Podcast #147: Will Hamilton and Yann Auzoux Introduce Tennis Rx

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Announcer: Welcome to the Essential Tennis podcast. If you love tennis, and want to improve your game, this podcast is for you. Whether it’s technique, strategy, or the mental game, tennis professional Ian Westermann is here to make you a better player.

And now, here’s Ian!

Ian : Hi, and welcome to the Essential Tennis podcast, your place for free, expert tennis instruction that can truly help you improve your game.

Today’s episode of the Essential Tennis podcast is brought to you by Tennis Express. Please check them out by going to CentralTennis.com/express.

Thank you very much for joining me on today’s show. I’ve got two very special guests that are going to be talking with me about tennis instruction and a brand new course that they have coming out soon. Two quick things before we get to that. First of all, I want to send a shout out to Tom from New York City. He and I worked together for several hours yesterday in Baltimore at improving his game. I want to thank him for coming down to see me. It was great working with you, Tom.

Secondly, I want to let you know that the Essential Tennis podcast has been chosen as a finalist for the top sports podcast of the year by PodcastAwards.com. And I’d really appreciate it if you went and voted for the Essential Tennis as the top sports podcast of the year. Just go to PodcastAwards.com and go down to Sports. Click on Essential Tennis. Fill in your name and e-mail address. And that’s it! It takes literally 10 sec. and you can vote every 24 hrs. So if you have ever been helped by this show, I’d really appreciate your support by going and voting. Hopefully we can win it. That would be great. That would be a testament to the loyalty and passion for all you, the listeners of the show. So again, PodcastAwards.com.

Alright, let’s get down to business. Sit back, relax, and get ready for some great tennis instruction.

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My guests today on the Essential Tennis podcast are Will Hamilton and Jan Auzoux. Welcome to the show. It’s great to have you both.

Jan: Great! Thank you very much.

Will: Thank for having us.

Ian: So I’m really happy to have you on the show. Just about everybody who listens to my podcast I’m sure by now is familiar with both of you. Will of course is the co-founder of FuzzyYellowBalls.c om, the most popular tennis instruction site on the internet. Will, congratulations on that.

Will: Oh thanks. I appreciate it.

Ian: As most of you know also Jan and Will have been doing some recent work together. That’s actually what we’re going to talk about first once we get introductions out of the way.

First I’d like you guys to speak to my audience. For those people listening who are not real familiar with both of you, I’d like you to introduce yourselves briefly, tell us about your background. Will, let’s start with you. Please tell us what your background is as far as being a teacher. Also tell us about some of the recent successes of FuzzyYellowBalls.com.

Will: Yeah! I mean, I’m one of those kids who’s played his entire life, basically since I could hold a tennis racket. My dad got me started. I played in high school. I played in college. Taught at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, which is a high performance training facility right outside the D.C. area.

In late ’06, I got the idea for FYB after bouncing around Youtube and looking at other tennis videos and seeing how many views I had. There were a couple of videos that had 55-60,000 views. I thought this might work, so in 2007 we got FYB up and rolling. I think it was Sep. 27. I have to ask Adam about that. Adam is the other half of FYB. Yeah, it’s been a wild ride since then. Growing a lot of–we never expected. Right now we get over 1 million video plays a month, which is a crazy amount of viewership. Did we expect that when we started? No. But it’s really taken off!

Ian: [laughter] Well that amount of traffic on Youtube is definitely a testament to the quality and the breadth of information that you guys put out. FuzzyYellowBalls has been one of the very few websites that I’ve endorsed. I say, “Guys, you need to go check this out!” I’m very careful about who I give my endorsement to in terms of instruction. [laughter] It’s my opinion there’s a lot of sub-par instruction–and even wrong information–out there on the internet. As you know, just about anybody can put their stuff out there and act like they’re an expert in whatever field they’re trying to put information out on. But FYB has been solid all the way through. I know that’s why you guys have been so successful.

