GPTA Hall of Fame Tennis Coach and USTA Official, Dave Matthews
Episode:#44 Shaun Boyce and Bobby Schindler
In this episode we talk to Dave Matthews and full disclosure, Dave was my academy coach back in the early 90’s when I was preparing to play in college so we have known each other quite a while. Dave is in the GA Tennis Hall of Fame and has run the Dave Matthews Tennis Academy since the mid-80’s. Dave is a USTA junior tournament official and has a heart warming story to get us started about a parent interaction which could have ended up in a very dangerous situation.
Watch the LIVE replay: https://www.youtube.com/live/XHz_FhFUiYA?si=tc1IFbR6U3FAk_SO
Shaun Boyce USPTA: [email protected]
https://tennisforchildren.com/ 🎾
Bobby Schindler USPTA: [email protected]
https://windermerecommunity.net/ 🎾
Geovanna Boyce: [email protected]
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Transcript
(upbeat music)
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Speaker:at 25% off for paid members.
Speaker:In this episode, we talked to Dave Matthews
Speaker:and Full Disclosure.
Speaker:Dave was my Academy coach back in the early 90s
Speaker:when I was preparing to play in college,
Speaker:so we've known each other quite a while.
Speaker:Dave is in the Georgia tennis hall of fame
Speaker:and has run the Dave Matthews tennis academy
Speaker:since the mid 80s.
Speaker:Dave is a USDA junior tournament official
Speaker:and has a heartwarming story to get us started
Speaker:about a parent interaction
Speaker:which could have ended up in a very dangerous situation.
Speaker:Have a listen and let us know what you think.
Speaker:(upbeat music)
Speaker:I will say hello.
Speaker:I am Sean Boyce with GoTennis
Speaker:and the Atlanta tennis podcast.
Speaker:I'm here as always or as usually
Speaker:with Bobby Schindler.
Speaker:Today we have Dave Matthews.
Speaker:And is anybody asked no, not that Dave Matthews,
Speaker:the actual Dave Matthews.
Speaker:Dave Matthews tennis academy
Speaker:and I will start with Full Disclosure.
Speaker:Dave has known me since I was about 14, 15.
Speaker:When he was that I joined your Academy in 19,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:Yeah, no.
Speaker:Yeah, it's about 14, 15, somewhere along in there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I was there with a few other guys.
Speaker:We still know in town.
Speaker:So the Dave Matthews tennis academy has been around
Speaker:quite a while.
Speaker:So you've got some experience with running an academy,
Speaker:getting some kids like me.
Speaker:It's actually a testament to your coaching
Speaker:that someone wanted me to play
Speaker:on their college tennis team.
Speaker:So that definitely says a lot.
Speaker:But I want to start because you're also a USDA official
Speaker:and that's one of the things we haven't talked about
Speaker:on the podcast at all at this point.
Speaker:We've been doing this a few years now.
Speaker:And we haven't had any questions that lead to,
Speaker:oh my gosh, that guy might be going to get a gun.
Speaker:So jumping right in, you have a story.
Speaker:I have it on good authority.
Speaker:You have a story where you're pretty sure it got bad enough
Speaker:at a USDA.
Speaker:Let me point this out.
Speaker:Children's sporting event.
Speaker:They use things we're going to escalate.
Speaker:I have got to hear this story.
Speaker:Yeah, it was a junior tennis tournament, you know,
Speaker:like we, like I've taken you to and all the academy kids to.
Speaker:And, you know, generally, I'll take, you know,
Speaker:back in the old days, I would take kids there in a van
Speaker:and things like that.
Speaker:Now with, you know, lawsuit and all that,
Speaker:you kind of avoid that.
Speaker:You show up and you find the kids there and watch them play.
Speaker:And, you know, and that's as good as you can do right now.
Speaker:So, yeah, I'm now a USDA official.
Speaker:I appreciate the tournaments that we help run up
Speaker:at the facility I work at.
Speaker:And me and another gentleman who is also a USDA,
Speaker:not only official, but he also operates, you know,
Speaker:does the draws and all that in the background
Speaker:before the tournament ever starts.
Speaker:So he's about as qualified as you can get.
Speaker:I bring more of the player standpoint into it,
Speaker:being an player and coach and all that.
Speaker:So between us both, we pretty much seeing about everything you can see.
Speaker:And there was this one tournament.
Speaker:It was, it was several years ago, thank goodness.
Speaker:It's kind of hopefully, you know, gotten out of the way,
Speaker:but we're sitting there and we, the canopy we sit under
Speaker:is up on the hill so we can see all 12 courts.
Speaker:We time all the warm-ups and everything, everybody gets,
Speaker:you know, we know at the five minute warm-up,
Speaker:but we sometimes, depending on draws and stuff,
Speaker:give them a little more time.
Speaker:So there's this one court right there next to,
Speaker:really next to where we are.
Speaker:And I looked up and, you know, the sad,
Speaker:the bad part about that court is that there are some canopies
Speaker:with picnic tables right there beside it.
Speaker:And, you know, some of the parents will sit over there
Speaker:under the canopies and, you know, when the kids on the other end,
Speaker:you know, they'll get that to them and think like that,
Speaker:which is, no, no, we don't want any interference.
Speaker:We want to, we would rather the kids get us
Speaker:and we tell them right there to check in desk,
Speaker:which is right next door to us.
Speaker:If you have a problem, you know, here's two officials
Speaker:in Blue, USDA official, you know, shirts coming get us.
Speaker:We'll come and help you settle it.
Speaker:We would rather do that and let the kids learn how to deal
Speaker:with each other and settle it on their own
Speaker:than to, you know, have outside interferences
Speaker:and then parents get into it and things like that.
Speaker:So this parent, you know, had been chatting a little bit
Speaker:and, you know, well, you know, sometimes we can't decipher
Speaker:between what is somebody saying, "Great shot,"
Speaker:or clapping and things like that.
Speaker:So, you know, we're not trying to listen to your every word,
Speaker:but this one kind of escalated a little bit
Speaker:and, you know, we can kind of see what other parents
Speaker:are getting a little irritated by the infection
Speaker:or injection of another parent.
Speaker:And it was kind of getting a little, you know,
Speaker:it was about time to stop it.
Speaker:So, you know, I stood up and took about four, five steps
Speaker:toward the canopies, which then at that point in time
Speaker:were only about 10 feet away.
Speaker:And I said, you know, "Excuse me, sir, you know,
Speaker:please back away from the fence.
Speaker:You don't need to be talking to your son while he's playing,
Speaker:you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
Speaker:and, you know, if the kids have a problem,
Speaker:tell them to come get me."
Speaker:And he looked at me and, I mean, literally was,
Speaker:- I'm sure he's completely apologetic.
Speaker:- Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker:- No?
Speaker:- Went from zero to 60 in about 0.2 seconds.
Speaker:- And he looked at me and, you know,
Speaker:they've got this, it's kind of interesting
Speaker:to watch society now because they don't go into
Speaker:in a, I don't want to say in a apologetic mode,
Speaker:but, you know, at least I didn't know, you know,
Speaker:something like that.
Speaker:It's like a defensive mode now.
Speaker:It's like, "Oh, you're gonna blame me,
Speaker:and, you know, is there any economic or racial
Speaker:or anything they can pull on to get in my face?"
Speaker:And that's exactly where he went.
Speaker:And the gentleman, you know, the other officials
Speaker:right behind me, and, because, you know,
Speaker:we kind of, we've been doing this long enough
Speaker:to where we can see a situation,
Speaker:and if it doesn't look good, we both are coming.
Speaker:And, you know, he's about five seconds,
Speaker:you know, five steps behind me.
