The GreatBase Tennis Podcast

On the 158th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Dave Watts and Steve Smith exchange questions. Dave and his family live in San Antonio. He is the head men's and women's tennis coach at Our Lady of the Lake University. He is also the head professional at the Blossom Athletic Center. To make an understatement, Dave Watts loves tennis. Like always, there are a number of golden nuggets...

On the 157th episode of the GreatBase Tennis Education (GBTE) podcast, Steve Smith has a long, long conversation with Andy Fitzell. The two have worked on a wide variety of tennis projects for the last twenty years. Andy initially set up the GBTE podcast. He lives in Dusseldorf, Germany with his wife, Lio, and their kitten, Theodore. Currently, he is coaching Kim Birrell on the WTA tour. She is on...

The 156th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast is a milestone. We have presented a weekly podcast for three years. We aim to help tennis, and on this podcast, Steve Smith and Ivan Ozerets ask for financial help. GreatBase Tennis will continue to provide free educational tennis content. We would like those who find our content beneficial to consider contributing a minimum of $10 on a recurring m...

On the 155th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith interviews Constantinos Alevizopoulos. The two have never met in person. The young tennis coach from Greece first met Steve by studying a technical training tape and then thoroughly studying the free educational content provided by GreatBase via the Internet. The bulk of their conversation is about Stefanos Tsitsipas. Constantinos h...

On the 154th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith interviews Greg Patton. Coach Patton is 70 years young and has 50-plus years of experience to share. In a perfect world, Greg's passion and love for tennis is placed in a bottle and everyone drinks the Patton Potion. The liquid is magical and gets everyone fired up about tennis. The human spirit, altruism, team building, family...

On the 153rd episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Dave Anderson and Andre Barbosa join Steve Smith. Collectively, the three have over a hundred years of tennis teaching and coaching experience.  Their conversation covers the gamut; touching upon a wide variety of topics.  We are confident that our listeners will be able to add at least a few more golden nuggets to their tennis treasure chest b...

On the 152nd episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith has a conversation with Jim Rogers. The Canadian from Winnipeg, Manitoba has expertise in three sports: hockey, tennis, and golf. Their discussion covers the benefits of learning on red clay, the golfer's mentality towards technique, accountability in tennis coaching, the differences between European and North American tennis,...

On the 151st episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith interviews Nicole Erickson. She is a Mental Performance Coach and is based at the FM Performance Center in Boynton Beach, Florida. She has worked with numerous players and coaches associated with Steve and the results and, therefore, feedback has been outstanding. The focus of their conversation is directed toward her new online pro...

On the 150th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast,  Steve Smith has a conversation with Dave Secker. The Englishman gives us an update on his team. To make an understatement, the Wolfpack have gained a tremendous amount of respect based on their rapid climb from obscurity to reaching the NCAA team final at the end of the 2023 season. Dave also shares thoughts on Diana Shnaider, who played for N...

On the 149th episode of the GreatBase Tennis Education (GBTE) podcast, Steve Smith has a conversation with Dave Anderson, a long-time associate, and highly accomplished coach. Steve asks David questions with the purpose of reviewing technical and tactical information. Other pertinent points regarding player development are covered. Thank you for supporting and sharing GBTE. Our goal is to contribu...

On the 148th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith talks with Stuart Van Horn. They talk about the playing and teaching career of Stuart's father, Welby Van Horn. His record as a player and teacher is nothing short of elite. In his era, Welby played against the best and beat the best. In 1939 at the age of 19, he was the youngest US Open finalist until Pete Sampras broke the re...

Under the leadership of their head coach, Claremont-Mudd-Scripts's women's tennis team has won the national championship in three of the last four years. Dave Schwarz also led Middlebury College to two national championships. He is the fifth coach in college tennis history to win national titles with both the men's and women's teams. He was the first tennis coach to win nationa...

