With over 1M Followers, Functional Tennis Can Fix Your Footwork with the Saber
Transcript
[Music]
Speaker:Welcome to the GoTennis! Podcast.
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Speaker:today.
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Speaker:Hey hey, this is Shaun with the GoTennis! Podcast powered by Signature Tennis.
Speaker:Check out our calendar of Metro Atlanta Tennis events at LetsGoTennis.com.
Speaker:And as you're listening to this, please look in your podcast app where to leave a review and do
Speaker:that for us. We would love to earn your five star reviews. In today's episode, Bobby and I
Speaker:talked to Fabio Molle of Functional Tennis. Most of you will recognize Functional Tennis from
Speaker:their Instagram page, but we're more interested in the Saber. Have a listen and let us know what you think.
Speaker:Fabio, do me a favor. Tell me about yourself. Tell me about the Saber. We're looking forward to hear that.
Speaker:And tell me who you are and why do we care?
Speaker:We're on. Are we? Where are we? This is it. This is it. This is it. This is it.
Speaker:This is what you got. Thank you very much for having me on. And I'm Fabio Molle. I run
Speaker:on operate. Take care of most things at Functional Tennis, which is obviously it starts an Instagram
Speaker:account. We have an e-commerce store. We sell some products such as the Saber, which is what we're
Speaker:most known for at the moment over the years. That's its transition from product to product. But
Speaker:past two years, we've been working on that and trying to get more people using Sabers around the
Speaker:sodes. We've been going since:Speaker:And sometimes we get paid to show up at events to cover events and showcase them on Functional
Speaker:Tennis. We're about to hit a million followers. I'd say by September time. So that's really exciting.
Speaker:I don't normally celebrate the milestones as we've gone through them, but I think this is a big one.
Speaker:So I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen then, but I'm going to try celebrate even
Speaker:locally with a few friends and family here. And that's basically it. Played a bit of tennis as a
Speaker:young kid. Wasn't great. It was probably to be like, hand in the age group. And I'm probably
Speaker:there. And played up and then:Speaker:States, but wasn't going to get a great school like some of my friends got. So I decided to stay in
Speaker:Ireland. I studied software engineering. So by trade, I'm a software engineer. And I played a bit
Speaker:of tennis in college. And then after college decided to work for my family business in Katrin.
Speaker:So spent a lot of time there. We wouldn't know. And it grown up. We would just rent my summers there
Speaker:and weekends working there. So I started running a store and then started to go out with again.
Speaker:It was tough. Family business are really tough. I taught anyway. And set up an e-commerce company
Speaker:selling Christmas jumpers in:Speaker:just called them Christmas jumpers over here. And we were shipping all over the world. So that was
Speaker:pretty good. That can be good in the same decomers. And never actually got into the code in the
Speaker:software game. How did you start up? Never did great with the funky Christmas sweaters as they were
Speaker:called. The funky Christmas jumpers did well. And so slowly sneaked out the family business.
Speaker:And then until sort of that went backwards then it was a fad, but it lasted long enough to suck me in.
Speaker:functional tennis starting in:Speaker:just as me in my turdies had injuries and I thought people were putting out some good videos out there.
Speaker:And there was nowhere to save them on Instagram back then. So I thought maybe there's other people
Speaker:who are interested, you know, who are bodies breaking down and just people around the world putting
Speaker:out good exercises. And I just start sharing them. And that evolved in tennis content and we grew
Speaker:organically ever since then. And I probably went full time about, I'd say five years ago, I went full
Speaker:time to functional tennis. So I've been, it's been a slow burner. It's usual. Everybody thinks like
Speaker:it's overnight success. Not that it's successful at the moment. It's still a long way to go. But in
Speaker:some people's eyes were successful, but it's taken a long time to get here. And that leads us onto today.
Speaker:And we're on today, Bobby. He says, I'm almost at a million followers. And it's not that successful.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people would say that's a pretty good milestone. Good.