Will: I appreciate it. First of all, thank you for the endorsement. I really appreciate that. I think the next step is probably… I don’t know. I want to get your professional opinion on this, Ian. Maybe working in some cats into our instructional videos. Because cats get a lot of views on Youtube. So like some combination of a cat playing a keyboard and tennis I think would really be viral!

Ian: Maybe combination tennis instruction/ wild cat?

Will: Yeah, exactly. Something like that.

Ian: [laughter]

Will: I think that’s the next step of online instruction. Maybe you and I can figure something out with that.

Ian: We should have talked about this off the air. Now somebody is definitely going to steal that idea.

Will: Shoot! We got dibs, everybody.

Ian: Alright. Enough of that! Let’s go over to Jan now. Jan Auzoux, everybody has started to become familiar with you’re teaching through the joint venture. Yourself and Will have done specifically with the foot work videos that you guys have put out in the last couple weeks and months. Jan, can you please tell my audience about yourself as well? Your background as a teacher, your background as a player. I know that you played on the tour for a period of time. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Jan: Well as you can probably tell by the accent, I’m half French and half Cameroon, so my upbringing was between both countries. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the game of tennis thanks to a family friend, which was [inaudible] father. So that’s how basically I was introduced to the game. I was good pretty quickly, mostly due to my foot work speed. [laughter] It’s not a surprise that 30 yrs. later, that’s basically my area of expertise.

Yes, I did have a lot of fun on tour. Had a lot of injuries, so that was cut short fairly quickly. But I enjoy the game tremendously. It’s a passion of mine, so I’ve actually been very fortunate to be able to pass that passion onto everybody else that decides to spend an hour with me on the court. I wrote a book. With Will, we’ve been putting this information out, and sharing it with the world. He has a passion for it, and I have a passion for it, so it was a very natural collaboration.

Ian: Jan, I’m so happy that you used the word “passion” in there a couple of times. I think that’s absolutely key and crucial, not only for us as tennis instructors specifically, but I think just to be a good teacher in general in whatever field. In education, tennis, or golf–or whatever you happen to teach. If you really love what you’re around and you have a passion for the content and for what the information is, and you just love being around whatever the content is, I think those are by far the most successful teachers. So I’m really happy to hear you talk about that!

Jan: Thank you.

Ian: Alright. So next up, let’s talk a little about that series you guys put out. The footwork videos. Will, what do you think made those so popular and so successful?

Will: I think first of all it really boiled down to how Jan communicated that material. I actually–it’s what, Dec. 6 today? I have known only about 10 months. It was at a Christmas party last year. Growing up in Washington, D.C. and then I was a political science major in college, that basically means you’re good at cocktail parties, and you have no other skills whatsoever.

Ian: [laughter]

Will: So yeah, political science you can talk about politics essentially.

So I was hanging out at this cocktail party and a mutual friend named [inaudible] said, “I know this coach named Jan that you should meet.” He knew about my website and said, “You should get Jan on here. It’s going to be great material!” So [inaudible] got us together for lunch. Then we filmed that series over the summer. Jan had sent me some content ahead of time for that very first video. [noise] The most important.

Ian, are you still there?

Ian: Yes. Can you repeat that last sentence? I cut that out. I don’t know what happened.

Will: We got a little [noise] Jan had sent me some content. I looked at it and I said, “This is some good stuff here. I’m interested to do a video with this guy.” So we go out and we film Modern Tennis Footwork. And as soon as we get going and we’re talking about the Walking Step and the Hopping Step, I just knew that this was going to be a killer series of videos. Because the content was really good. It was explained very clearly. And it’s something that is easily incorporated into your game.

For those of you that are subscribed to our newsletter, if you go back and find the e-mail where I said, “We’ve got some new.” Where promoted those free videos. The subject, it’s either the subject of the first line. It says: “This is one of the best videos we’ve ever filmed.” I just knew it was going to be good.