Speaker:And, the gentleman just looked at me and he came up
Speaker:and got, you know, try to get in my face, you know,
Speaker:luckily, you know, like most people,
Speaker:they're a little bit shorter, which is okay.
Speaker:But, you know, I think some people are, I don't wanna say,
Speaker:intimidated, but I am what I am.
Speaker:And, you know, my voice carries,
Speaker:and you know that as well with anybody.
Speaker:And, for the listeners, sorry, I didn't know that.
Speaker:For the listeners, you're about six six, is that,
Speaker:I mean, is that about-- - Six five, six six, yeah.
Speaker:- Six five, six six, you know.
Speaker:- Can you walk up even as pleasant as you can possibly be,
Speaker:you're still intimidating presence?
Speaker:- Yeah, and I'm sorry.
Speaker:I just am what I am, you know?
Speaker:And so, you know, we get over there,
Speaker:and this gentleman just kept going back at me,
Speaker:and I just said, sir, you know, if we can't calm you down,
Speaker:because the kids now are trying, they're disrupted.
Speaker:There's five, the court five, six, seven, and eight,
Speaker:probably two or three of those are disrupted.
Speaker:And we're just basically trying to say, sir,
Speaker:let's just go over here under the tent,
Speaker:and get you away from the court,
Speaker:let the kids keep playing.
Speaker:My partner can take care of the kids
Speaker:who get them started back, and, you know,
Speaker:we've only got a hundred matches to play on 12 courts,
Speaker:which is, if you know, that's easy, math,
Speaker:10 blocks of, you know, 12 courts at a time,
Speaker:you're there for 12, 14 hours.
Speaker:So, we're trying to keep our day rollin' along.
Speaker:And so, he just looked at us and he goes, well, you know,
Speaker:if you keep this up, you know,
Speaker:I think I'm just gonna have to go to my car,
Speaker:and I'm lookin' at him, right?
Speaker:And, the boy, you gonna drive away,
Speaker:or, I'm from the street.
Speaker:I know what happens when that happens
Speaker:and I looked at my partner,
Speaker:my partner's lookin' at me.
Speaker:I'm like, whoa, whoa, I never heard that one before.
Speaker:And I just looked at my partner and he was like,
Speaker:let's just let him leave and we'll call the city of police,
Speaker:or the martial that comes through this area.
Speaker:And just tell him, you know,
Speaker:we may have a little bit of a situation just beyond guard.
Speaker:Well, luckily, you know, we tell the parents listen,
Speaker:we want you to stay, but if you're gonna keep disrupting the match,
Speaker:we gotta get you out of here.
Speaker:Whether you go sit in the car, turn on the AC, fine,
Speaker:or if you even come by, you know,
Speaker:and you got cell phones and stuff,
Speaker:you can call your kid, tell him you come to pick him up,
Speaker:or they can call you, take him, pick me up, I'm done,
Speaker:but you gotta let the matches continue.
Speaker:And, you know, at that point,
Speaker:just you know, it was really in my face.
Speaker:And I was, you know, everybody around was going,
Speaker:wow, this dude is lost his mind.
Speaker:And it, it, it, it shot me.
Speaker:It's on, I mean, it did just shot me to think the parents
Speaker:that of the kids like you guys, when you came through,
Speaker:my parents would never show up and say,
Speaker:they knew that if Shawn Boyce got in trouble,
Speaker:Dave, if Dave was there,
Speaker:Dave was gonna make sure he has a level playing field
Speaker:and everything else takes care of itself.
Speaker:But, in this day and time, it's like the kids,
Speaker:the parents won't let the kids play and learn
Speaker:how to get along with each other and get, you know,
Speaker:solve your problems.
Speaker:You know, tennis is like, now, not even the main,
Speaker:for, you know, not the main thing on the table.
Speaker:So, so yeah.
Speaker:- Bobby, I'm sure you're completely shocked
Speaker:by this parent behavior.
Speaker:- I wanted to his name.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:- Well, you know,
Speaker:I'm shot a few guesses.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:- We're all sure we met this guy, right?
Speaker:- Well, and the sad part is, you know,
Speaker:I would like to think, sadly, it don't happen.
Speaker:You would think that a governing body,
Speaker:whether it's USDA, UTR, whatever,
Speaker:these people need to be up there going,
Speaker:okay, we got a list of people that are problematic.
Speaker:If it continues to happen, they gotta get going.
Speaker:You're gonna ruin a good game, a good program,
Speaker:whoever's it is, it doesn't matter.
Speaker:These people, and they will ruin it in a heartbeat
Speaker:to think their kid is innocent.
Speaker:And, you know, you know, what happens to kids that are led to do,
Speaker:you know, a parent to do this,
Speaker:do you get the same thing coming up as a younger adult later?
Speaker:And that's a whole other game.
Speaker:I don't wanna see.
Speaker:- That's an interesting thought.
Speaker:So, as a USDA official,
Speaker:do you think that's something the USDA could do
Speaker:is create kind of a list where you can walk out
Speaker:and have soccer, you know, when you're yellow card
Speaker:and you're red card, but I assume you have the authority
Speaker:to remove someone from a tournament premises,
Speaker:but it would be interesting to have an ongoing list
Speaker:where parents at some point say,
Speaker:hey, you know what, little Johnny,
Speaker:love to have your tournament,
Speaker:by the way, but your father's not allowed here.
Speaker:Or your mother's, you think that's possibly able to be created?
Speaker:Or a good thing about that?
Speaker:- You know, it kind of is gonna,
Speaker:looks like it's gonna have to happen,
Speaker:you know, because society ain't getting better, you know?
Speaker:There's a several areas of our, our livelihoods,
Speaker:but just several areas of life itself,
Speaker:where it's gotten to be the wild, wild west.
Speaker:It's almost like, you know, you drive a bigger car,
Speaker:you can get away with everything, but you can't.
Speaker:And you shouldn't be able to,
Speaker:you should be adhering to the walls of the road
Speaker:so that everybody gets safer, but it don't get that,
Speaker:and ain't that way.
Speaker:It's got not a control,
Speaker:and this is the same thing.
Speaker:People are getting away with it,
Speaker:and nobody wants to step up and say,
Speaker:I'm sorry, you're wrong, you're bad for the program,
Speaker:you need to go find something else
Speaker:because we ain't letting you in.
Speaker:But people are so scared that those people
Speaker:are gonna start hollering that they let them get away with it.
Speaker:And to me, that's wrong.
Speaker:You're letting the good people get badly affected
Speaker:by the bad people.
Speaker:And there's a minority of them out there,
Speaker:but when they start,
Speaker:they, you know, what they'll cliche now is,
Speaker:if you hollering louder,
Speaker:you get more tension, you get away with more.
Speaker:That's bull crap.
Speaker:You know, I'm almost to the point now where,
Speaker:I think looking at your entourage,
Speaker:I've watched you, I saw it,
Speaker:and all these people are turning it out.
Speaker:I like that, I'm like, I never did that.
Speaker:I turned around, understood there's another point to go.
Speaker:Let's get over there,
Speaker:and let's keep the trend going.
Speaker:I don't wanna ruffle your feathers by doing that.
Speaker:I don't wanna let you know, I'm not happy if I don't do it.
Speaker:I wanna keep coming at you 110% every point to win every point.
Speaker:And if I use that energy,
Speaker:that's energy I could have used to run down an extra ball
Speaker:or two a few points like it, 'cause it does, it hats up.
Speaker:I see these guys, I'm sitting here watching
Speaker:Isuna and Mo right now on my TV up here in my office.
Speaker:And I see them doing that like every point,
Speaker:I'm like, good God, your emotions have just got to be spent.
Speaker:And a three out of five said, match, I don't know,
Speaker:if I got that much energy.
Speaker:- Staying positive is one thing,
Speaker:but that whole, I have to be overly energetic.