Speaker:Pointing out success. So congratulations on that's upcoming. That's exciting for you.
Speaker:And we're curious. So you're not a tennis coach by trade. You're a caterer by trade.
Speaker:Caterer and software engineer and software engineer.
Speaker:A person. That's what I'm by trade. Yeah. Obviously surrounded by I surrounded by play tennis,
Speaker:surrounded by the best players in the country for years. Then by late 20s, I actually, where we grew up,
Speaker:they brought those always one of our universities is there and they moved in the national train and
Speaker:center there. So there's an indoor center there. So I start going in as practice partner with the
Speaker:top guys and girls. So I spent a few years going in there every day. I was flexing with my time when
Speaker:you work for yourself or your family, even bit of flexibility in there. So I used to go in most days,
Speaker:hit there and I got really improved a lot and a lot and then I went off and I played a few futures,
Speaker:but never made main draw. We won a few qualities matches and then there was injuries for creeping up.
Speaker:Well, not so yeah, so that and then I was a my friends played Davis Cup for Ireland. So I was always
Speaker:sort of around tennis and some other friends were coaches in the national training center. So
Speaker:I've always had a keen interest from playing and from speaking to my friends about what's going on.
Speaker:Gotcha. So you're you're focused on in the podcast. I see pro tennis players, coaches,
Speaker:parents, trainers, physios, you you talk industry, but is it also you have advice or their tips? Is
Speaker:they're coaching for the listener? What's the podcast do real quick? No, we don't coach the listeners.
Speaker:We're more trying to gain from experience from players and people on their team. So closely
Speaker:associated with them. There has been more to pass to your transition from more of a parent role. We
Speaker:taught there's a lot of parents out there and they want to know how would our other parents do it around
Speaker:the world. So I've tried to get more parents on and see, you know, have they have evolved, have what
Speaker:they've learned their journey with their juniors with their kids. And so I've tried doing that. So to
Speaker:make sure of that and and the people associated with players, players, top players are hard to get on.
Speaker:Really hard. So we'll take who we can as in if we get a top player great. If not, we try and work
Speaker:around their team. And like I've had all the top trainers on of top 10 guys and
Speaker:girls, we've seen amazing and we just they may give a little bit of experience or an insight into what
Speaker:goes on and then we just learn and I don't give it. It's rare. I've probably done three or four
Speaker:solo episodes in the 230 episodes. But in general, we're just we want to hear about people's stories.
Speaker:Had they got to where they were. What they've learned long the way and what advice there are the ones
Speaker:given advice to our listeners who may be parents, coaches, players, juniors. Got it. That makes sense.
Speaker:And but you're most known and I'm sure Bobby wants to ask because he's got a bunch of kids that
Speaker:want to try this thing. But you're most known for this saber and it started it started as a stick.
Speaker:It was basically like a cooking spoon, right? So tell me tell me how the saber came to be.
Speaker:Well, probably well at the minute we're most known for sabers until two years ago, it didn't exist. So
Speaker:we're still known for our Instagram account feature and juniors feature and behind you know,
Speaker:player practice content you would normally find we've established good relationships with players
Speaker:and their team to get content. So that's what we would have been and we're still heavily like we
Speaker:work with all the top juniors now, publishing their videos from practice and we're still known for
Speaker:that and people will think people want to be on functional tennis. It's a right of passage. I think
Speaker:at this stage, but going back yet so ultimately this has to be turned into a business to be sustainable.
Speaker:And early on, back in:Speaker:players to the iPhone was new enough when it was an iPhone app where tennis players could document
Speaker:their matches, you know, put in reports and and that and the goals connected to their coaches. And
Speaker:then my goal is by the future that I was going to travel and promote this as I travel. That didn't work
Speaker:out. It turns out we had a code in the States. I'd know back up of it. There was a thunderstorm.