Ian: Well I’m looking at some feedback now on my forums EssentialTennis.com. That definitely seems to be the consensus. People have definitely resonated with the material. I think what I’ve liked most about it that you can watch the video that yourself and Jan put together. Go watch professional tennis on TV, and see them use all of different steps you talked about. It really makes sense. It’s very applicable. It’s instruction that people can go and implement into their game right away. It’s nothing that’s super complicated. And yet it’s content that I don’t think a lot of people have heard about before, specifically the Hop Step and the Walking Step. So I think that combination of factors has really made it very popular.

Will: Absolutely. Like I said, Hopping Step, Walking Step, those are bite size pieces that you can just immediately incorporate. It’s not like you’re learning this new, expansive system. So not only could you see the pros doing it, but you could do it literally the next time you stepped on the tennis court.

Ian: Sure. So Jan, are these specific types of steps… Can you talk to us about the types of players you’re working with right now? Personally, what levels are there? Are they advanced level players? Are they just your average rec player? What types of players can benefit from this type of instruction that you guys have done together?

Jan: Well, you know. We haven’t discussed that yet. But I have actually coached anywhere from beginner who’s never held a racket before, to high performance pro player. I helped former pro player who was Top 20 in the world. All of them essentially need their mobility to be able to perform well and be efficient on the court.

At the moment, I’m coaching mostly rec adult players and high school junior players. I’m happy to say that my [laughter] high school junior players finished undefeated this season and won their league play for the 2nd time in a row. I have a lot of former pro players now that contact me from the videos that we put online thanks to Will. People flying from all over the world coming to take some instruction, and people asking me to to go to them. So we’re still negotiating some of those terms! [laughter] It’s been very exciting. Obviously the modern tennis footwork is applicable to every level in any way that people are comfortable playing with.

Will: Jan also gives me some pointers from time to time too.

Ian: [laughter] That’s nice of him.

Will: I need some work!

Jan: He’s a fast learner. Let’s put it that way. [laughter] Good to work with.

Ian: Well guys, congratulations on the success of those videos. Now let’s move on. We’re going to talk a little bit about a new project that you have been working on. I’m not going to get into it. Why don’t I go ahead and pass it over to you Will, so you can give us a broad overview of exactly what kind of content and instruction you guys have been working on over the last couple of months. What is going to be a part of this instruction. What are people going to learn in a general sense?

Will: There’s a couple of pieces to it. We’ve come out with a series of course called Tennis Rx. We’ve called it “the prescription for your game.” The big picture here is we’re obviously with the medical theme. We’re teaching you how to become the doctor. Which essentially means figuring out what’s wrong with your game, diagnosing the problem, and then prescribing the cure. Which is something we’re always done at FYB, but now we’re really trying to take it to the next level. Ian, you can let me know if this sounds right to you. I think a lot of players are really dependent on their coaches to handle their improvement, and when they go onto the court and try and practice for themselves, it’s somewhat unstructured. They kind of just hit around, maybe on the ball machine. That’s not really reflective of how high level players are developed.

When I worked at the JTCC, the Junior Tennis Champions Center at College Park, there was a very methodical process for developing the skills set necessary to play at a high level. So that’s one of the components we’ve tried to work into this course. We’ve termed for growing complexity of working on your game “layering.” Which we explain in great deal in the course.

And the second big piece is Jan and I were sitting around right before the U.S. Open, and we were talking about this project. We were also just commenting on the pros and talking about guys like Rafa, who used to be this really defensive player, but now has become so aggressive while still keeping his. He’s like a counterpart, a puncher, that has amazing offense.

Ian: [laughter]

Will: And we were talking about Federer, who’s a very smooth player. We said, “All these guys have an identity. They’re very distinctive.” It’s to the point where you can almost watch their strokes but not see who they are, but you know who’s playing. Right?

Ian: Yes, absolutely.

