that's the problem here in florida it's a match play it seems to be a very difficult thing to
organize which makes no sense to me but what i've been what i've been experiencing is that it
needs to be a structured environment academy or club setting and then match play can be organized
but people are unable to organize match play themselves that's the biggest challenge i don't
understand why you know how it used to work when when i was a junior we used to call each other up
yeah call each other on the phone go to the club with a bike yeah and play matches every single day
yeah because you didn't have google back then no you call it i have way too many organized
sports i don't know what it is it's weird but over committed to too many different activities
it's possible piano lesson yeah there's a ballet lesson that's true there's swim class there's
too many things going on and we played so much so much match play back in my days like i have
these lists i used to keep notes and it's funny i just listened to a interview with brad gilbert
and he used to do the same thing he used to keep notes he used to go to this public park
i think was somewhere in california and he used to play the guys at the park
he used to keep track of the results of write the set scores down
do that every day and that's that's what i did i had this couple of guys especially with one
guy in particular where we played thousands of sets and we kept we kept track like i'm up
you know 350 to 340 like that we kept track of everything and we actually i was just i was
just met with him last year we were laughing because we would play five sets sometimes
in one session we do a five-set match because we probably like was impressed by the watching
this in germany i i basically played all my tennis in germany and we probably were impressed
by like watching the pros you know playing five setters and we played five setters all the time
wow how long did that last i don't remember two two three four hours but then what does that do i
mean because your endurance i'm telling you once you have once you have your techniques set see
the problem with juniors here is they continue taking lessons forever perpetual lesson takers
until they're 18 at some point your technique is set and i'm not saying don't take lessons it's
fine but you can't continuously take lessons but at some point you got to bring what you have to
the table and start playing matches because that's a whole another world learning how to play matches
learning how to play these different opponents different score lines all that a match entails you
will only learn by playing matches and it doesn't have to be a tournament it can be a practice match
there is none and i feel like a lot of juniors here they take too many lessons they don't play
enough matches they avoid match play i think that's a whole another reason to it because
it's uncomfortable to play matches against somebody that you might face in a tournament you
know as if there's anxiety there's pressure there it's a lot more comfortable just to stand there
and hit balls when you actually have to play a set all of a sudden you get that anxiety and some
some parents don't want that and some kids don't want that either they avoid that
and then they come to a tournament they're not prepared they don't have
enough match play under their belts and sometimes even the ego is too much
that that it can be it can be it can it can go a couple different ways you can be
playing somebody that's worse and being scared to lose somebody that's that's worse than you
you know it can be someone that's like the worst scenario is if you play someone who's
even evenly matched to you because the outcome is uncertain it's 50 50.
and that's the type of matches they avoid i think people are generally
comfortable playing someone that's a lot better because there's no pressure
you know but to play someone of your own level right where it's like 50 50 people avoid that
but you can't avoid that because that's tennis you know you have to go out there and compete
you know i'm gonna run into him in the tournament well you will you're simply unexperienced that's why a lot
of these kids they might have excellent technique they might look great when you see them warm up
yeah but then they start playing and uh you'll see they actually don't know how to
play tennis yeah when i first moved to florida i played a lot i played prize money tournaments
like like he does now like two to three a month i played a ton of tournaments
i did quite well i was ranked number one at one point florida men's opens and i would see it all
the time i would play these kids like 17 18 19 years old academy kids who looked unbelievable
in the warm-up my wife back then would be like scared oh my god these kids are so good and
then we would start playing and the score would be like 1-0 one-on-one two and two because they just
simply don't know how to play tennis what do they have because it's just an academy yeah not enough
though you know i guess because there's something because there's something missing i'm telling you
there's something missing because they don't know how to how to play the actual game it's not all
about forehands and backhands the tennis is a game after all there's different score lines there's
different opponents you're going to play there's different ways to play because in academy you're
used to playing your friends familiarity they hit a million balls but they don't play enough sets
and remember in academy the coaches might also be careful who they line up against each other
all right politics yeah that's all i'm positive you should be watching yeah exactly exactly
you got to keep the enrollment numbers in mind so this is the big advantage of of europe versus
united states because when i grew up but not when i grew up this is still the case you have
different structures in play that help you play a ton of matches so you have
junior high level junior teams junior teams that from each club they compete against other clubs
then you have high level adult club matches where even if you're like 15 16 you can play an adult
and a lot of good players at that age do that then you have prize money tournaments that are
much much better in the prize money tournaments here see the prize money tournaments here in
florida like they charge a lot of money for entry fees and then they give the
two finalists a cut of the entry fees usually like 20 percent or something like that
right where in europe when they do a prize money tournament they get a sponsor to give the money
so they get a sponsor to give the money and then they structure the price money in a way where it's
like you get even money if you're lose in the first round you know it's the same way the same way
it is on a pro tour so i'm sure the prize money tournaments in france and other countries are very
similar to that so the prize money tournaments not only much stronger there but also organized in a
more professional way we're here in florida it's like anybody can sign up you can get a 256 draw
just so they can collect all the entry fees and then they give the the top two guys a
cut of the entry fee so it's like there's a few guys who are always winning those tournaments
usually as the guys with with like some atp points who are a little bit higher level and they destroy
they destroy everyone that's what i'm saying like juniors have no chance that's why when i
i was already not playing when i moved here i was already only teaching i was still
beating all these juniors because because there's something missing in their game like there's just
something missing it's not the forehand it's not the backhand it's not the serve just how they
play the game there's a lack of maturity there there's a lack of experience there
and and that's why i said in europe the structure is so that you have the junior
high level matches you have the adult high level club matches you have the prize money
system that's very good you can also play futures and of course the logistics
are easier there everything is closer together and you combine all that together and if you're
a good player you play a little bit of all of that yeah that's why you have 75 percent of the
atp top 100 are europeans that's why you have more than 75 percent of the division
one men's college rankings are europeans as well because they are more mature at a young age and
they play better tennis it's not about forehand backhand they're just mentally more more advanced
the same thing happened to me when i moved to college i won 90 of my matches
not because my forehand was so much better i just knew i just you just learned how to play
tennis in a more mature way and you can only learn that by doing it
you have to play a ton of matches and this is why i am so
baffled i'm so perplexed why it seems to be an impossibility that people can't organize match
play by themselves that kids can't organize match play by themselves but they just can't i've talked
to this with with hundreds of parents it's just impossible it needs to be a structured environment
and when it's a structured environment there's problems with match play because you know somebody
else is telling you what to do who to play when to play them how long to play them you want to be in
charge you want to say like i did with my friend hey today we're going to play five sets you know
i'm gonna do a five-setter today you know should be spontaneous tomorrow you you call another guy
you play you play three sets you know that's what you need the most yes you're lucky if you get
two sets once a week absolutely and everybody as you know takes lessons until they're 18.
maybe they take lessons every day they have private coaches they're taking lessons every day
new york here too 200 bucks an hour when i played kids losing to him i'm telling you when i grew up
i had there was so many good players in my age group in germany it was tommy haas there was
nicholas kiefer i'm telling you i i played super high level in germany i was one of the best junior
players in the whole country to see a kid of that caliber with a private coach was unheard
of back then maybe kiefer had one maybe haas had one haas was at bolleteri already they had like
it was given to them by the federation but nobody had private courses that they hired
in juniors back then now juniors are i'm going to say pretending to be professionals pretending
with private coaches with physios and stuff all that stuff is completely unnecessary
it misses the mark and this is the point and it develop into that caliber of player first
and then you hire the coaches you hire the physios that make sense absolutely