Speaker:It blew up his machine. I had no backup and I just decided to move on. So that's where so that's
Speaker:where my head is that when I'm thinking of a product tell me what are having going to
Speaker:go on functional tennis and I thought well, why don't we just start with a journal. It's a lot of
Speaker:cheap enough to ground gets people off their phones and so we launched with a match journal and then a
Speaker:year later we launched a practice journal. Then we launched a camera man in the meanwhile we used
Speaker:to post a video of a guy called Jonas Foretek. He was at the time 12. He went down to be the world
Speaker:number one junior, but it was him hitting with a wooden spoon and I posted a few times. I always did
Speaker:really well. And I was like never I never connected took me probably a year to connect to the dots.
Speaker:I was like why don't I try get that product and see what it's like see how useful it is. So I managed
Speaker:to find the guy who invented it. So it was invented in the Czech Republic and I managed to get one
Speaker:try it. I was like this is really good. So there was a there was actually European agent. So worldwide
Speaker:agent who looked after all the sales for the guy who developed it and I went to them. I ordered a
Speaker:batch and we sold out before they arrived. So that went for about three I think about three years
Speaker:it still go on air but it was copied and it was on Ali Baba. People in Eastern Europe were copying it
Speaker:and yeah that sort of killed the product from in the end. They were selling for half the price.
Speaker:We were selling the fur but ours was made from expensive European red oak. It was curated. You
Speaker:could leave them out in the rain for weeks. They weren't cracked so it was really high quality. But
Speaker:anyway so I could see I knew this wasn't gonna last and I always dreamt of how to put a product
Speaker:together. I had one with strings and so I started thinking of how how do I do that. So I was researching
Speaker:amount of factors and I was always missing the technical element. So probably took me a year to find
Speaker:somebody from a technical angle to work with and once I did it was for me it was relief. That was
Speaker:the hardest thing but I spent two weeks in Excel doing some working on Excel. This is the prototypes
Speaker:with cardboard so and I came to I built a product in cardboard with the help of a technical guy
Speaker:and then we did manufacture one of the best manufacturing in the world and we took it from there.
Speaker:So probably a year it took 16 months from the time I started working with him until we start
Speaker:selling it. I'm sorry for those that don't know the sabres it's a sweet spot train until we skipped
Speaker:right over that right? Yeah we skipped right over but it's it's a 37 square inch racket it's two
Speaker:inches shorter than a normal tennis racket and it has a smaller head size to replicate the sweet spot
Speaker:on most 27 inch rackets and it encourages people to obviously show them where the sweet spot is,
Speaker:where the contact point is started and basically a lot of people described it as a tool to get
Speaker:players' feet moving because your feet aren't working, nothing else gonna work and when the
Speaker:head size is small the ball's coming in quick you just gotta be you know you gotta be quick with
Speaker:your feet you gotta be in position early and that will allow you to hit the ball in the right place so
Speaker:ultimately we do it's a warm tool but it's really what work tool? Interesting you think of a you
Speaker:take you grab a bracket say hey we're gonna focus on hitting in this sweet spot and then maybe you
Speaker:learn after the fact that it ends up being by a footwork tool you say wait a minute this is supposed
Speaker:to be a sweet spot where you help me with my contact point what does this have to do with footwork
Speaker:and it's cool that you realize that eventually because that probably wouldn't be a thing you would
Speaker:have predicted. No we shouldn't know from the wooden spoon we did always knew it was a it was a
Speaker:it was a footwork footwork it was always involved in footwork if you're not moving your feet you're not
Speaker:gonna be able to do this and the spoon was even harder to do it but yeah it just we just heard
Speaker:a more more master we've a lot more saber users than the wooden spoon user so you know you get more
Speaker:feedback and think we've about like 850 reviews at this stage which are really positive and yeah so
Speaker:it's it's a bit forever every coach as I said we don't tell coaches we've no instructional manual
Speaker:on our website because we know coaches are opinionated they have their own way of doing things
Speaker:they don't like when another coach you know they might learn from their coach but sometimes
