Aaron Rusnak "Rush & Crush"
0:00:09.5 Jack Broudy: Hello everybody, Jack Broudy here living at the 45. Today, I'm with Aaron Rusnack. We've just met a few months ago through Facebook and through a friend, a mutual friend... Right. Hobby air over in Chicago. Correct. And that's your area as well, Aaron. Yep, absolutely. I will say hello to the people out there, would you usually get a couple of people...
0:00:32.5 Aaron Rusnak: Jack, thanks again for the time you buy medicine and talk to us with you, so it's.
0:00:37.5 Jack Broudy: A... Would be great. Plus, I think I'm coming out there in September, October or something, so I hope I meet you at it, some balls with you, maybe get you on some boards and see what you look... First of all, my first question before I even get started, rush and crush. I don't know where that comes from. Okay, why? Who said that in college? And some drunken stupor. How'd you get that name?
0:01:00.8 Aaron Rusnak: That was coming from Luke Jensen. He gave that to me back in... I wanna think that was 2001. He came out, we did an exhibition, him and Murphy came out doing an exhibition at Club... I'm a hole where I worked at the time. And you want to stay in touch with me, and that was right around when I was on start playing futures and stuff. And he's a die hard. He loves people who tennis serve in Valley, and so he was like, I love your game. He's like, It's definitely dying away. Try to keep it alive and all Tucows really supportive. And before we spend a few days together and the last day before he left in that... 'cause he did some other clinic stuff with the adults and juniors and stuff while you... There are there him in Murphy, and he's like, You have an email. And they're like, No, I don't have an email. So that morning when you left, he's like, Here you go, and gave me a piece of paper and I saw Russian crash at boog dot net. And I'm like, What is this? He's like, That's your email now. You say, so we can keep in touch.
0:01:56.9 Aaron Rusnak: So you basically create an email back then for me.
0:02:00.7 Jack Broudy: That is a class that is a great story.
0:02:02.5 Aaron Rusnak: As it's been that way ever since. So he beat the snot out of us and tennis doubles back around 2000 as well.
0:02:11.2 Jack Broudy: Okay, great player lefty, righty? He does it all serves a both hands, and he's a big beast, I don't know. Your big as him. He's a big up.
0:02:20.7 Aaron Rusnak: Now, he's got a couple of pictures that I might post on Instagram and that... Yeah, he's probably a good four inches tar than me and probably at that time I'll with me by about 50 pounds, so it's kinda like I'm built Morelli 10, 10 min. And built like a football player. Be honest with you. And yeah, amazing mashups-Cal space as far as the strength in everything you could do from Boland standpoint, I mean it's in exhibition, I'll never forget the very first game he served... I'm not a very observant, everything my opponent is doing and threw it on, he served the First Survey served right-handed, and I stepped in, I was looking to attack on the second tennis serve, and he switched it and hooked at a lathe out wide. Salman has me on actually, and he made fun of me there, an exhibition was like, Oh, I didn't see that comment, and it was just I rondout little kids and stuff, and it's like the whole atmosphere and tons of people watching, it was a great app experience, but yeah, after that, I learned my last thing at that first tennis tennis serve, and he did that to me, I was like, Alright, I'm gonna make sure I'm great attention which side this guy is facing when he's going to start to me because like I said, the court, he could hit the ball on the Donnelly.
0:03:39.3 Aaron Rusnak: Well, for both, it was Alabama. Yeah, I never, at least in my plan years of the time plan over 34 or three, five years, it's like I've never had someone be that accurate. I had a few players in my time who did tennis serve both hands, but not like I was like... If they served another hand, it might have been maybe a good slider, but they couldn't hit a cake, they couldn't get it flat, or it could only hit maybe flat the opposite, but... And that's only handful of players I've seen, but... Yeah, that was an unbelievable thing, just alone in the story, he told me, him growing up, basically, I would say football. I mean, his dad was into tennis as football was a big thing in their household, and I was like, He could grow both... Had both hands over 50 yards. Or how many people can do that? It's impressive as well to you... Yeah.