Will: If you see a guy hit a lefty forehand and the racket finishes over his head, you say, “That’s Rafael Nadal.” If you see a serving vollyer with amazing hands but a unique service motion and strange ground strokes, you know that’s McEnroe.

We were talking about how all these guys have a very distinct identity. Then we both looked at each other and said, “Wait a second. This is something that really should be taught to any player!” How do you maximize your individual talents, abilities, and tendencies? How do you design a game around what you’re good at, and ultimately develop an identity just like the pros are doing? Because if you really focus on what you’re good at, you’re going to end up being different from everybody else. Ultimately, that’s going to make you the best player you can be.

Ian: So let me throw a question out there. Either of you can take this. People who go through this course that you have been working on, how can they tell what their personality is? How can they tell what naturally should be there, their style of play?

Will: I’m going to give that one to Jan, and let him talk more generally about when he… A lot of this program is designed around Jan’s coaching philosophy. Jan is very good at taking players and explaining, “This is what you’re good at. This is what you’re bad at.” So I’m going to let Jan talk about that. Maybe Jan you could talk about your own personal experiences in terms of doing that for yourself.

Jan: Well, the most common way to assess what you’re good at is obviously what you favor. In my case, when I picked up tennis, I used to be a soccer player. So I was very quick. I was predetermined to cover the ground in a counter puncher way. But then I figured out that I had a big serve and a big forehand, so I started to apply those qualities to the choices I made on the court.

So basically when somebody’s trying to assess and diagnose what works for them, the natural way to do that is see what you like to hit. Do you like to hit forehand? Do you like to hit backhand? Do you really want to be at the net? So essentially, figuring out what you like most. It starts with that. Then obviously, you have to be able to [laughter] be efficient everywhere!

So it’s not like if you have a great forehand you’re just going to run around and hit forehands all day, because you’ll play somebody who’s good at isolating your backhand, and doing just that. So there are certain parts of your game that need to come up, and be good enough. They don’t have to be great. You don’t have to have weapons everywhere, but you certainly want to be able to protect yourself in the areas where you’re the weakest. Then just apply pressure with your weapons.

Will: I think a lot of players like Jan said do have a general sense of what they’re good at, and what they like to do. The forehand, for example. You see a lot of rec players, “Aw man, I love my forehand! I’m just going to hit that.” And that’s really all they focus on, and all they work on to the detriment of the rest of their game.

So it’s not just a matter of isolating what you like and what you athletically are good at. It’s how you go about developing that skill set in a way that ties your entire game together. I think that’s the big piece that’s missing there.

Ian: So specifically, in the course. So then do you guys break it down into–I’m just making up a number–6 different types of players, and from there you funnel people into specific ways to work on that style of play?

Will: That’s actually exactly what we do. We basically have a set of player times, and then we focus on the types of techniques that are good for each type of player. Then we help you design your game plan. There’s a specific thing we actually do with a lot of the footwork Jan has taught us. So maybe Jan you want to talk about footwork for the counter puncher versus the power monger, the big hitter.

Jan: Bottom line, it has to do with: Where do you feel most comfortable? If you feel comfortable at the base line, and you plan on just staying back there as a counter puncher and rallying forever to overwhelm your opponent that way, you’re going to have to utilize a lot of side to side movements. So you would probably find yourself using a lot of pivot steps. Not as penetrating but certainly quick for recovery.

When you start to get more aggressive, and you take advantage of the short balls you generate, then you will find yourself moving inward more. At that point you probably see a lot of players utilizing the Hopping Step and the Walking Step because they’re more penetrating. They’re actually designed to do just that. So based on the type of player you are, you can see that there are certain footwork choices that you make. We’ve designed the course in a way that people can actually recognize themselves in the drill that we set, and figure out why it is important for them to utilize this particular piece of footwork over another one to be efficient.