Speaker:they're way doing things and due to coach doesn't do it right so I didn't want to be the guy telling
Speaker:people how to use the saber because I don't think that would have helped me so we let everybody
Speaker:to use it definitely and that's where we get feedback and how people are using it in a more way
Speaker:they put it into their practice sessions and yes it's been really interesting to hear all that
Speaker:yeah Bobby we have no no idea what he's talking about with coaches going their own way and not
Speaker:listening to other coaches right never never heard of such a thing so Bobby you're gonna you're gonna
Speaker:love this thing and I'm sure you've got questions but I'm looking through with 37 square inches
Speaker:ich it makes me think of the T:Speaker:and that isn't 37 it feels like it's 37 square inches when I try to play with it but Bobby is this
Speaker:everything you've considered when we talked about this before to be able to say okay this is a tool
Speaker:that can help in many different ways well I'm old enough to remember when we actually played with 37
Speaker:I still think I have mine in my in the garage you know it's still under the the pressure to keep
Speaker:them from warping but yeah I mean it's it's amazing to watch and I've been laughing a bunch of times
Speaker:during this first of all you have to footwork in Atlanta they just don't go together that's the
Speaker:the pros make it where we we have the best drill players in the world we just don't have players that
Speaker:they translate into matches as much because they're used to the ball coming to them and obviously if
Speaker:the the sweet spot is smaller in the bracket shorter they're gonna have to compensate somehow
Speaker:a good place to start as the feet so that that's a great and a fun way to introduce footwork too
Speaker:this way you're not having to say you're doing footwork which the kids especially associate that is
Speaker:what we do wrong you're punishing us why we doing footwork now we want to make you but I sorry I just
Speaker:jump in it yeah it is like it's a phone tool so it has fun to the session and you're you're indirectly
Speaker:working on some of these game by just them having fun so it just backs up what you're saying there
Speaker:now the only the big problem I saw with it is you have Stan Warinka as a demo and the freaking guy
Speaker:doesn't miss at all I mean he just hit clean backhand after backhand as I go if you really want
Speaker:somebody to feel inefficient or lacking just watch this video it was amazing so I mean he hits it
Speaker:37 square inches clean as you can and just crushing not easing his way through the backhand
Speaker:just crushing the backhand it's like okay I can't do that we know we've another video of a US
Speaker:got Brandon Holt and he's absolutely playing a point with it and he's absolutely nailing the ball
Speaker:and he's side to side so it's not he's going from backhand corner forehand corner back so there's a lot
Speaker:of movement going on and he is just absolutely nail even some more quan at the South Korean player
Speaker:and a few videos of him absolutely look these are the best guys in the world for a reason they're good ball
Speaker:strikers they can they can strike a ball well with it with a baseball bat if they have to do just
Speaker:yeah they have everything and the racket doesn't matter what rackets in their hand but yeah that was
Speaker:impressive and and I'm still trying to get over I'm a big great uh Graham Norton fan and one of my
Speaker:favorite episodes of his show was Bill Murray Matt Damon and another actor talking about a fuzzy jumper
Speaker:so you nailed me and I was going back right away to that when you started talking about the jumper
Speaker:so I've been a little distracted but no and Graham Norton's Irish right I think he's an I
Speaker:Graham Norton yeah yeah he's our show he's war one of our war one of our jumpers at some stage I've
Speaker:pictures of him here somewhere I'm ready for a jump oh they did an episode and they were talking about
Speaker:and you know Bill Murray especially they never heard of a jumper let a lot of fuzzy jumper
Speaker:and it was just hysterical and it's famous for going viral because Matt Norton's I mean I'm sorry
Speaker:Matt Damon at the end of it said this is the most fun he'd ever had on a dog show so it was you
Speaker:blew up all over the internet but we I think we had their runs they were on Jimmy Kendall
Speaker:Saturday night live at one stage as well wonder actually like we did they were like the Kardashians
Speaker:had one there was they did pretty they got it we gave away a lot of them put it that way and
Speaker:which son I haven't done with the saver because you know you get known for giving away product and