Speaker:And I don't coach at the ATP level,
Speaker:so I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.
Speaker:I've got my thoughts on, could be a waste of energy,
Speaker:but I like that positivity.
Speaker:I wonder at some point though,
Speaker:from a tennis point of view in the kids,
Speaker:we end up punishing the kids because you're dad's a jerk.
Speaker:And I use, I guess dad,
Speaker:maybe it's more often than not the males,
Speaker:'cause 80% is probably,
Speaker:probably how that usually plays out psychologically
Speaker:is to who that is.
Speaker:But I appreciate you starting with that
Speaker:because I know we haven't talked much USDA tournament-wise
Speaker:and now I wanna go back.
Speaker:So I wanna take a step back.
Speaker:Can you tell the listeners, tell everybody who you are,
Speaker:you started, if I have my numbers right,
Speaker:you started Dave Maddie, you started the Academy
Speaker:in mid to late '80s, '87s somewhere around there,
Speaker:which means you met me in '90s, something.
Speaker:And in that case, you were also a player,
Speaker:you're in the Hall of Fame somewhere,
Speaker:give us a little bit of who is,
Speaker:who is Dave Maddie.
Speaker:- I like that somewhere.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:Yeah, my junior tennis academy,
Speaker:actually I started in Denver, Colorado,
Speaker:where I lived at the time.
Speaker:I worked at a nice little club there.
Speaker:I had about 15 kids traveled around
Speaker:to the Intermountain region tournament and stuff like that.
Speaker:My oldest player that I have right now is,
Speaker:God, he's gotta be getting near 50, that's pretty bad.
Speaker:Yeah, I was 25 or six and he was 14.
Speaker:So yeah, I'm only 10, 11 years older than him.
Speaker:So he lives in Phoenix, Arizona,
Speaker:but then I moved to Atlanta in '86,
Speaker:started the DMTA, which is that logo right there,
Speaker:started that in '89 and then you got,
Speaker:you John Jeffrey, Danny, a whole bunch
Speaker:I came in there over at Circle Stone
Speaker:and then at Hidden Hills.
Speaker:And that, so basically then, while that was happening,
Speaker:I was also playing international events.
Speaker:Plades started playing Nationals when I came off
Speaker:the satellite circuit in '89,
Speaker:started the 30th and over division in seniors.
Speaker:And one, I don't know, half a dozen or so,
Speaker:a little bit less than a dozen national titles.
Speaker:Representative USA, a couple of times on the,
Speaker:senior Davis Cup teams did win a world title
Speaker:in about half a 205.
Speaker:So you know, met my friend God for it,
Speaker:too, son is doing pretty good right now on the Pro Tour.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:We first heard about Taylor Fritz from you
Speaker:'cause you had to do a kid who was supposedly pretty good.
Speaker:- Yeah, he's pretty good, yeah.
Speaker:He's actually now in the third round of the open now,
Speaker:so he's doing pretty good.
Speaker:But that's the, the sum of the nutshell,
Speaker:I did get inducted into George Sennitz Hall of Fame in '13
Speaker:and that was an honor.
Speaker:They represented all my kids and the family,
Speaker:DMTA family, you know?
Speaker:'Cause no matter who was hitting with me,
Speaker:whatever, everybody had part of it.
Speaker:You know, it wasn't just me.
Speaker:That was, that's such a facade.
Speaker:You know, there's so many parts to that puzzle.
Speaker:It's crazy, but, you know, I'm very thankful
Speaker:and luckily, a little bit of my talent and hard work,
Speaker:you know, with all the belief and from all my players
Speaker:and stuff and hopefully I transform some of that
Speaker:into some of y'all, you know?
Speaker:You're doing pretty darn well and working hard,
Speaker:got a good family and that's what life's about.
Speaker:It really is and that was one of the things you talked about a lot
Speaker:when I was a kid and it sounds like you're the same way
Speaker:where you say you get to know the kids inside and out
Speaker:and you really say, hey look,
Speaker:maybe I'm not the greatest tennis coach in the world,
Speaker:I don't know who is, but I'm as good as I can possibly be.
Speaker:And in that case, if you like what I have to offer,
Speaker:it's more than just the tennis.
Speaker:My mother still quotes you when I was a kid
Speaker:and it's just things that stick with you.
Speaker:And I as a coach and I know Bobby's cognizant
Speaker:of how he speaks to kids as well.
Speaker:When it's adults, you can kind of loosen up a little bit,
Speaker:but when we talk to kids, we're cognizant
Speaker:of how we speak to them and the things that we say,
Speaker:I remember being a young coach and kind of a little more off
Speaker:the cuff and a little more I can say whatever I want
Speaker:as opposed to realizing how much we affect these kids
Speaker:and the things, so many of our rules,
Speaker:my family life rules we have are worded the way they are
Speaker:so they can scale.
Speaker:I want to be able to follow the same rules
Speaker:or most of the same rules as the five-year-old
Speaker:that we talk to, it's the hey, here's rule number one,
Speaker:I follow the same rule as opposed to having different rules
Speaker:for kids and adults, but being that role model
Speaker:makes a huge difference and that's hard to do over 30,
Speaker:35 years and stay consistent.
Speaker:So I didn't need to downplay and say,
Speaker:"Hull of Fame somewhere, I know you've got Alabama ties
Speaker:and Colorado ties."
Speaker:So I went through and checked it all out
Speaker:and I wasn't sure how many of those you have.
Speaker:I didn't know you won a world title, that's really cool.
Speaker:- That was a very, very, I knew those guys,
Speaker:for like I said, I've been playing on the senior tour
Speaker:for 15 years, Mike Federley, Val Wilder,
Speaker:he was in Dallas, in the Federley's in Palm Springs,
Speaker:and Egan Adams, who's in Florida,
Speaker:we were the four that got selected ago
Speaker:and went down to South Africa.
Speaker:It was a great trip, took my whole family
Speaker:and just had a blast.
Speaker:And one, the world title, the world seemed title down there
Speaker:and it was an awesome feeling to represent the US
Speaker:and it was a very good trip for culture reasons,
Speaker:to experience that.
Speaker:We did get to go on a half day safari.
Speaker:It's kind of neat, the trophy that we got is not that big,
Speaker:but it's a glass and etched in the back of the glass
Speaker:of the big five animals, you know, the rhinospheres,
Speaker:oh my God, it's unbelievable.
Speaker:So people, people look at my national titles
Speaker:and then they see that little glass thing
Speaker:and they're like, "Oh, what is that?"
Speaker:And I'm like, "That's my world title."
Speaker:And look in the glass and they're like,
Speaker:"Oh my God, that's the elephant and the rhinospheres
Speaker:and the lion, I'm like, yeah, the big five."
Speaker:And it's how that, it's very unique, trophy,
Speaker:but it definitely my highest, you know, honor, for sure.
Speaker:- That's a cool story.
Speaker:It reminds me of how good of a player you were in my memory
Speaker:even as a kid thinking I was good
Speaker:and just being tortured by you as though I was nothing.
Speaker:And I have to play against seven year olds
Speaker:to feel that good.
Speaker:So you don't know.
Speaker:- Oh, you don't know.
Speaker:- Upcoming college players is a nice feature
Speaker:to be able to say, "Oh, you know what?"
Speaker:Yeah, you're pretty good.
Speaker:All right, watch this.
Speaker:All right, go run that down.
Speaker:Be able to talk to you. - Or try it.
Speaker:- I remember all that.
Speaker:But it makes me wonder now,
Speaker:because like I said in the pre-stream
Speaker:that I don't know if you and Bobby
Speaker:had ever been in the same room at the same time.
Speaker:I'm sure Bobby's brain, Bobby, your brain's gotta be running
Speaker:if you guys know any of the same people.