Will: Yes, so I mean that’s–obviously the footwork is just one piece. We break every aspect down in terms of “If you’re a counter puncher, this is what you should be trying to do with your serve.” If you’re a Flash Max is another type of player. This is what you’d be doing on the return. Dr. Feelgood is another one! There’s all various types of techniques in terms of not just the footwork that you might emphasize, but also there’s the strategy that would go into it. So it’s the whole package.

Ian: You guys cover stroke technique as well. Forehand, backhand serve as it relates to all those different types of players?

Will: We do. We have a series of one of the… To come back to the high performance training facility when I was talking about the very methodical way of developing players, we’ve tried to, we have replicated that with this course with a process we call “layering.” Which is basically when you’re talking about any technique: serve, back hand, forehand. Let’s just pretend your forehand is like driving a car. When you learn how to drive a car, you don’t just get in the car, and this is the very first time you’ve ever driven get in the car and drive on the road. That’s not safe, obviously.

[laughter] So yeah. Hopefully no one listening has tried that!

Ian: Do not do that. Yes.

Will: So what you would do is you would go to the parking lot. You would get the car out of park. Then you would figure out how to push the gas and the brake. Then you would figure out your mirrors and learn how to turn. So it’s this process of adding more and more skills and increasing the complexity of what you are doing until ultimately, operating the car is second nature. You’re not even really thinking about it. When you’re driving, you’re thinking about what’s on the road. You’re thinking about the other cars. Ian, you’re thinking about your–I was trying to make a Celine Dion joke. But then I butchered it, so we’ll just move on.

Ian: [laughter]

Will: Ian, you’re going to edit that part out in post.

Ian: Of course I will. Yes.

Will: OK, perfect. So that is how we tried to structure the development of the various strokes, is this very methodical process which adds these layers of complexity, these layers of skills. And the hidden benefit, not only going to develop your skills, but also I’m going to get Jan to talk about how this personalizes your game that’s about developing identify in a second. It’s also very good for identifying the errors in your game. Because if you can do maybe, let’s just say the forehand requires 10 skills. I’m just pulling a number out of a hat. If you can do the first 3 skills fine, but then you hit that 4th skill and things start to break down, now you know exactly what’s wrong with your stroke. You say, “This is thing I need to work on.”

I think a lot of rec players are sometimes at a loss. “I don’t know what’s wrong with my stokes. How do I fix this?” The layering process by methodically building that shot up, it’s much easier to identify “Here’s a problem; this is what I need to work on to keep this train rolling.”

And then the second part of this process is personalization. That gets back to identity, so I’m going to kick it over to Jan.

Jan: That was actually quite a brilliant description of what the course is about. Again, through the process of layering, he mentioned the analogy of driving a car. That’s great. When somebody steps on the tennis court, we all go through the same process. Some of us just get stuck. The first process is you want to acquire technical consistency. It’s basically the reliability of your strokes, and that the technical choices you make are sound. Then you go on. You layer that. You go on to the next layer, which is acquiring shot consistency. Where you keep the ball in play using that particular technique for a little while. Then you add variety. After that variety, you want to also be able to distribution. What you notice is you are still working on that same shot, but you are adding layers to all of that.

Once you have that distribution, you want to be able to add a little more power. So you go throw that process of increasing more speed. Then you want to give it a run in competition. I’m just giving you a short overview of what the course is going to be about.

Then once you have all that, the way that you express the choices you make on the court personal. That’s when personalization kicks in and you start to develop an identity. Because all those choices is self-expression. It’s you essentially displaying the way that the game makes sense to you. That’s two of the first components that the course includes.

Will: And the final part I’d like to that is let’s say you’re going through a layered series of exercises. Ian, you’re going through them just like I am. Same ones. Even though we’re going through the exact same exercises, the way your game is going to end up looking is going to be different than mine, even though we have the same core set of competencies. We can both move. We can both judge the ball. We can both hit down the line or cross court. But your strokes are going to develop and look a little bit different than mine. The footwork patterns that you choose might be a little different from mine. And that’s really how, one of the things we emphasize in the course is that layering leads to personalization. Personalization is a by-product of going through a layered process.