Speaker:for me with functional tennis was important that we don't we look we have a price and that's the
Speaker:price and it's more or less the price for everybody and we we do give the owner of Federer Roger Federer's
Speaker:agent come knock on one for him you know we're a deal but we give away very few of these and that's
Speaker:helped us as well because it just makes my decision everybody gets the same answer yeah
Speaker:but it's not the Roger Federer can can't afford it like he needs a free one I mean
Speaker:that's it he doesn't order it he doesn't know as far as I know he doesn't have one but I just
Speaker:made kiffon one I don't know but yeah yeah that like the top guys get a lot of stuff for free I can only
Speaker:imagine and you've got to I say a swing stick but we've got something similar that swing vision is
Speaker:created to hang the the camera on the fence how did that come to be that just kind of seems
Speaker:unrelated but I guess you do a lot of video so it makes sense yeah no it made sense we
Speaker:actually when they first came out we were buying them actually from a small guy in the States that's
Speaker:where and then we developed our own version and it was just made sense because you know we are all
Speaker:video it's actually probably is the most sense product that we have because we what we do share a
Speaker:video we've shared over:Speaker:easily record yourself playing tennis that it's easier for you to send me a video so it's actually
Speaker:a good product and yeah that's it an important product it's not our it's not our biggest seller
Speaker:always thought we would do a lot better with them but look they take away and yeah then I saw
Speaker:we were sort of in partnership with swing vision they were selling our product at one stage but then
Speaker:they're more recently they have their own swing stick which is sort of the same but different
Speaker:yeah they like to put their logo on things it's important I guess but yeah so in that case is that all it
Speaker:takes like I grab your tennis camera mount I video myself playing tennis and then you put it on your
Speaker:Instagram account is it that simple oh no it's not that same we do we get a lot more videos in that
Speaker:we put out like we put out four day treat treat the five a day on average four and yeah no it's
Speaker:quite hard we got my job is to curate if you ask me what's your job within the social account it's a
Speaker:curator so I pick what videos goes goes live we've relationships with so many players and coaches
Speaker:they'll have their own drop box folder they upload to whenever they want so videos come in all the time
Speaker:and yeah and then I then I might if we don't have a certain player I'll reach out to them
Speaker:ask them to create some video and then other times I might see a video online which I ask the person
Speaker:first we get in high in high quality so it's a mixture of some of our own content some content that
Speaker:just flows into its relationships we've built some new stuff I find and then sometimes we may
Speaker:post some ATP tour videos which we can do and if we work with some brands you may have some brand
Speaker:work also to throw out there okay so Bobby it sounds like he's doing a lot of fun stuff he gets to
Speaker:actually go to the events and video people using products we do a lot of we're getting into us to say
Speaker:we do a lot of in our minds we do we do a lot of we're getting into in person events here and having
Speaker:that mount is fantastic to be able to video yourself just to have something that convenient I bought
Speaker:eight or ten throughout the first few years of different types of things and the sticks really
Speaker:make a difference we really appreciate that but Bobby what else I know we've got we've talked about
Speaker:his podcast we've talked about the saber we've talked about the fence mounts you've got the the
Speaker:training journal tell me about that also I had a training journey they're just a match and practice
Speaker:journal so one for matches one for practice and it just gives players a framework on what to
Speaker:think about during the matches so what to think about before you play and what to evaluate afterwards
Speaker:and the same for the practice session so let us the plan better you know make sure they're getting
Speaker:their achievement there are many goals that they set and also to rate themselves and the coach then
Speaker:can have a look at it and see if what they wrote down and made sense to what he saw on court and
Speaker:that's basically it's just getting people away from their phone for three or four minutes think
Speaker:about your game your practice session planet out did you execute yes or no I'm walking you do better
Speaker:next time so you have to physically you have to physically write in the notebook so you you
