got this."

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And everybody else was frustrated and he just leaned into it. And I think, especially the amateur level,

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the juniors, to be able to walk in and not find an excuse to lose because of everything's going on,

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find those things to your advantage. Is that kind of the advice that you would say when environment

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is everything? Maybe I did bad conversation with my mom in the car on the way to the match.

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Maybe my last match, I came off the court in a bad mood or got, you know,

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got into it with my father about double-faults something. How can I, as the amateur player, as every player,

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be able to go out and forget what happened before and forget what happened after, what's going to

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happen after and just take my environment, focus on it and use it to my advantage. How can I do that?

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You need to work on your own mindsets. You know, I've asked Dr. Gavitch, she'd say, "Well,

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I put my headphones on and I focus on some exercise and I've visualized what I'm going to do or I

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visualize what my coaches have told me from the data that we've already received against the

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opponent up the other end. And my game name, my game B, and maybe as a game C, that will happen when

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I come out. But my game name, my game B, I'm visualizing how I should start the first set, how I should

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start the first three games. What's so critical about winning the first two points because we've seen

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that in data like my percentage of odds are, you know, if I win the first two points. So he will create

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all the visualizations before he goes on the court. He'll also, see, there's a advantage over everybody

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else's advantage, you know, is what the stadium feels like. You know, it's what it sounds, you know,

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it's what it feels like. You know, it's what a final is compared to a semi-final or a quarter-final.

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I mean, these are all the advantages that Dr. Gavitch has over all the plates. He also knows they're

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all coming after him. And so he's got to keep learning how to keep, you know, taking care of business.

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So, environment, I mean, you're saying about mindset. Mindset is everything again. And your environment

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is the more you're in it, the more you learn about it, the easier it is to handle it. And that's probably

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the easiest way to finish about environment is everything. You know, put yourself amongst it.

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I'll give you a quick example. I won't say a name. It was only about 11, 12-year-old when I met her,

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well, Chinese girl in Melbourne, Australia. And a dad was an international chess player.

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And he was like, Justin, he needed to put her amongst every condition. And so in freezing cold,

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we put her out there in shorts and t-shirts to play tennis, right? In the freezing cold. If it was

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raining, we'd get her on the net doing ballies with wet, heavy balls. We did all different conditions,

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put the lights on, right? And so they're in her eyes. He gave her all conditions. But she went from,

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like, just an average tennis player at 910, you divide from her, to the number one in the country at 12.

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Because nothing affect them. She was like, ice. So, anyway, that's a quick example for June's.

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Get yourself prepared. The more experience, the better. Face your fears. All that. All the players

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with the head, head sets on and being able to go in and just say, I'm ready. I'm focused. I got

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my game plan. I'm in the moment. It becomes be it wind, rain, storms, New Yorkers, Aussies,

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yell and at me. I'm focused. I'm ready to play. Justin Yell. Thank you. Much. I appreciate it.

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And if you really want to learn some match play, come to Puerto Rico because they're the loudest

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of them in the world. Okay. We'll check it out. Loudest in the world. They got the little ice cream

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guy. They've got the rick and ton in the background. They're screaming at every single thing. And it's like,

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wow. That'll be our testing ground. I like it. Justin, thank you so much. See you next week.

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Say bye.

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Well, there you have it. We want to thank Rejovene.com for use of the studio and be sure to hit that

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