I think that’s important to grasp, because a lot players try and force a certain type of technique on themselves. The most typical is, “Man, I really like Andy Roddick’s serve. I’m just going to try and serve like him. I’m going to have this abbreviated motion.” That might not make sense based on your body type, your athletic talents, whatever. But if you go through a very structured, logical progression, then you’re going to end up developing a serve that is good for the type of player you are. You don’t really want to force this technique, and this process helps you develop your own technical style.

Jan: I think one thing that needs to be added as well is that through the process of doing that, you prevent injuries as well. I know that when I was growing up, there were a couple of players that were very popular, and I started to try to play like them. Without having the body type [laughter] to follow the same technical demands, and I end up hurting myself. So there’s an element also of safety and longevity that needs to be added to all these wonderful drills that we’ve designed.

Ian: Well it sounds like you guys have have gone about this very intelligently. From my perspective, for two main reasons so far in what you have been talking about over the last couple of minutes. First of all, Jan I was really happy to hear that in your description of a progression of learning how to hit a stroke correctly in terms of technique, one of the last things that you mentioned. There was probably a list of 5-6 different steps or progressions. Was there. One of the last things you mentioned was “OK, now maybe we can add some power!” After this list of developing a strong foundation first. I think that a big mistake that rec players make in this information age online with so much content and information available is they go out, and they immediately try for the power first without learning how they should be hitting in terms of consistency and accuracy, repeatability, etc. It sounds like you have really hit the nail on the head there.

Then secondly, Will you were talking about going out and trying to copy a profesional player. There’s so much content and video out there of professional players and slow motion, etc. I think a big mistake rec players make is they go out, they see a pro they think is cool and they like how they look when they hit a certain stroke, and they go and try to carbon copy it without even knowing if it’s good for them. That, Jan as you were saying, can lead to injury and Will, as you were saying, can lead to following what comes to the natural player. Both can be obviously hugely detrimental.

Will: Yeah, you kind of get hypnotized. This happens to everybody regardless of level by the pros. I think what’s instructive is Rafael Nadal back in 2006-2007. Here’s a guy who very defensive oriented player, and had some success at Wimbledon but was losing to Federer in the final. What Rafa didn’t do was say to himself, “Well Federer’s the best, so now I’m going to try to play like Federer.” What he said was, “I’m going to get better at what I do and that’s going to end up getting me over the hump.” Obviously now he’s the best player in the world, and he’s figured out how to serve 130 mph and add some other. He’s very good at his court positioning now. But it’s all his style of play. It’s his identity. He hasn’t tried to copy somebody else. So that’s trickier to [inaudible]. If you’re looking for a part of the pros to copy, copy how they develop their games. They develop it around what they’re good at, not other players. It’s very easy to look at someone’s forehand and think, OK, that’s what I need to copy, when it’s actually their methodology and their mindset is a little bit more valuable.

Ian: So we’ve now talked about layering. We’ve talked about personalization. I know there’s a 3rd cornerstone to the course you have put together, and it has to do with tactics. Will can you introduce that and talk about it a little bit?

Will: Yes. We call it “profiling.” But I think Jan should be the one to talk about it. Jan is the former professional player, so he’s the expert at this stuff!

Ian: [laughter] Good call.

Will: So I’m going to let him run with it.

Jan: Well again, as I said, from my own personal development, I realized very quickly that I was not 6’4″, that I was not 185 lbs. So that process of realization made me customize my game and pay attention to what was on the other side more So then just overpowering my opponent and being happy with it. So through this process of figuring out who I’m playing became that profiling concept. It’s assessing who you play, what they’re good at. Essentially defining the strategy that is more likely to beat them. That’s what profiling is. It’s: who do I play? How do I play them? How do I achieve success when I play them?