Speaker:market to middle age people people right because the younger kids don't know how to write they just
Speaker:had to do things with their thumbs so maybe maybe it's it's a right until it's not a true
Speaker:to help them write does not even teach penmanship anymore in the United States person they don't
Speaker:write when cursive anymore so no it's that I do get told all the time why don't you have an app
Speaker:version of this an app version of this but I've just been it's just there's only so many things I can do
Speaker:and I'd like to do it at some stage but it's not it's not my plan the next six months to do
Speaker:oh Bob I just just say another vote of greed sorry Bobbier said Bobbien I'll both agree getting them
Speaker:off the phone it matters I think it helps or that's that's a great target to have so put off the app
Speaker:as long as you can make a music so I think it's fantastic yeah absolutely because go get water
Speaker:translates into go check your phone I look it's the same for adults as well not only kids you can't
Speaker:just blame the kids I'm probably the most guilty every time you stop it's like I'll check my phone
Speaker:you go next thing it's yeah it's I recognize as a problem for myself and it's not only children
Speaker:that are doing this adults are just as bad well Bobby got anything else for for Fabio before
Speaker:yeah what is what is the retail on the saber you know saber is somebody selling their state
Speaker:no well we we've a few retailers spread around the world not too many but most sales like I think
Speaker:45% for sales go to the US 5% to Canada and it retails it's like 150 euros which is about
Speaker:160 dollars the pen the FX changes changes all the time to roughly 160 dollars and shipping is
Speaker:you can get it the 8 to 12 day which is like 10 dollars you can get the 80 in dollar the two-day
Speaker:shipping so we've options there and then the great thing about the states is you can import up to
Speaker:800 dollars a day without any duty from Europe so there's no extra what you pay there's no extra
Speaker:charges some people may be scared getting from Europe going to be extra charges but there's not
Speaker:which works really good for us definitely if we if I get stuff from the states we're charged like
Speaker:25% on top of what it costs so it's great that I can ship to the states and
Speaker:do customers don't pay any extra which is amazing no sales tax no any of that it's just all in the
Speaker:price and that's it all right so once say yeah I see 165 currently and then you got a combo with the
Speaker:saber and the the magic mount which at 215 that's good you sell some spring to go with it I can get
Speaker:them the wooden spoon for just less than 90 and the in the practice journal that's great but then I
Speaker:think like you said I said you're most known for this saber I think that's just in my mind because
Speaker:I found you years ago because of that but looking into your looking into your Instagram and your
Speaker:podcast it looks like that's a that's a lot that's been going on longer and definitely well known there
Speaker:which is impressive so I will say well done because we're we're talking to as many people as we can
Speaker:in the industry to find out what you're doing but also sometimes you know what that success
Speaker:what it takes now you said it's a slow crawl sometimes I think that was crazy trying to
Speaker:we've posted every day since:Speaker:ars now so eight by it's like:Speaker:it's and it's a mental drain by doing I but hopefully hopefully one day I'll have you know some
Speaker:the help of me you know you always wake up the cost of these things at time and but yeah it's
Speaker:me that does all that and it's been a drain. I told you I'm on holidays with the family but look I
Speaker:enjoy doing it and it's yeah it's great sometimes you know you can look you see a player breaking true
Speaker:and you're like well we posted a video we communication with them seven years ago and so you can
Speaker:track back some videos and so I think we're building relationships with players that'll be really
Speaker:good in the future that sounds good but I mean we're good to go what's one you always have something
Speaker:left yeah one left just curiosity who's purchasing the saver is it more coaches more individuals
Speaker:resort I mean I love this is a resort thing you know an academy obviously but I'm curious how
Speaker:how motivated do you get the individual it's really a mixture like I just sorry I got an email
Speaker:from somebody there saying they recommended by Ernie at La Quinta in California so that's a resort
Speaker:which so that's who's just bought I know like parents have bought today I know coaches buy so parents