Speaker:- Well, my first question, David,
Speaker:and you can pass on this one,
Speaker:but do you take responsibility for Sean's forehand?
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:- I like to say, as far as I'm good for his two-handed backhands.
Speaker:He got a pretty dang good one.
Speaker:- I got the question, yeah.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:- You notice how scooted on by that one?
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:Sean had a good game,
Speaker:and we knew what to exploit and what to stay away from.
Speaker:And that was the beauty of coaching and having kids.
Speaker:At that group that I had back then,
Speaker:you talk about some very acute listeners, man, they were.
Speaker:They were on everything that I said,
Speaker:and they, most of them learned very well
Speaker:and went on to play some pretty good tennis,
Speaker:and I was very proud of them all.
Speaker:- I mean, you look at that age group, Sean,
Speaker:you're close to Ricky Bowers, right?
Speaker:Did you ever play Ricky?
Speaker:Or, I feel like,
Speaker:- I know that name, I can't play.
Speaker:- Well his dad is, he would've been one of the ones
Speaker:that you might have met up with later in life,
Speaker:because his dad is a big corporate developer.
Speaker:- But Ricky played Spencer Reed.
Speaker:They're probably all just a little old,
Speaker:you can use Fralik, John the Fralik,
Speaker:some a little bit older,
Speaker:but you were in a pretty hot bed
Speaker:for a Georgia tennis turn that time, that time per.
Speaker:- Well yeah, we were losing to the 10-year-olds
Speaker:in John Williams, and the problem is we were 16
Speaker:and getting smelt by the 10-year-olds,
Speaker:so we knew we weren't going too far in tennis.
Speaker:- Yeah, I do know that, Sean.
Speaker:I used to say, "I didn't need to play tournaments,
Speaker:"I was 17th in my club,
Speaker:"so I didn't need to go out to lose any place."
Speaker:I was quite easily losing right at home,
Speaker:so I didn't have to travel.
Speaker:I am surprised, I'm like, especially your over in the neck
Speaker:in the woods, do you ever know Dennis Horde?
Speaker:- Dennis Horde, no, I'm not off my head, no.
Speaker:- He's a little older than you,
Speaker:but he was kind of like my mentor,
Speaker:and he was over at Swannie Station,
Speaker:all-town and Duluth.
Speaker:He was brought down by Ralston Gorman
Speaker:back in the early 90s to run their academy
Speaker:behind Lennox Park,
Speaker:and that's how I got in back in the tennis,
Speaker:meeting him and Billy Payt got me back going.
Speaker:And, but, you know, you two are outside of the accent,
Speaker:which I knew you weren't from Colorado,
Speaker:so I was leaning toward Alabama,
Speaker:Georgia Hall of Fame, just from the way you sounded,
Speaker:but yeah, just curious who you run up.
Speaker:And I think we've met, I'm looking,
Speaker:but I'll tell you what, you look like my father-in-law,
Speaker:you look like Stuart Russell,
Speaker:I think we get to a certain age where tall,
Speaker:where the glasses real start looking like.
Speaker:I'm 28, or about to turn 58,
Speaker:and I got Stuart Russell by two weeks,
Speaker:so he's right around our age, so.
Speaker:- Yeah, I'm a little bit older than that,
Speaker:but, you know, not too much.
Speaker:Like thank goodness, but yeah, I know Billy Payt,
Speaker:where is he?
Speaker:He worked at Notre Dame for a while, or a while.
Speaker:- He noted Dame went to Alabama,
Speaker:and now he's at Princeton.
Speaker:- That's what I thought.
Speaker:- Yep, yep, yep.
Speaker:- I keep a Facebook ever down, and yeah.
Speaker:- We went to grad school together,
Speaker:but he's the person that got me back into tennis,
Speaker:so I could say, there's not many people
Speaker:you can point to and say, he changed my life.
Speaker:He changed my life.
Speaker:- Right, well that's good, though.
Speaker:- And you remind me of my old coach was King Benostrid.
Speaker:I don't know if you ever met King in your travels,
Speaker:but he was the same way, now again, a lot older,
Speaker:but he's been literally like number two in the country
Speaker:since he was in the 40s.
Speaker:- Yeah, yep.
Speaker:- His son was John, who Mary Carillo speaks up,
Speaker:and his daughter Molly played,
Speaker:and made a Twitter fund as Wimbleton, great player,
Speaker:one of the first two handers on both sides,
Speaker:but she just had a lot of it, but same thing, love.
Speaker:And he's probably, he's still a lot of God bless him,
Speaker:and he's 90s, and I still think he's playing tournaments.
Speaker:- And that wouldn't shot me, yeah.
Speaker:- Him and he's not, he's,
Speaker:- Him and Hugh Thompson,
Speaker:and the only two guys left.
Speaker:- You and his wife, all white.
Speaker:- I've played you a couple times.
Speaker:These are a few years older than me,
Speaker:but we played back when they did the case-wish thing.
Speaker:And me and Hugh played right over it
Speaker:at the Old Olympic tennis center, a couple times.
Speaker:First time they put us out on that center court,
Speaker:and I was like, oh, this is gonna be a great novelty.
Speaker:And then we go out there, and after about two games,
Speaker:I look to you, and I went, I don't know, homie.
Speaker:I think I hate this court, and he goes, why?
Speaker:I said, could I put the ball on the back wall?
Speaker:It's about 60 feet to the back wall.
Speaker:It's only 39 feet to the net.
Speaker:And he goes, yeah, you got that right, mate.
Speaker:And I said, yeah, I'm gonna put this extra ball on the net.
Speaker:We, he won't, he won't, he won't let us get it.
Speaker:He started laughing.
Speaker:So the next year we played in the finals again,
Speaker:and they said, oh, I'm gonna put you on the center court.
Speaker:I said, no, you're not, and Hugh went, no, you're not.
Speaker:We're going over here right behind the,
Speaker:right behind the pro shop.
Speaker:We're gonna play right here on this sunken court,
Speaker:and this'll be fine.
Speaker:(laughs)
Speaker:And so, you know, it's just a funnier thing, but hey, you know,
Speaker:we were just trying to make a match simple, you know?
Speaker:- We are, Bobby, I was curious to you guys know each other as well,
Speaker:but you're running, you're running some kids,
Speaker:less of an academy, Bobby, and you're not,
Speaker:you're not sending kids to college
Speaker:out of your academy in the same way,
Speaker:because you're more in the high school target, right?
Speaker:And Bobby, you're at the, in the four-site,
Speaker:four-site area, I think Dave's more view-ford.
Speaker:I think the park he referred to earlier
Speaker:might have been a view-ford city park if I have that.
Speaker:- Yeah. - Fixed it in my head.
Speaker:So, I think if you're over closer to me,
Speaker:but even back in the day when Bobby was,
Speaker:Bobby was in that area being around,
Speaker:you mentioned Dennis Hort, Bobby,
Speaker:you were still out of the white columns area,
Speaker:so you weren't even over near us anyway,
Speaker:so I don't know how often you guys would have run into each other.
Speaker:- Right. - I think, I think I'm over this time
Speaker:until about what, 10 years ago,
Speaker:it was 2013 when we started, we came over,
Speaker:and like I said, I don't wanna say with who,
Speaker:because I'm a strong feeling it might be the father
Speaker:of the problem child, but,
Speaker:(laughs)
Speaker:he's the heroine that involved in tennis
Speaker:and had a daughter who was very successful.
Speaker:But, yeah, we came over, we're close.
Speaker:I mean, as far west as we are, far east,
Speaker:we're real close, we board a line view-ford.
Speaker:But yeah, we have a little bit different.
Speaker:We tried, we did a little high performance,
Speaker:I just didn't have the patience for the parents,
Speaker:and it's unfortunate.