0:04:32.0 Jack Broudy: No, he was a great... Listen, you Claude played some pro for a while, you know, it's funny too, 'cause I remember in the beginning, maybe it was a year ago that I first saw you, I don't know, I'm guessing we saw each other about a year ago for the first time, and I saw your post and I'm like... And I knew your last name was reset... Am I pronouncing that correctly? Rusticated, so I figured you were rushed and I kept looking, where's this partner... Where is this part I kept... I swear for like four or five months, I'm like, Well, this guy takes all the glory where his crush... And now I get it. Yeah.
0:05:12.9 Aaron Rusnak: No, Luke was... Like I said, I was very grateful to medium on that time, and we built a really good relationship over the years, and it was just a really good mentor me as a player, just going through a lot of the things from the injury standpoint, but also just goes sermon, when I play futures and stuff, that was mainly what I play, I played from a Judah 08 and I only... For me, I only played two challenges, but everything else with futures and going through those, a lot of injuries that I overcame, but he was a great person, a good sound board to play in not paying people. Did I have an APT around me where I lived to talk to who's on a French Open doubles title with his brother and.
0:05:54.1 Jack Broudy: They were were number one for a little while.
0:05:57.1 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, yeah, so it was just one of those scenarios where to be around that person and to get the feedback from him and kinda like we've talked in past, his biggest favorite thing for me was my first volyn, like you were probably one of the best first polities I've ever seen not to be on TV, so that was... It was this quote that I always talked to me 10 years. So.
0:06:18.8 Jack Broudy: That's a huge compliment coming from someone like him, let me tell you, I played it myself, so I know, and he's all business out there, so that's Carson the reason I wanted to... And I always digress, like we did an air for the last 10 minutes on looked Russian crush, and I know it's one man, everybody... It's just one guy. It's funny in the opposite of like share... Donna, you have two names instead, one.
0:06:46.0 Aaron Rusnak: Nowhere, right.
0:06:48.3 Jack Broudy: I was so interested 'cause my tennis doubles partner or no bellied it in college, after college, we would... A couple of years would go by and then at 26, okay, we're making our come back, Ben at 31, we're making it come back 40, another combat. And this to me, looks like you come back to her. So I really wanted to talk to you about it because 40 is a very interesting age. I was thinking a lot about it before I went to bed last night. I thought when I was 40, I was thinking, You know, I'm feeling just about as strong as ever, but the ales start to come in a little bit more, so you know, older middle age or what do you wanna call... It's knocking on your door. But you still feel like... Well, I still feel about when I was 22, about to... And I noticed you're really pushing it hard on the physical end of it, you're seeing... You're not as worried about your game as you are about staying in shape, not getting injured, being flexible, being strong, but it looks like you're just a beast, it looks like you're busting your ass out there right now to me.
0:07:58.9 Jack Broudy: So number one, why did you decide to... 'cause a lot of my guys are gonna be interested, I got so many guys out there that are between 35 and 45 that are still just getting a great pal and still playing tournaments open is 45-50. And then a group in the Moses age group, but some of my guys are playing... A lot of my guys, I got a guy and time, our goal right now is to be number one in the country, 35, he's a very good player, you may have seen at one of our podcasts. So number one why did you decide to come back? Is it just one of those typical tennis player things...
0:08:37.8 Aaron Rusnak: Well, I guess a couple of things. I have this national event that I'm playing, it's basically, it's a benefit for all different types of cancer, I did in 2015... Back in 2015, I was in Las Vegas, it's still in the same venues where they used to all the Tennis Channel open at the professional Bennett, and back in 2015, I was already done playing, I was teaching full-time, and it was something fun to do it as a team, I've always liked the then stuff and tennis, there's very few things their team and... Yeah, and right after that venue, I got injured really bad with my back, in a shorter story of it, basically, I did enough damage in my lower lumbar nerves, nerves up and sciatica that I was basically out of tennis for to be able to actually hit a ball probably for about a year, a year and a half or so. Not even, it's machine you out of teaching-wise at the very beginning, it really just stemmed of me being a back support race and basically just tossing balls or just coaching... I actually took a college job just because I'm like, I still got my eyes, I still got my heart, my heart or soul, and giving back, so I was like, I don't want this to limit my passion for helping others, even though if I can't physically do it, myself, but it did come to a point, or after about a year and a half, the doctors aren't working or some of the best in the country, and one of the hardest things that I've overcome so many injuries with this doctor, I've already to nine different possible surgeries in my career, and it was the first time ever that it was not optimistic, that was kind of like, maybe you might have to look at maybe doing some type of desk job, something non-physical, so that really took an emotional...