Speaker:will buy for their kids the younger kids coaches will buy to have them in academies and sometimes
Speaker:the same academy the player will buy so it's you know it's really a mixture which makes it really
Speaker:hard to pinpoint and say you know what coaches buy it and that's it but no it's really it's a mixture
Speaker:it's parents coaches and they're made like I just saw a fancy European resort has got one there but
Speaker:that's not wouldn't be performance it would be just be like and people on holiday so the coach has one
Speaker:there it's really sometimes like a federation may buy a few like they may buy a few or cat it's
Speaker:really a mixture anybody that is involved in competing tennis players will want to buy one
Speaker:so you know competing tennis players maybe in federation academies private coaches
Speaker:and so anybody and we ship we've done like I think 90 countries at this stage so we ship
Speaker:a US obviously our biggest one then the UK Germany France Canada Italy Australia and then spread
Speaker:it throughout the world sounds like it's going well and then you know what what's next what's
Speaker:better we'll we'll have to follow up at some point we'll we'll find you in a year and see you know
Speaker:what's next yeah just survive and keep coming out the content and look we release the edition
Speaker:version of the saber we do like a grand slam editions we're from each city and this year we've
Speaker:we've we like we did a midnight one people go mad for black brackets and we also we're celebrating
Speaker:a million followers this year we're going to be launching a special saber edition so we do
Speaker:these special editions along the way and we do have like along with the mid after we launch the
Speaker:mid then I launched a lighter version so more for kids 13 14 15 and and then we also have a junior
Speaker:version which is an even shorter again for kids six to 10 yeah that's I'm online right now we're
Speaker:in one I need one for my two-year-old oh well let's do that I can't guarantee we've won for two
Speaker:year olds but I come back in a few years and we'll have one but yeah so look we're working on
Speaker:another exciting project a minute but it's taken a lot longer than I taught so I don't know if
Speaker:it's even got a comb to fruition so hopefully next year I could have some good news with that which
Speaker:allow me to expand a bit more okay new products something fancy I thought f 37 or something
Speaker:should you be like the 37,000 or something exciting fft 37 was their whole name for the saber
Speaker:okay I thought that was the thing coming out that was development name for the saber so and I
Speaker:was going to go on it and then came up with the saber I just thought the saber such a better name
Speaker:and I think the name can help a product as well and it it did help but so yeah I'm glad I went
Speaker:to it and we've much a trend there yeah on the choice yeah I like that a lot so okay I keep asking
Speaker:Bobby he's got one more he always does we're good we're good so I'm gonna hit you unexpected this time
Speaker:with our king of tennis question so Fabio if you were king of tennis whether it's the whole world
Speaker:whether it's just Ireland the UK the United States anything social ATP WTA do you have any ideas
Speaker:is there anything that you would do or change when it comes to tennis I'd love to relocate Ireland to
Speaker:the the Mediterranean or somewhere in Europe so we could start to help tennis players not have
Speaker:excuses for weather indoor courts but you know bad surfaces so maybe relocate Ireland to central
Speaker:to Europe would be amazing but no realistically look I think tennis is about having more fun but also
Speaker:these guys and girls who are out there like spend and I've seen the top junior guys were
Speaker:nothing's guaranteed and they put so much into it so much money into it and I think five or six
Speaker:I know men five or six players enter top 100 every year there's not only five or six new people
Speaker:making money every year in tennis so I definitely think more you know change up the whole structure of
Speaker:the ATP and WTA which allows be it lead based I'm not too sure exactly but to let look people to
Speaker:300 to earn more money to make like even an average wage but it's something a bit more than that
Speaker:it's very tennis's top heavy that heavy as we all know I don't need to be I don't need to be saying
Speaker:them but something that would allow the players open-come players who will eventually break true I hope
Speaker:but they all don't some get injured but at least to to finish their tennis journey with something a
Speaker:bit more to show for it rather than just some good stories stuck in hotels and train stations and
Speaker:all that so I just think to divide the wealth a bit more would be nicer