Speaker:And one thing I wanted to ask about,
Speaker:'cause you brought up a good, you know, the way we speak,
Speaker:and I find, and going back to what you said earlier,
Speaker:as well, we have to be so careful that,
Speaker:you know, so I don't get light around the parents very often.
Speaker:They see me on the court, they'll get my sarcasm.
Speaker:But when, you know, we have a conversation,
Speaker:it's, you know, they're gonna get my good vocabulary,
Speaker:they're gonna find out how the masters degree,
Speaker:and they're gonna find out that, you know,
Speaker:we'll have an adult car,
Speaker:and that's what your kids are gonna get,
Speaker:because I want them to see what they're getting,
Speaker:because it is so hard.
Speaker:I mean, we live in, you know, ESPN is crippled sports,
Speaker:and we always laugh about what you said as well, Dave.
Speaker:You know, the idea that tennis can be, you know,
Speaker:you can't come out of the locker room,
Speaker:and win the first quarter, and win a tennis match.
Speaker:You can, you can win the first quarter and hold on.
Speaker:Tennis, you'll be dead, especially in a three out of five
Speaker:so you match. - Absolutely.
Speaker:- So, yeah, and you wonder,
Speaker:and nobody talks about it, because it's taboo.
Speaker:What is the long term effect?
Speaker:When did we ever have mental health issues
Speaker:when we were playing?
Speaker:We have never been. - We never did.
Speaker:We just didn't tell anybody.
Speaker:(laughing)
Speaker:But I don't think we needed the constant affirmation.
Speaker:We knew we lost, like essentially, you know,
Speaker:people talked about when you, you know, my last match,
Speaker:I lost, but you know what?
Speaker:It was a heck of a journey.
Speaker:I was trying to come back, because I didn't play,
Speaker:and you know, I did everything I could,
Speaker:and you know, I put the racket down,
Speaker:it felt good about it.
Speaker:It wasn't some, I was angry, you know, I was somebody beat,
Speaker:somebody beat me who deserved to beat me,
Speaker:but I had done a lot to get to that spot.
Speaker:I was proud of myself, and it was the work
Speaker:that I would use to further in my life.
Speaker:Today, I just, I agree with you.
Speaker:I just, I get so nervous when I see these kids all pumped up.
Speaker:Oh my gosh, it's a point.
Speaker:You just won a point.
Speaker:You can use four points in tennis and win the match.
Speaker:Don't get preoccupied about a point.
Speaker:- That's right.
Speaker:Yeah, they, yeah, they,
Speaker:yeah, it's that constant immediate gratification,
Speaker:and I tell my kids all the time,
Speaker:even some of my, you know, intermediate kids, I say, listen.
Speaker:You know, we're in a group of six or eight kids,
Speaker:and you hear me tell somebody, good shot, good stroke,
Speaker:things like that.
Speaker:You know, if you don't hear me say that to you,
Speaker:it's not 'cause I don't like you,
Speaker:it's because I've given you some direction,
Speaker:and I'm waiting on you to tap into that
Speaker:and heading that direction.
Speaker:And when you do that, I'll tell you,
Speaker:good shot, but keep working at it.
Speaker:And because I don't tell somebody great shot too often,
Speaker:because great shots, you know, I don't use that phrase
Speaker:for somebody who hits a, you know, beginner stroke,
Speaker:I'll just say, hey, good shot, keep going,
Speaker:you know, work at it, work at it.
Speaker:But they want somebody to say,
Speaker:oh, great shot because it's an ESPN moment.
Speaker:I'm like, no, you're getting that one to me,
Speaker:but that's where we are, kind of the same thing, you know?
Speaker:- Yeah, and unfortunately, I do feel like it permeates
Speaker:into they're all filled with a bunch of trigger words.
Speaker:And just like, guys, you're reading the wrong,
Speaker:wrong sometimes, man.
Speaker:Stay away, you know, not making your life, you say,
Speaker:I try to make my kids, my father was great,
Speaker:he gave me two choices,
Speaker:gave me the feeling that I had a choice,
Speaker:that I was making a decision,
Speaker:even though he controlled all the variables.
Speaker:It's kind of what you try to do as a coach
Speaker:with your kids when you have them.
Speaker:Yeah, you might think you have a choice here,
Speaker:but I'm controlling all the variables
Speaker:that go into that choice.
Speaker:So, and relish that because,
Speaker:as this is as easy as life gets.
Speaker:- You got it.
Speaker:- That's exactly right.
Speaker:- Like I said earlier about the children's sporting event.
Speaker:Guys, this is kids playing a game.
Speaker:And if you're threatening to go to your car
Speaker:because you're angry enough to decide you need to be armed,
Speaker:yes, we're in Georgia, I get, okay?
Speaker:That's not what I'm talking about.
Speaker:This is just a children's sporting event
Speaker:when the official actually politely to come sit down,
Speaker:just do it, it's not that hard.
Speaker:- Yeah. - For the kids.
Speaker:And that's one of the things we do with Gotenis
Speaker:and with the podcast Dave is we're here for the kids.
Speaker:We're here for the players.
Speaker:And one of the things we wanna do
Speaker:is help everybody with that.
Speaker:And with you coming out saying,
Speaker:hey guys, maybe we need to make some changes,
Speaker:is the change really that we need to start
Speaker:with the black listing parents?
Speaker:Is it getting that bad?
Speaker:Is, I mean, in soccer game, you can yell and scream
Speaker:and yell at your kid, kick that guy in the ass.
Speaker:You can do that and the other parents are gonna look
Speaker:at you funny, but nobody's gonna ask you to back away
Speaker:from the sideline because what's the difference in tennis
Speaker:that we can hardly clap anymore?
Speaker:What's going on there?
Speaker:- Well, I think, you know,
Speaker:and I was, I talked about this, you know,
Speaker:the other day is that, you know,
Speaker:you have to be careful that, you know,
Speaker:what I loved about the game of tennis,
Speaker:growing up playing football, baseball, basketball,
Speaker:and then I picked up tennis,
Speaker:and there were no lessons where I was at.
Speaker:I just, my mom wanted some exercise
Speaker:and went out and bought the ball around,
Speaker:you know, everybody does when you first start.
Speaker:And after about six months,
Speaker:because I was a decent athlete,
Speaker:because of all the other sports,
Speaker:still do me and what you need to go find some kids to play with
Speaker:because you're just too fast,
Speaker:you're getting just too many balls,
Speaker:and I ain't got that kind of exercise.
Speaker:And so I said, okay, no problem.
Speaker:And I still get with her, but I think the thing
Speaker:that I loved about the game of tennis is that
Speaker:if me and Sean are playing, it's me, my game,
Speaker:my strokes at that moment against what Sean has to offer.
Speaker:And I got to figure those problems out.
Speaker:And I don't need to worry about other outside
Speaker:and apprentices like coaching and all that stuff
Speaker:because that's what tennis does at bring to the table.
Speaker:And it's, that's the beauty of the game of the sport of tennis.
Speaker:And I'm afraid, you know, I laugh now because, you know,
Speaker:your coaching is supposed to be
Speaker:when you're on that side of the court.
Speaker:Oh, give me a break.
Speaker:They're harming 400 yards away.
Speaker:Hey, go to the net.
Speaker:I mean, different languages, you know, here we go again.
Speaker:You give people a little bit of a,
Speaker:a little wiggle room to coach now,
Speaker:'cause we think it's better.
Speaker:Now we're gonna just take it and you can be anywhere
Speaker:and to stay to him and hall.
Speaker:Well, then the fans think they can do that too.
Speaker:Well, now you got people hollering
Speaker:when they throwing a ball up to serve.