0:10:26.5 Aaron Rusnak: An emotional toll on me to know something that I knew no matter if I made it as a player or not, I knew I wanna be involved with game no matter what, and I remember telling him, I don't care for A... To teach in a wheelchair, I just wanna be on this game, I love it that much, and my family knows it's my love of my life outside of my... Outside my family, and so that was a really huge hurdle just to get back to being able to teach the way I want.
0:10:51.5 Jack Broudy: To... Did you hurt yourself through tennis or you get a car, ran...
0:10:55.7 Aaron Rusnak: It was through tennis, it was all... The renter actually happened, I still never forget, it was a Wednesday night at a facility I used to work at, and I used to do all the conditioning with the kids, so I always wanna be a motivator, so it's supposed to just torturing the kids with a warm up or whatever, doing, I used to do it with them.
0:11:13.6 Jack Broudy: I did that to... In my mid-50s, I would work out with the kids when we did so...
0:11:18.7 Aaron Rusnak: And as you know, it's a great motivator. So it's not like you're just being dictated, you're interacting with them, and I think it helps them in a personal level that you're embracing the journey with them, you're making a memory with them and... Yeah.
0:11:31.2 Jack Broudy: You don't like to be told. They like to be shown.
0:11:34.2 Aaron Rusnak: Right, actually totally agree. And it just got on those things for that night, we did a bunch of different movement stuff, and we did a jump roping thing that me and one of the colleagues of mine, he was in the 70s, he was a main jump rope as well, so as an agent, we were just jump rope in these kids for five minutes doing different types of dynamics of John cope single A-side is all these differ things. I also noticed my right leg every time I was jumping, it wasn't even like a fatigue, it was just like my leg wasn't responding, and I'm like, well, maybe I'm tired, I've worked a long day, I did get that day I actually hit twice and I worked out for an hour and then I had my order teaching load, and I'm like, Alright, well me... After this, I'm just gonna kinda lay low and then also I gotta go to washroom, I go up the steps instead of going up every step, I decided going up over the other stuff, and also as I go up also I felt like a pain in my back, which I never experienced quite like that before, and then all of a sudden next, you know, I cancel my lesson today, I could barely get into my car, as you know, when you tweak something, it's never great 'cause I.
0:12:39.0 Jack Broudy: Othering going to breakfast, my wife tweaked her back just getting out of the car and come, he had to take in to leave her, do whatever she took right away because you do... You know when you do it, right.
0:12:53.6 Aaron Rusnak: So I end up being... Well, things... For me, I end up being those things where that was a Wednesday, and then third, I took off days off of work and I'm off, and then all said Friday, my wife had a doctor's appointment. I went with her and I went to sit in the chair, I went to sit in a waiting area and just my bottom hitting the soft cushion sent me into this really bad spasm that I've never experienced before and are... So long story short, I got worse and by that later that day I was in the hospital.
0:13:20.7 Jack Broudy: It sounds like a bit nerve...
0:13:22.7 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, no, yeah, it was... It was pinching a couple of hers in May 4, Liana got pinched in. Am I saying I got inflamed? So it all just kinda got haywire and it was just a long... A lot of different types of treatments throughout the way, but there was a great chiropractor I saw was a... Was Dr. Sean Allan was a mail helps, he's different than normal chiropractor, he didn't do all this adjustment stuff, it was really understanding what they started with it, as I was saying, we understand the gate of the feet and started doing some of my feet and then redoing a lot of footwork and a lot of certain other types of work to help stabilize that, and he really helped me through my journey and get me going that way, and I'm really grateful for him and the time he spent with me and putting me into that situation, and so like I said, so fast forward, I did place the event back in 2019, which for me, I felt was a huge... Just to be there again, we talk about a... Yeah, that was a real big hurdle for me then, or this one here, just come back is, I think because of what covid, I think did everybody I know physically and emotionally, it messed with my head.