Speaker:Bobby I think we've heard similar things recently where as people are looking for something a little
Speaker:different a little sorry I'm 100 to 300 range somebody to keep that some thing to keep them going to
Speaker:keep them in the game yeah look at the takes a look you know even if you're a junior it could take
Speaker:70 80 hundred thousand dollars a year to fund your when you're 14 15 16 and it's even more than when
Speaker:you're you know seven you're trying to break true if you don't go to college and yeah just
Speaker:something to reward these a bit more the ones there's a lot of ones that aren't so serious so you
Speaker:trying to figure out which are serious but maybe if there's some cash there for them they are a
Speaker:bit more serious and let them do better it's it's it's definitely hard and you know these come
Speaker:ures come out at paycheck for:Speaker:you that to come and out with like 20 or 30 dollars is the neck gain and the challenges isn't much
Speaker:challenges a little bit better but you know they're not winning every week and yeah it's not like a
Speaker:broken record player here but I think that's one of the more important things to change and a lot more
Speaker:should be done about it Bobby can I tell him to come with us a solution next next year we'll come
Speaker:hey look I like the idea that's great but don't come to me with problems come to me with a solution
Speaker:they're good like we said this is a common theme right now and I think it's it's great to continue
Speaker:to people here because most people here are professional and they associate money and probably if
Speaker:you had to look at all of sports tennis has the least amount of people making money I mean look
Speaker:at what the average NBA player the average and you know major league baseball player makes like
Speaker:you said you got 20 50 or maybe a hundred tennis players mounted thing now making a good living
Speaker:out of how many it's not a lot I'm saying tall you might get like 45 50 doubles guys
Speaker:Geralt that's a hundred and then 80 90 like 300 players max making it like you're better off being a coach
Speaker:are you are yeah are the coach we are traveling or be it because the coach still getting paid
Speaker:right or have your own academy or just run a little nice private clinic in in the state somewhere
Speaker:that can do quite well so okay it's it's tough it's tough and yeah my solution I don't have one
Speaker:right now maybe I can't come back wait one but definitely involves the ATP and the WCA getting
Speaker:together and trying to sort this out figure something out all right so next year this we're going to
Speaker:do I mean email you say hey what's the solution because and I push back a lot on I need to
Speaker:get tennis answers to say hey you come and say hey we need to fix something but you're the king so
Speaker:it's on you you got to figure out how to fix it and maybe sometimes we come up with good ideas
Speaker:sometimes we don't I'm not at the I'm not at the level the LC if we were a very big successful
Speaker:company I would like to have like the functional tennis funds where we help junior you know we
Speaker:pick juniors every year we distribute some cash to help cover some of their costs that's what I
Speaker:that's what I would like to do to help these players around the world I'm not sure things
Speaker:are always a difficult situation who do you pick how do you pick and I think that's hard but deep
Speaker:down that's what I'd love to do would be find a way that have a fund where we can support players
Speaker:and you know help them get closer to their dreams that's fantastic Bobby we're in that's a great
Speaker:it's for vets now it's not for juniors for for the ITF vet you know hey time off work so we
Speaker:cover the cost when you're not working exactly there you go well Fabio I appreciate your time this has
Speaker:been fantastic we will make sure to get the word out and we're gonna talk about the saber we're
Speaker:talking about functional tennis the podcast and everything you're doing and I'm gonna like I said
Speaker:I'm gonna follow up we're gonna see if we can figure something out I love that dream of the
Speaker:functional tennis fund to be able to help those that that need a little a little extra a little
Speaker:extra bit there or Bobby and I have been approached by a few people recently about some other ideas
Speaker:as to how to help and what happens next but we will be in touch I appreciate it Bobby is always thank
Speaker:you and uh Fabio thank you so much I appreciate your time thanks y'all to Bobby preset it
Speaker:well there you have it we want to thank reGeovinate.com for use of the studio and signature tennis for
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