Speaker:And that's why I got an internist
Speaker:was cause I could actually concentrate on me,
Speaker:Sean, our strokes, what we got to do to get a win.
Speaker:Now I got to block out everybody else.
Speaker:It's in the room too.
Speaker:And you did that anyway, but it's getting harder
Speaker:because we're letting more people power,
Speaker:which is symptomatic of other sports.
Speaker:Not what the gentleman's game was about, you know?
Speaker:- So in that case, we've been doing this
Speaker:for thousands of years and therefore we should keep doing it.
Speaker:Or do we need to make the switch
Speaker:from the generation before to what Tiafo says,
Speaker:let us use him as an example most recently.
Speaker:- Sure.
Speaker:- But let the people walk in like a basketball game.
Speaker:Let the people walk around, let them scream.
Speaker:If you can't handle it, go into your crying closet
Speaker:and have your space, have your safe space,
Speaker:but out here we need to have it a little less mono-emano
Speaker:and a little more yelling and screaming
Speaker:and he wants that interaction.
Speaker:But then I just think back to happy Gilmore.
Speaker:Go, okay, are you really just screwing up the sport
Speaker:or are we just old for worrying about the evolution
Speaker:into the next thing?
Speaker:- I don't have a problem with evolution into the next thing.
Speaker:Like I said, I don't think everybody is meant to play tennis.
Speaker:You know, you get all these other people,
Speaker:all these organizations trying to get more people to play tennis
Speaker:and what you want to look, you want to,
Speaker:you can check this when you leave.
Speaker:Go look and see how many senior tournaments you see now.
Speaker:What's happened, and I told this guy,
Speaker:he was on the committee for senior tournaments.
Speaker:This has got to be 50, oh, probably 25 years ago
Speaker:when I was in the 90s
Speaker:and I was playing my national tournaments.
Speaker:I was ranked 1 or 2 or 3 in the nation
Speaker:in my age category, the 30s.
Speaker:And my sponsor wanted me to play a local tournament
Speaker:in Marriata over on the other side of Marriata.
Speaker:I lived over in Lythonia, so that's an hour and 20 minute ride.
Speaker:Easy with no traffic.
Speaker:And I said, you got to be kidding me.
Speaker:I'm gonna walk over there, probably lose four games
Speaker:of whole tournament, three rounds.
Speaker:I'll probably see you in no problem.
Speaker:La, la, la, la, I did.
Speaker:And I talked to the guy, the second round person I had,
Speaker:and I said, why is it we got to play one match a day?
Speaker:I'm in the 30s division.
Speaker:I'm not 50 or 60.
Speaker:I'm in the 30s.
Speaker:Why are we playing one match a day?
Speaker:Well, people can't play two matches a day.
Speaker:And I said, go play something else.
Speaker:If you tell me a competitor that I need to play,
Speaker:if we got a 16 draw, and I'm gonna play one match
Speaker:on Friday night, two matches Saturday
Speaker:and the finals on Sunday, I will get prepared to play that.
Speaker:Now, if I decide I want to enter more events
Speaker:if there's doubles and things like that,
Speaker:that's my choice.
Speaker:I'm not going to get in the way of somebody else
Speaker:that doesn't want to do it by, you know,
Speaker:making them conform to me.
Speaker:I want to play, if I play singles only, this is what I want to do,
Speaker:and I don't mind playing two a day.
Speaker:But don't make me take off work two days,
Speaker:and that's what I had to do.
Speaker:Monday to Tuesday, it was a Saturday Sunday Monday,
Speaker:Tuesday tournament.
Speaker:I had a bow on Saturday.
Speaker:I played one match Sunday, one in like 40 minutes.
Speaker:I drove two and a half hours to play a 35 minute match.
Speaker:And all of a sudden, from that year,
Speaker:that year, back then, we were having a senior tournament
Speaker:somewhere in the state of Georgia,
Speaker:every weekend from literally probably third weekend in March,
Speaker:those tournaments in March would be down like in Savannah,
Speaker:South Georgia, things like that for weather.
Speaker:And then in April, they would start everywhere.
Speaker:I mean, it was crazy.
Speaker:You could find a senior tournament, usually with,
Speaker:I'd say at least 12 to 16 or sometimes even a 32 draw,
Speaker:and you could find one every weekend,
Speaker:all the way through, probably the end of October.
Speaker:I look last year in Georgia.
Speaker:I think there were 10 senior tournaments the whole year.
Speaker:I found one in May this year.
Speaker:That's what I'm saying.
Speaker:So one is--
Speaker:I'm not sure if you've lost it search,
Speaker:but I'm with you that there aren't that many.
Speaker:Because what's happened is the running of people,
Speaker:because they can't take off work.
Speaker:Nobody wants to play you.
Speaker:We got to play you.
Speaker:We got you.
Speaker:We got you.
Speaker:We got you.
Speaker:We got you.
Speaker:And Hugh Thompson, nobody wants to play you guys.
Speaker:Sure they do.
Speaker:We laugh on.
Speaker:But that's the, you know, the, that's the saddest part is,
Speaker:we've literally eliminated the senior event in lieu of what?
Speaker:And now we're, well, and I'm sure Pickaball has a draw to that,
Speaker:and that, but that's, so what?
Speaker:So did we miss that boat?
Speaker:You know, did we create that by eliminating senior tournament?
Speaker:You know, you're going to, you're not going to stop some of the people.
Speaker:Because Pickaball did, it's on fire.
Speaker:But it's going to moderate just like everything,
Speaker:not market everything.
Speaker:But where does senior tournaments go?
Speaker:Because I remember when I played the 30 National Grass Courts in Santa Barbara
Speaker:one year, the tournament director was like 85 years old.
Speaker:Van Zurvey was his name.
Speaker:And we're sitting at one day in one range of like we had in like four years.
Speaker:And I looked at Mrs. Zurvey and he, I told him how to fix it.
Speaker:You know, I said, I'm from Atlanta.
Speaker:We have range of it all the time.
Speaker:We just get to did it.
Speaker:And he's like, oh my god, that's awesome.
Speaker:So I said, Mr.
Speaker:you still play in tournaments?
Speaker:He goes, yeah, he goes.
Speaker:I think I'm a win one next year.
Speaker:I said, why is that?
Speaker:He goes because I think my biggest competitors going to pass away.
Speaker:I'm like, whoa, whoa, you kidding me?
Speaker:He goes, hey.
Speaker:If you cannot live him, you can beat him.
Speaker:I was like, oh, Mr. Zurvey, you're so mean.
Speaker:But part of longevity is at the end of the rainbow, you might win some gold balls.
Speaker:Who knows?
Speaker:But it was interesting to know that there were people still playing at 80 years old
Speaker:in National tournaments.
Speaker:I think he said his role was 12.
Speaker:And I was like, you know, that has got to be the biggest reward you could ever have.
Speaker:Forget all the titles and all of them.
Speaker:Just think of your plan at 80.
Speaker:How awesome that would be.
Speaker:That's like a trophy in itself.
Speaker:And in that case, I can see why you want everything to be quiet.
Speaker:But in today's world, are we, are we just kind of stifling the parents?
Speaker:Are we, are we pushing back so much like the cat that wants the door open?
Speaker:He doesn't actually want to come in.
Speaker:He just wants the door open.
Speaker:Do we give a little bit with the parents thing?
Speaker:Why tennis?
Speaker:Well, I think I think.
Speaker:I will have to say this from a physics standpoint.
Speaker:Oh, you, you like that one?
Speaker:I knew you'd like that one.
Speaker:From a physics standpoint, we as tennis players do rely on the saddle of the ball more than
Speaker:other sports.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, football, you throwing it, you, you see it in that ball, you say, you can have
Speaker:all the hovering you want.
Speaker:That's why baseball, a foul ball is not, a fair ball is not called.