0:14:36.6 Aaron Rusnak: I've seen a lot of people get sick, my own family meeting sick, we had a few people pass away from it, so I really kinda affected me in... One of my stresses always for me forever, my wife, in this coming week, I'll be 25 years, we're gonna go, she's known a thank you. It's always been a stress relief for me to be able to get out there and hit and train it, even if I'm not playing anymore, but just to kinda have that player mentality still, and I felt like over these past few years, I kinda lost that. And so it amnesia re-self-discovery of myself saying it, these are the things that I need to have in my life, no matter what it comes my way, it's a great way for me to deal with stress. Physical stress, emotional stress, and all the things that we as human beings deal with, and I... Through that is for me, it motivated me that way, and then also I have a lot of students I've had over these two and a half years really affected as well, and I think by me doing this and a lot of my fitness...
0:15:37.4 Aaron Rusnak: As you've seen someone post, I'm doing it with a lot of the classes. I'm doing some of my own private lessons, I think is also inspiring them, I have a student asuras messaged me this morning that they just beat someone they never ended before, and I gave them a citation... No, thank you. Yeah, I'm really proud of them. I can't wait here more from him on how it went to match, so I know that this extra work, because this individual... One of the things was, as you know, your kids that are very talented and sometimes they gotta have the inner drive to want more for themselves, and you know as a coach, we try to inspire them, but at the end of the day, it's still gotta come from within that as.
0:16:15.2 Jack Broudy: Heanor love of the game, it can transfer, I think through like osmosis, but to get to that next level, it really better come from within... You're right.
0:16:28.6 Aaron Rusnak: And it does, and I think that I've had conversations with this particular young man, and then I had another lesson many, many years ago, that I coach, as you know, you're gonna have that heart-to-heart talk and say, No, what do you really wanna get out of this... And I think part of why I start doing is training again and basically leading by example, like, Hey, this is why I'm doing this, I have my why, there's certain things emotionally is socially that I wanna do this for myself, just like doing it for myself when I had to come back from the injury that I was basically told that I'd never be able to teach your players, do anything on this again, so even now it's the mindset is being just grateful and humbled that I can even teach the way I wanna teach the way I do all these years to be able to do it again the way I do it, so that I'm grateful, but this come back for me is to showing my kids that... Yes, I agree what you're saying. Over 40, their body talks back to you, I think I'm more...
0:17:26.7 Aaron Rusnak: I've always been into my body, but I realized when to back off on to push through and knowing, I think anything else, just keep evolving, growing, educating myself from the nutritional standpoint, the training standpoint, and then, like you said it earlier on you a little bit... Or about by hitting now, I'm not really worried too much about the hitting, like I hit today, it's like I said, it's more so making sure my body can sustain that level for long periods of time, that's my biggest concern as I've gotten older, is being able to sustain a certain level, it's not necessarily getting in shape to the point we're like, Okay, I can do these personal records so much better, it's more about getting to a level that I know they can sustain over a period of a tournament and be basically... 'cause I'm mainly playing doubles to be able to sustain a level that I'm able to help support my partner and hold up and physically, just enjoying that moment, that time with the peers, 'cause it's a team of five or six players, I just really try to enjoy that moment with them, because back in 2019, I did, I did play...
0:18:33.6 Aaron Rusnak: I did the level... My play back then, when I came back, I actually was good, but the physical part... It did take a toll on me. By the time I had my second Match of the Day on a Saturday, that day, I had a break in between. I literally... We went in a pine and I literally could feel my body physically was good, but where I hurt, my back was definitely telling me like You got a small window of playing any anything level, why before it starts to bottom through the match, we didn't win by made through the match, and I was just relieved that I was able to experience it because that also was really meaningful because in that event back in 2019, the main person I played doubles with was one of my former students that I coached to have that... To have that connection with him to... To kinda go through that, he saw me at some of my best times, and he also saw me to have some of my worth times on a personal level, on the physical standpoint, and as you know as a coach, you get those rare a lot of times, or certain students, I have that connection where they get to see outside of a tennis court and get to know you on a personal level, and I was basically kind of like a dad to him, he didn't have a dad.