Will: Yes. There’s a… We’ve constructed a process for that called “sequencing,” which is where you create the profile of your opponent, and then you sequence your shots to deconstruct their game. I think an analogy everybody will get if we bring it back to the car actually, is when you’re driving, you’re not thinking about operating the car. You’re thinking about the other drivers and your environment. Ultimately, that’s the goal you want to get to as a tennis player. You’re thinking about your environment. You’re thinking about the other car, your opponent. That’s the essence of profiling. You’re thinking about the other end of the court. You’re not thinking about yourself.

Jan: Absolutely. I think a lot of players have the tendency to get stuck on themselves, which is why that other element of paying attention to what’s going on on the other side is critical. When I practice, it’s about me and improving my skills. When I step on the tennis court and I play somebody in a match situation, it is no longer about me. If your forearm is not working, you’d better figure out very quickly how to customize a new strategy to beat that person on the other side. Because they have same issues. They too have weaknesses. They too have strength. You have to figure out what is the sequence of plays that will deconstruct and make them fail before you do.

Ian: So guys, it sounds like this course that you have put together is extremely comprehensive. How much content? Is this video? Is this audio? Is it written? What amount of content are we talking about here?

Will: That’s a good question. I haven’t added it up. It’s a lot! It’s all video. It’s a combination of a lot of on court stuff. If you have seen the videos we’ve done with Jan in the past, it’s a lot of similar format. Filmed a lot of it at the Legg Mason facility. 16th and Kennedy is where the Legg Mason tennis classic is played, so we filmed it on the center there, which is very cool.

Then we’ve got a lot of indoor dry erase board. We actually have a new dry erase board, which is a straight up white dry erase board for lessons that would get a little muddy if you had a tennis court in the background. More your classroom board. It’s very comprehensive in terms of hours attached to it. I don’t know, but a lot.

Ian: [laughter] Alright. As we start to wrap things up as far as the podcast is concerned, can you please tell us where we can find out more? Where can people go to find out more, first of all? When is this going to be available? For how long approximately is it going to be available? Because Will I know that you like to a lot of times put. You only make stuff available for a certain period of time typically. So tell us a bit about that.

Will: The website is just Tennis- RX.com. That’s simple to remember. But the content is of the first video in this free series we’ve done is up right now. We’ll be releasing the other couple over the course of the next week or so.

I don’t have an exact time table on all these videos, but they’ll be up for a couple of weeks. Like I said, they’re all free. They’re pretty easy to access. They cover in great detail what we’ve been talking about today.

Ian: OK. So listeners out there of the Essential Tennis podcast, I definitely recommend you check this out. If you go to Essential Tennis.com/rx It’s Essential Tennis slash the letter “R” and the letter “X” you will be taken over to Will’s and Jan’s site where you can check out the introductory videos they are going to be releasing over the next couple of days. The next week or so, Will? You’ll be putting out some free instructional videos, right?

Will: Yes. We’ve got a lot of content to release that covers this stuff in the next–like I said, the first one’s up right now, and the next several days Jan and I are actually going in a second to go shoot some of the segments for the next few parts.

Ian: OK. Just so you guys know, when you do go to that page, you’re going to be asked to put in your e-mail address. Just a full disclosure there so you know what to expect. Will I know does not spam people. He’s not going to give your e-mail address out to other people. You don’t have to worry about that. He’s a straight up guy! [laughter] I know him personally. So I definitely encourage you to go there and check it out if for no other reason just to get the free instructional videos that they’re going to be releasing. There’s going to be what, 3-4 of them Will full of free instruction?

Will: Yes. 3 or 4. We’re not buttoned up on the exact number. And yes, in terms of spending the folks some e-mails, every single e-mail has a button at the bottom where you can unsubscribe and stop hearing from us. So it literally takes one click.