Speaker:It's like tennis.
Speaker:A fair ball, the referee points in toward the inside of the baseline.
Speaker:He doesn't have a reason.
Speaker:He only hollows on a foul ball.
Speaker:And it's because of cloud noise.
Speaker:So my point is, is that I can tell you now, Sean Boyce hits a serve.
Speaker:I don't care.
Speaker:I already say 110 by 15, 20 miles an hour.
Speaker:That sound is to me before the ball is.
Speaker:And I rely on that sound to be able to respond.
Speaker:I know how you hit it.
Speaker:I hear it.
Speaker:People don't give that any credit, but it's huge when you're playing to be able to hear
Speaker:the ball.
Speaker:So I'm not saying we need to stop it.
Speaker:Maybe I need to wear my, my AirPods and just put on, you know, noise reduction from the
Speaker:crowd.
Speaker:I don't know, you know?
Speaker:Well, I see the players now with the headphones as they come on trying to stay in their own
Speaker:world, trying to block your head.
Speaker:And I really appreciate one of the things you did for us was teaching us how to handle
Speaker:that pressure.
Speaker:And one of the things I mentioned a lot is the things that tennis does being an individual
Speaker:sport, not the team sport in the same way where you just kind of follow the crowd and everybody
Speaker:else.
Speaker:But an individual, the 10 year old that walks through, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me,
Speaker:hi, I'm Sean.
Speaker:I need to check in for my tennis match.
Speaker:I think that's awesome.
Speaker:And I say that a lot, but I really do think that's really cool.
Speaker:But now there's so much, I struggle with that.
Speaker:I'm kind of battling my way through the parents to get to the check in.
Speaker:I'm closing myself off because I'm afraid of everything.
Speaker:And I think that's an interesting combination coming from like a guy with T-O-Fo who's
Speaker:a basketball guy.
Speaker:So he's used to that kind of thing.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Maybe he likes that idea.
Speaker:I just don't think it's going to spread in the same way where we do have, you know, we
Speaker:mentioned the safe, the safe spaces in the, in the mental health challenges.
Speaker:Well, why do these people really maybe play tennis because it is a quiet, sometimes inwardly
Speaker:focused?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:100%.
Speaker:I think that's why I like it.
Speaker:You got it.
Speaker:Don't forget now.
Speaker:I did play college basketball.
Speaker:So I totally understand the crowd noise.
Speaker:You know, the one thing about college basketball is you also, you also feel, here we go again,
Speaker:Sean, you also feel the ball when it's being dribbled on the floor, not just with hearing
Speaker:it, but you feel it through your feet if you're tuned to what you're doing.
Speaker:And so me knowing where the ball is is not only a listening thing, it's a feeling thing
Speaker:with the floor itself.
Speaker:Uh tennis, you know, you don't get to feel it with the ball on the asphalt, but you do hear
Speaker:it.
Speaker:And that sound, you, we know when a ball is hit, not clean.
Speaker:We know when I hear a miss hit ball, I'm moving forward because it's you to going to be
Speaker:up there near the net somewhere, whereas it's the crowd is hollering.
Speaker:That's a, that's a lost opportunity.
Speaker:And I don't think, you know, you're a lay person who pays, I ain't doing it, you know, hundreds
Speaker:of dollars to sit and watch a match and holler.
Speaker:I don't think that you understand how much they're impacting the game by hollering.
Speaker:You know, they think it's, oh, I'm cheering, but you're, you're definitely in the sound of
Speaker:what I need to know.
Speaker:And that is the sound of that ball clean or not.
Speaker:And you know, you hit a ball, you know, what, I'm watching these guys hit 100, 100 nine mile
Speaker:hour forehand.
Speaker:Do you think I don't want to hear the sound of that ball coming out?
Speaker:I know ain't got a chance, but I got less of a chance if I don't hear that sound, you
Speaker:know?
Speaker:That makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:I like that a lot.
Speaker:Bobby, you got anything else for Dave before I give him the king of tennis question?
Speaker:No, I love it.
Speaker:I always say, today's the same thing, Dave, I use all my senses when I play.
Speaker:I tell it's too human outside, you know, so yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, hot and
Speaker:as low as hierarchy, but it goes back to another conversation, another day.
Speaker:I love what you've opened up.
Speaker:I think tennis in its quest to become more popular, sacrifice to a lot of what made it great.
Speaker:And you know, it's that fine line in Mark Cuban here when you watch Shock Tank, everybody
Speaker:always goes in there.
Speaker:Well, if we make this check and we make it more accessible to the masses, and Mark Cuban
Speaker:one time said, why would you want to do that?
Speaker:Keep it high priced and people will pay.
Speaker:You won't have the same, but it is a lot of truth to that.
Speaker:You know, there's a, it's okay to say the pros are doing it at a completely different
Speaker:level.
Speaker:You're a recreational player.
Speaker:Enjoy what they're doing, but you know, do what you can do and don't try to aspire, especially
Speaker:in today's world.
Speaker:These kids are bigger, faster, stronger.
Speaker:You're, there's never been a greater distance between what's going on on television,
Speaker:what's going on in the park?
Speaker:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker:Don't, don't sit there and say what's wrong.
Speaker:You know, I remember I gave a tennis etiquette class at Whitecom's one day and they said,
Speaker:what is that?
Speaker:I said, what are you kidding me?
Speaker:I said, that's more, and you know, I'm the, I'm the other extreme, you know, I'm a poor
Speaker:kid whose dad was a longshoreman.
Speaker:I got into tennis because it was close to boxing.
Speaker:You know, my coach was able to convince my dad, what's boxing and he won't get beat up.
Speaker:And I was small, so my dad's like, all right, I like the idea.
Speaker:I mean, we went to the club, the club would let us play.
Speaker:We weren't allowed to turn on the TV.
Speaker:There was backgammon and there was chess.
Speaker:If you wanted, while you were waiting for a court, you were doing something because you had
Speaker:to realize that you weren't winning a match with your pawn.
Speaker:And you know, it drives me crazy today when I see kids rifle and return to serves on faults.
Speaker:It's like put it into the net.
Speaker:Somebody is going to get hurt, but we gave it up.
Speaker:He gave away all the, I think he can make it exciting.
Speaker:You know, Jimmy Connors was a get a pump up guy, but like you said, watch Connors, Connors
Speaker:never got pumped in the first set.
Speaker:He got up when he was about to, the news was almost firmly on the guy's neck.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:He knew when it was ending.
Speaker:He was getting real close to the ending point when he got there to that, that's right.
Speaker:It's so hard today because there is no Evan flow to these matches because it's so
Speaker:all over the place.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Absolutely 110%.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, you didn't have to tell me when, you know, when there was a swing point coming up.
Speaker:You could tell by, you could tell by the motivation to, you know, do my thing right there.
Speaker:Clean, effective.
Speaker:One, two, three, you go and bro, you go and I'm now going to step on you.
Speaker:I'm going to give you about five or six points in a row to let you know this ain't yours.
Speaker:And then I'm going to run away.
Speaker:And I'm never going to look back.
Speaker:But now it's like every point, you know, like I said, I'm sitting here watching Mo and
Speaker:isn't or in the, in the foreset and, you know, the close, the close set, but you just got
Speaker:a wonder.
Speaker:How does that wear in terror on you?
Speaker:Because you know it does.
Speaker:It would meet.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I don't think, I don't think any of us, the lay people are, I guess we're out in between
Speaker:the lay people.
Speaker:We're, we're considered insiders, right?
Speaker:We're the insiders in between the professionals and the lay people.
Speaker:But we don't want to, we don't want to have to do three out of five.
Speaker:That just, that just doesn't sound good to, to matches in a day.
