Academies

On the 247th episode of the GreatBase Tennis Podcast, Steve Smith, Ivan Ozerets, and Dave Anderson discuss summer tennis camps. Their conversation coincides with their efforts to produce an instructional tape for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). Almost all college coaches direct summer tennis camps.(The tape will soon be shared on the GreatBase Tennis Facebook page)The next few episodes will review input for teaching volleys, groundstrokes, overheads, and serves. Our listeners continually request that we review information, ideas, and insights on teaching basic fundamentals.Our position, summer tennis camps should be a fantastic experience that creates lifetime memories, plus children should be taught extremely well. In previous generations, summer tennis camps were the gateway to tennis teaching careers. To make an understatement, the success of summer tennis camps is of utmost importance for the future success of our sport.

On the 246th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Dave Anderson have a tennis conversation with Frank Butera. Their guest is a tennis teaching professional based in Boston, Massachusetts. The veteran pro teaches adults and juniors at MIT and the Marcus Lewis Indoor Center. He was born in Boston and then raised in Italy until the age of fourteen. He began school in the US without speaking a word of English. Yet he became an outstanding student and completed a degree at Boston College (BC).Prior to BC, he found his way to study tennis with Steve Smith at Tyler Junior College (TJC).  That connection initially took place thirty-seven years ago. The two have continued to work together to help people improve. Frank's passion for the game is second to none. He has a charming personality and an impressive command of teaching solid fundamentals, as Steve says. "It's always fun to see Frank, he's fun and he makes tennis fun." More importantly, Frank knows that if his players are always trying to improve through obtaining solid fundamentals, they will have more fun.From this episode, there are many golden nuggets to add to one's tennis treasure chest. Here are three:* Frank's number one rule: always try.* Frank tells his students to be players, not just payers.* Frank touches upon pickleball and states that one thing tennis players can learn from pickleball players is that sometimes you have to shovel snow off the courts to play.

On the 245th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith, Dave Anderson, and Ivan Ozerets have a tennis conversation with Petrus Koekemoer. Their guest is a long-time associate who lives and works in his native South Africa (SA).He currently leads a unique development program serving underprivileged children at the Rosemoor Tennis Centre near George in the Western Cape province of South Africa.Petrus has spent over ten years with the GreatBase tennis pathway. He has traveled to the US numerous times to work with Steve and Dave. Likewise, Steve has traveled to South Africa to work with him. Petrus has documented the improvement of his students through in-depth video work and skill testing. The progress of his players and coaches is extremely impressive. The historical and deep connections between GreatBase Tennis and South African tennis are discussed.  Other topics that are discussed: fact-based instruction for long-term development, the importance of a good beginning, and staying true to fundamentals through all stages of development.Another point of interest is connecting South Africans with South Africans to fundraise to help SA tennis players. In doing so, Petrus is making the effort to unite the SA tennis community. One Vic Braden theme that will surely help him with his efforts. "The dimensions of the court and physical laws dictate stroke production, not a coach's opinion or any unique theory.

On the 244th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith, Dave Anderson, and Ivan Ozerets interview Dave Sivertson. On the podcast previous to this edition, Dave shared information, ideas, and insights related to on-court success. The USTA national title holder and ITF international team champion has been equally as successful off the court as on. He is in his fifth decade working as a tennis director.  Dave has served as a tennis director for some of the most prestigious tennis clubs in the United States.Dave has written a 400-page business program for club managers and tennis professionals to improve the productivity and profitability of their tennis operations. The written work is called 'Net Profits.' https://www.netprofittennis.com/To name a few of the industry awards he has won are the USPTA National Pro of the Year, the USPTA Texas Pro of the Year, and the Lloyd Sessions Education Award. He is a master pro with the USPTA (now RSPA) and has served the organization as a speaker, educator, committee member, and officer of the board.

On the 243rd episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith, Dave Anderson, and Ivan Ozerets interview an amazing tennis mind. Dave Sivertson knows games within the game of tennis. The ultimate competitor keeps getting better. He has won multiple national championships and multiple international team championships representing the US.Not everyday does one get the chance to listen to someone who has represented their country. On this episode, there is an abundance of tennis wisdom shared. To make an understatement, his story is inspirational.Dave Anderson's last question leads to a powerful answer. At every level of the game, regardless of the player's age, a strong support system is needed. The session is worthy of writing and re-writing notes.

Dave Anderson joins Steve Smith and Ivan Ozerets on the 242nd episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast. Dave leads a highly successful player development program at the Brookhaven Country Club in Dallas, Texas. He has been in his current position for over 30 years and their program has developed 400 plus college tennis players.Dave shares his thoughts on having recently attended this year's Easter Bowl. The information and insights should be beneficial to all connected to junior players with competitive goals. Congratulations to all the participants of this year's event. To make an understatement, being accepted into the event is no easy feat. The sacrifices made by the parents to be on a path to the Easter Bowl and beyond is anything but simple.

On the 241st episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith's guest is Patrick Geoffrion-Amorim. Patrick, a native of Montreal, currently coaches and works in Toronto. He accompanied a dozen or more kids to the Wintergreen Resort in Wintergreen, Virginia, for a two-week immersion camp with Steve. One of the highlights of their trip was traveling to the University of Virginia (UVA) for two doubleheaders. The UVA men's and women's tennis teams played Cal Berkeley on Friday and Stanford on Sunday. Patrick's passion for tennis shines through in this episode. Listeners are assured of learning. College tennis is truly special, and hopefully, Patrick and Steve's input paints a picture that encourages people to attend college matches each and every year.Thank you!

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.