Ian: Yeah. So you are under absolutely no obligation as far as continuing to receive e-mails. Obviously as far as purchasing, whenever they ever release Tennis Rx, you are obviously under no obligation to purchase it either. However, I definitely suggest that you consider it. Because I know they put a ton of time and effort into this course, as you can hear. We’ve already gone almost 10 min. Over the normal time for the podcast. But as you guys can tell, the three of us could continue talking about these topics for a long time. These guys really know what they’re talking about. I believe that Will wouldn’t be offering a product unless he was really confident it would help your game. I really believe that.

Will: Yes, well that’s absolutely true. [laughter] Wouldn’t be a very good coach otherwise!

Ian: [laughter] Yeah, probably not. And Jan, I don’t know you very well yet, but I’m sure since Will is working with you I can safely put you in the same boat.

Jan: Well, I certainly appreciate. [laughter] You guys are obviously running a very professional system. I’m quite pleased to be part of it.

Will: Jan is one of the best coaches I’ve ever worked with. Like I said, the best time I stepped on the court I was just like, “This is going to be good.”

Ian: Nice. Well Jan, hopefully you and I will have a chance to hit some time. Maybe the 3 of us could. Well we need a 4th. Adam! There you go. Will, you have to play with Adam though.

Will: We’re putting Adam with Jan. If we do that, then I we might have a chance, Ian.

Jan: [laughter] We’re looking forward to it!

Ian: [laughter] Yeah, that will be fun. So go check out their pre-content here before they put out the product. You’re going to get a lot of benefit just out of the free videos that Will and Jan are putting out. Again, you can check that out by going to EssentiallTennis.com/Rx. Just in interest of full disclosure, when you go to that link, I’m an affiliate here, so that means that if you through that link and you actually do end up purchasing Tennis Rx I’ll receive part of that as an affiliate seller. So it’s kind of a win-win! I know that Will puts out a product so it’s going to help your game. And you’ll help EssentialTennis.com through your purchase if you go to EssentialTennis.com/Rx. And with all of your products I’m sure that you also offer money back guarantee on this, Will?

Will: Yes. 60 days. And absolutely. We rarely get refunds, but absolutely if for whatever reason someone feels they don’t get the value, I want them to get a refund. Because if we’re not doing our job, you shouldn’t have to pay for it.

Ian: Alright. So there you go. Risk free. Go check it out. At this point, I want to thank you guys for spending the time with me for the discussion. It’s been great having both of you on this show. Will and Jan, good luck to both of you as you continue working together, and good luck with the release of Tennis Rx. I hope that it’s very successful for both of you.

Jan: Thank you very much. I really appreciate.

Will: Hey, Ian. Thanks.

Ian: One more thing. I almost forgot. Jan, what’s the name of your book? If people want to go check out your book and check out more of your instruction, where can they pick up your book, and what’s it called?

Jan: [laughter] Well it’s actually being published as we speak. It’s going to be called “Tennis Revolution.” It will be available shortly in 2011. Right now we don’t have a launch pad yet, but Will and I will probably be talking very soon.

Will: We’ll let people know when it’s out.

Ian: Cool. Alright guys. Thanks again, and best of luck!

Jan: Thank you.

Will: Thanks. Later.

[music]

Ian: Alright. That does it for Episode #147 of the Essential Tennis podcast. Thank you very much joining today on this episode. I apologize. It went a little longer than normal. But hopefully you enjoyed that conversation as much as I did while I was having it with Jan and Will. As you can tell, 2 passionate people about the game of tennis, and just creating good instruction, so definitely go check out Tennis Rx. That again is at EssentialTennis.com/Rx.

Also, please do me a favor. Go vote for the Essential Tennis podcast as the top sports podcast of the year. That’s at PodcastAwards .com. You can vote every 24 hours. If you would do that, I’d really appreciate it.

Alright. Thanks again. Take care, and good luck with your tennis!

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