Speaker:Hopefully we can still pull off, but I think the typical player doesn't want to.
Speaker:So Dave, I will finish us off.
Speaker:And I've got a question that is fun for me to ask because I think I should be able to
Speaker:predict this simply because I've known you a long time as to where you'll go with this.
Speaker:But what I've realized is I can't.
Speaker:And predicting the future is hard.
Speaker:But in this case, if you were, we want to go with my favorite question, which is the King
Speaker:of tennis question, which is if you are King of tennis.
Speaker:And this is for either Atlanta, the United States, the whole world, the universe for a day,
Speaker:however long it takes.
Speaker:Is there anything you would do or change?
Speaker:We've talked about some of the USDA tournaments and some of the things we might like to see.
Speaker:But if you had that, you had that magic button or that magic wand or just being king to
Speaker:say, this is what we're going to do.
Speaker:And you would do or change in the world of tennis?
Speaker:Well, it's kind of like we hash back and forth about old school versus new school, which
Speaker:is traditional versus I call it basketball mentality around the tennis court.
Speaker:It's very hard to go in between.
Speaker:You're either going to get the crowd totally involved and that minimizes the players' effectiveness
Speaker:of what he is and puts it all on what he sees.
Speaker:And I will have to say, my eyesight at 20, 30, 40 years old was, I don't know what their
Speaker:best is, but it was 2020 plus some.
Speaker:I mean, I could see things that, I could see six, seven courts away, school boards.
Speaker:And people are like, how do you know it's going?
Speaker:I go, well, number one, I'm watching the match.
Speaker:Number two, I'm kind of can see that part.
Speaker:But, you know, I don't know if there's an in between phase that we're going to, we're in
Speaker:it already, whether we like it or not, we're in it.
Speaker:I don't know what the governing bodies are going to want to do because that's going to
Speaker:start appealing to a different segment, not just at a different segment of the population,
Speaker:but just a different mentality of a population.
Speaker:And I don't know if that's what tennis was really started for, invented for, I don't know
Speaker:what you want to call it, but I like the old school, you know, one on one.
Speaker:That's why I've got into tennis.
Speaker:I play team sports.
Speaker:I love team sports, but I didn't like, you know, one of my favorite movies searching for
Speaker:Bobby Fisher.
Speaker:You know, Bobby Fisher, well, actually the kid's name was Josh Wateskin.
Speaker:He actually didn't like the side of Bobby Fisher where he was vindictive toward his opponent,
Speaker:or his opponents.
Speaker:Contempt, that's right.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:I'm glad you brought that quote to that.
Speaker:I don't have that.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I did, you know, my brother, my brother said at one time that the part of me that he
Speaker:did not like was that the part that if me and Sean are playing and you know me well
Speaker:enough, if you're serving and I'm hitting you the balls, I'm going to get the ball.
Speaker:Get that ball, those extra balls near you.
Speaker:So you ain't got to walk nowhere.
Speaker:And then all of a sudden you turn around and when it's my turn to serve, you hit the one
Speaker:in one corner, one in the other.
Speaker:I had this side of me, my brother saw it a lot to where I was going to like my dad's
Speaker:first sergeant kill mode.
Speaker:And it was a motivator.
Speaker:And he said that the thing he did not like about me was the fact that I had that side of
Speaker:me to find something I did not like in my opponent.
Speaker:And I would seize on that to motivate me to kill.
Speaker:And that put me in an area of mental and physical awareness to where I went is like a shark
Speaker:with real red meat in the water.
Speaker:You go.
Speaker:And you know, we all have that.
Speaker:If that's what we want to do is win, we have something that we can use to trigger it.
Speaker:And that's what I use, but you know, Josh Wayskin said, I don't have that.
Speaker:And you know, it was very, it was very poignant that I was the same way with baseball.
Speaker:I hated that my right field of suck every time he played.
Speaker:The ball would get hit out there.
Speaker:The ground ball go right between his legs and I'm in a short stop and I can feel that sucker
Speaker:and I felt so bad for that kid because he was giving it all, but he did not want to put
Speaker:in the time that I put in, you know, to be a short stop.
Speaker:And I understood it, but I didn't like the feelings that everybody had towards him.
Speaker:And that's part of the reason I got out of team sports is because I was willing to do that
Speaker:work.
Speaker:I was willing to work like a madman to be up there, to be the guy, but I also hated the
Speaker:side of people blaming that kid.
Speaker:I hated it.
Speaker:And that's what drove me to play tennis and I loved tennis for that reason.
Speaker:It is an individual sport.
Speaker:And when you've got, you know, like an art day, six guys on the singles team and three doubles
Speaker:teams were made up of those sticks, you still are an individual out there against that other
Speaker:opponent.
Speaker:Singles or doubles.
Speaker:And that's the facet I really still enjoy, you know.
Speaker:And to change the hearing part of it, I think would be detrimental to the game itself.
Speaker:I think we somehow need to turn off the propellers for the parents when they come to junior tournaments.
Speaker:I think we, I hate to say, put a sign up, drop your kid off, let them check in and all that.
Speaker:But it gets done better if they do that, you know, they've all got cell phones at 10, 12
Speaker:years old already.
Speaker:And so what's the problem?
Speaker:You know, so I would like to see a little more of a traditional game stay in place because
Speaker:I think those are the avenues that I loved about the game of tennis.
Speaker:And to take them away, I think changes the dynamics of the game and just call it something
Speaker:else if you want to.
Speaker:Here's tennis and here's a tennis sub-tennis or whatever.
Speaker:Tennis sub-tennis is in a part where you can honk and horny and party and all that and
Speaker:you know, it's kind of funny.
Speaker:I heard Zraev talking about several of the players talking about a New York with an open
Speaker:marijuana state.
Speaker:They're smelling marijuana while they're playing.
Speaker:And I'm like, oh my God, I never thought of that one, but that is true.
Speaker:It's an open state.
Speaker:So you can do it in the park right next door and you know, and you know, deciphering
Speaker:when Mother Nature carries that cloud, bro.
Speaker:So let me interject here.
Speaker:I grew up in New York.
Speaker:I associate going to my first Yankee game.
Speaker:There's always something I associate with a Yankee game.
Speaker:That's a fight and the smell of marijuana.
Speaker:So that was in the 70s.
Speaker:I'd be like, man, we just got here.
Speaker:It's so pretty.
Speaker:Now that it's me, I read the same article you did.
Speaker:I laughed, but I was like, well, that was every sporting event I've ever went to in New
Speaker:York.
Speaker:That overwhelming plunge in aroma.
Speaker:I was like, I'll show you a way to get here.
Speaker:Yep, that's right.
Speaker:So in that case, Dave, your king of tennis is not something you would change, but it sounds
Speaker:like it's something you actually wouldn't change.
Speaker:And I can definitely appreciate that to say, hey, let's keep this one on one.
Speaker:Let's keep this mono-emano and whatever the phrase is for women that is mono-emano.
Speaker:We'll insert that later.
Speaker:I'm sure.
Speaker:But Dave, Matthews, thank you so much.
Speaker:I really appreciate your time.
Speaker:And well, like I said before, we're going to get you back on with the 10 minutes of tennis
Speaker:for the what to do, what to change.
Speaker:And we will get that you have to change is thanks for by the body after 60 years old because
Speaker:we just did the 40 years old one with Justin Yell.
Speaker:So Dave, I really appreciate it.
Speaker:Bobby is always.
Speaker:We'll see you guys next time.
Speaker:We'll see you guys.
Speaker:Take care.
Speaker:You too, Bobby.
Speaker:Take care.
Speaker:See you soon.
Speaker:Well, there you have it.
Speaker:We want to thank rejuvenate.com for use of the studio.
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Speaker:And with that, we're out.
Speaker:See you next time.
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