The GreatBase Tennis Podcast

On the 240th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Dave Anderson are joined by Patrick Geoffrion-Amorim. Patrick, a native of Montreal, lives with his wife in Toronto.Patrick was thrilled to converse with Dave Anderson for the first time. Patrick is a young passionate coach who understands the benefits of circulating around veteran coaches. In addition to working with Steve, Patrick has also spent a great deal of time with Danny Cooper, Frank Hornig, Richard Hernandez and Miron Mann. Like Dave, these four individuals thoroughly understand the depth and educational merit behind the GreatBase Tennis curriculum.Steve, Dave, and Patrick review thoughts pertaining to practice. The GreatBase Tennis curriculum was formulated over a ten-year period (1980s), during which Steve and his students practiced tennis teaching in a lab setting.Practice may be the most important word connected with achievement in all sports. 

On the 239th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith, Ivan Ozerets and Dave Anderson interview David Geatz. What a delight for our listeners to listen to Coach Geatz! Simply put, the native of North Dakota is a delightful man. We promise to have Coach Geatz on our podcast again. Based on his humility, he requested to flip the script and ask us questions. Despite his request, we were fortunate to ask him a number of questions. Next time, we will ask more.  It's not an everyday situation for 99% of the tennis world to sit back and listen to an individual with so much college coaching experience. Coach Geatz coached four college teams for nearly forty years. For the betterment of tennis, we thank you for listening. And thank you, David Geatz.

On the 238th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith, Dave Anderson, and Ivan Ozerets interview Brandon Fallon. Their guest lives in SoCal (San Juan Capistrano, California) with his wife and two daughters. He currently is the assistant director of the Laguna Nigel Racquet Club.From a tennis point of view, you name it and Brandon Fallon has done it. The following list might serve as an outline to cover parts of his journey: Starting out with no connections in tennis, being a top five junior in arguably the US's toughest section, playing division I college tennis, playing French tournaments, playing German club tennis, pursuing a world ranking, coaching in college, working over a decade with competitive juniors at an academy, then offering A2Z programs and services for players of all ages and abilities.He also served in a leadership role with the USPTA (now RSPA). Brandon shares how he made the transition from being in junior development to being in club and country club management.  During their conversation, a special emphasis is also put on one of Brandon's specialities, running social events.If and when he writes his autobiography, an appropriate testimonial would be: Big smile, big personality, big heart and someone who is great for tennis in a big way.

On the 237th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith, Dave Anderson, and Ivan Ozerets have a conversation with Andres Barbosa. Our long-time associate, Andres, played college tennis around the same time the University of Illinois won the NCAA national championship in men's tennis.A former Illinois tennis player, Michael Kosta, has gone on to become a famous comedian. He is probably best known for being a regular on The Daily Show. Another indicator of his fame would be the fact that he was a guest on the Joe Rogan podcast.Recently on the Craig Shapiro tennis podcast, Michael mentioned that his college coach, Craig Tiley, had a ten-year plan to take his team from obscurity to the national title. Andres asked for Steve's thoughts on this comment. Dave Anderson joining in the discussion was ideal because he spent seven years with Tiley when they were studying the art and science of coaching under the tutelage of Steve.The old saying, " fail to plan, plan to fail " applies. Hopefully by listening to this session, one will find valuable insight into long-term development and the pursuit of excellence.

On the 236th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Doug Cash is interviewed by Steve Smith, Dave Anderson, and Ivan Ozerets. Wow! In regard to this episode, "wow" stands for "words of wisdom."Doug Cash is 75 years young. He is known as one of the best in the world in his area of expertise. Simply put, Doug knows the business of tennis. He was the Chief Operating Officer of Tennis Corporation of American (TCA) for over 30 years. To give you fairly accurate numbers,  he managed over 50 clubs,  over 2500 employees, and over 250 million in annual revenue.He currently is an adjunct professor for the University on Florida's Professional Management Program. He also is a headline educator for the RSPA (formerly USPTA) and PTR. After retiring from TCA, he set up a consulting business (www.cashflowtennis.com) and through this endeavor, he continues to mentor club owners, managers, and teaching professionals. We are confident that our listeners will thoroughly enjoy listening to Doug. After all, laughing and learning is a great combination.

On the 235th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith, Ivan Ozerets, Andy Fitzell, and Dave Anderson reflect upon the 2025 Australian Open. A wide range of topics were touched upon.GreatBase Tennis Education (GBTE) shares free educational content. Please consider checking out our website (www.greatbasetennis.com). One will find five courses with optional certification exams. Additional information can be found on other platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

On the 234th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Dave Secker talk tennis with Mat Cloer. Mat holds a senior position with the USTA's  Player Development Department. Their conversation is centered around tennis analytics.The saga of the GreatBase Tennis Education (GBTE) continues. Our non-profit organization shares free educational tennis content. 225+ podcasts, 5 educational courses, 15+ years of daily Facebook posts, 1000+ Instagram posts and much, much more.

In the 233rd episode of the GreatBase Tennis Education (GBTE) podcast, Steve Smith, Dave Anderson, Dave Secker, and Ivan Ozerets share their thoughts regarding tennis academies. Their conversation covers a wide spectrum of points and should serve the purpose of helping to educate the tennis consumer.Thanks for listening and thanks for caring about the growth and welfare of the game of tennis.

The 232nd episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast is based on a question Steve Smith asked Dave Anderson.  Steve asked David, "What should be a theme to help US tennis?" David answered, "Back to the future."In basing a podcast episode on Dave's answer, Steve stated that there would be no one better to address the topic than the legendary Chuck Kriese. To make an understatement, the words of the veteran coach should be heard.Richard Hernandez joined Steve and Dave. The three asked Chuck questions but unfortunately, Richard's reception was lost halfway through the discussion. Our apologies.Hopefully, our listeners will find the session to be informative and insightful. Most importantly, hopefully, our listeners will find the session to be worthy of their time.

On the 231st episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Ilja Semjonovs re-visit thoughts and principles shared by the late Don Meyer. Mr. Meyer was a basketball coach who touched the lives of thousands of people. His contributions should not be forgotten. He mentored legends of his sport.To take in his humor, simply YouTube: Don Meyer at the ESPY's.To read more about his story, read the book "How Lucky Can You Be" by Buster Olney.