On the 146th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Andres Barbosa talk tennis. Andres is a veteran tennis coach who lives and works in Miami and understands our curriculum's history and depth.  GreatBase Tennis Education (GBTE) aspires to help educate tennis players, parents, coaches, and administrators. In addition to the podcast, GBTE offers numerous articles, five online...

On the 145th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Dave Anderson have a conversation pertaining to the outsider's criticism of their work. They plan on collaborating on more episodes to review core tennis information; which has been requested by numerous listeners.  Dave Anderson has led the tennis instructional staff at the Brookhaven Country Club in Dallas, Texas for over...

On the 144th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Andres Barbosa discuss their thoughts on the role of the sparring partner. Like anything, there are numerous interesting points to discuss.  The term sparring comes from boxing; where one practices techniques and tactics to enhance performance. The sparring partner in boxing typically wears protective headgear, a mouth guard, an...

On the 143rd episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith interviews Ricardo Acioly. To make an understatement, Ricardo's background is truly exceptional.  The expression, 'you name and he has done it', applies to his journey in tennis. Ricardo, who grew up just outside of Rio de Janeiro, acquired his passion for tennis from his parents and older brother. As a player and coa...

On the 142nd episode of the GreatBase Tennis (GBT) podcast, Steve Smith has a conversation with Stephen Baccari. Our guest is highly educated; having received an undergraduate degree in marketing from Bentley University and two master's degrees from Northeastern University, one in finance and the other in accounting. Stephen's full-time position is working at Mass Bay Community College a...

On the 141st episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Andres Barbosa have a conversation with Steve Robertson. Their guest is a South African who came to the US nearly 30 years ago with his wife, Colleen, and their two children.  Steve's youth was filled with playing multiple sports. Tennis eventually became his primary sport and his passion served as a vehicle for him to trav...

On the 140th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith has a conversation with Lenny Schloss.  Mr. Schloss is the founder and president of the Billie Jean King Eye Coach. The goal of his team of associates is to help all levels of tennis by researching the connection and function between the eyes and the brain. Lenny, an All-American at the University of Tennessee, played in all four ma...

On the 139th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith has a conversation with Andres Barbosa. They discussed the Pickle Ball Slam with Agassi, McEnroe, Roddick, and Chang. They also touched upon pro tennis, junior tennis, and other related topics.  As always, GreatBase Tennis continues to share free educational tennis content with the hope of helping tennis players, parents, and teache...

On the 138th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith interviews Ry Tarpley.  Steve feels strongly that Ry's story is inspirational and should be heard by older players who need to make technical changes in their games. Ry had already weathered through the competitive trenches of junior, college, and pro tennis before he completed an assessment with Steve. Upon reviewing the ineff...

On the 137th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Andres Barbosa, discuss a fictional friend, Rocky Balboa, who has inspired people for nearly 50 years. "Yo Adrian, you be walking down the street and you will be breaking hearts, you know what I mean." They also reinforce basics by reviewing the fundamental foundations of Elena Rybakina and Carlos Alcaraz.  Lastly, the...

On the 136th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Ivan Ozerets reviews the strokes that were covered in previous episodes of the podcast. Short clips are shown from previous podcasts that have Steve Smith and Andy Fitzell talking about the solid fundamentals for the basic strokes. The strokes are reviewed in this order: the serve, the forehand, the volley, the backhand, the overhead, the one-h...

On the 135th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Ivan Ozerets reviews the eight pillars of the GreatBase. Short clips are shown from previous podcasts on the mentors and teachers behind the GreatBase Tennis curriculum. The pillars of the GreatBase are reviewed in this order: Jim Verdieck, Welby Van Horn, Bill Jacobson, Dr. Jim Loehr, Peter Burwash, Mr. Harry Hopman, Dennis Van Der Meer, and V...

On the 134th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith (SS) has a conversation with Steve Campbell (SC). SS & SC studied tennis together in the '80s and, most importantly, both worked for the late Vic Braden. SC and his wife, Colleen, have a wealth of tennis wisdom to share. They currently work together at the Wintergreen Resort in Wintergreen, Virginia. Steve serves as the ten...