0:19:46.4 Aaron Rusnak: And he was one of those kids where I had to have a heart-to-heart to him, and when he was in high school, he had a lot of emotional anger issues, and I just told him, If you're gonna work with me, you've got a single mom, Boston or, but if you do anything wrong, you're representing your mom, you're representing her, and if I take you on as a coach, you're representing me, and that behavior needs to stop now if we're gonna work together, and that one day I think that talk... I talk to him, it's kinda step through and throughout that time, he went through some injuries in college, she played Division in college, and already bad knee injury senior year, and I know you went through some difficult times and being... I had gone through so many difficult times and knowing those emotional things that you think about and all those things you go through, I could relate with them, and I think that helped, and then fast forward to 2019, I think you could see how much I wanted just to enjoy the moment with him, regardless of regards of how I felt that, I just was so grateful that I'm doing it with him, he back on the court.
0:20:45.3 Jack Broudy: And you're getting to do with him, you're right, you gotta enjoy the women... A lot of players talk about that, yeah, you're talking about something that's really interesting now, because in the last two years, we've seen some real... I guess for us old school guys, even though you're 40, and I've got about 25-plus years on you, whenever I hear you talk, you sound... I think to myself, old school, and I think athletics is still old school, but lately it's been a little bizarre to me, I mean, you had a SOCA pulling out and you have the mental stress and the anxiety, and a lot of players are talking about it now, if it... A lot of athletes are talking about it, I don't know what the difference is. If it's just a different world than it was 20, 30 years ago. When you were in the juniors, let's say you never heard about that stuff, you know, and it's not just choking 'cause we all joke, it's this heavy anxiety, so I'm really not sure exactly where to take that right now, maybe it's just the pressure of life, I really don't know, but like I said to me, You sound very old school and what I would just say athletic-minded.
0:21:58.3 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, no, absolutely. I think that I really speak freely for myself, and even as you know, coaching his ears, I think that the mindset before was if you had a mental breakdown in, that was a sign of weakness, or it was a sign of weakness, that person with a head, whatever however they wanted to label that person, and I think that over this newer generation of players, not even tennis, but just athletes in general, I think they're being more valuable, just sharing like, Hey... You may see that I have a perfect life, but I really don't. You see so many athletes from different stores coming out of different things. I shared on, I think, one of my Instagram posts that along, my wife does, my wife works with people with anxiety and PTSD, and I saw that, she does some really amazing work and I just see... I'm super proud of her, and just knowing how much things she's gone through in her life and think she's overcome herself and now she's using that and the knowledge she has to get back to others, but I think it's definitely... I think almost covid has accelerated a lot of those mental health issues, and I think people talking about it more, is becoming it more acceptable and more of a norm that, Hey, being upset or having sometimes not ideal positive thoughts always is okay, that it's a human thing.
0:23:30.4 Aaron Rusnak: To experience... I know for myself, my biggest struggle I had in my own challenges personally, and that was covid, I was at the point where when you're watching people get to really... I... My wife has auto immune issues, I watched her get sicker than I've ever seen her get sick in all the years that we've been together, she probably should have been in ICU unit on says at the very beginning of covid when we didn't know much about it. That was probably the scariest I've ever been seeing my wife the way she was outside of one meal when she got sick with autoimmune issues and not knowing really right. First, what was going out with her? Those were scary times, as you know when... Yes, you know, when a loved one gets sick, it's a known as.
0:24:12.1 Jack Broudy: I always wish it was me and my wife's sick, I wish it was me instead...
0:24:16.7 Aaron Rusnak: No, no, absolutely, I could deal with it. And so for me personally, I was one of the things where when you start seeing loved ones around, you get really sick, and my parents are in their 70s and I worry about their health and I... You know, family, and then you have people around, you got really sick or some people passed away, people close to us that died in interview or they weren't unhealthy, and it just is... You know, everyone's different, the way this affected everyone at different stages and different times, and I know at one point, it's the point where I got extremely fearful that because I was seeing people die from it and I couldn't just go... I'll be okay because I'm healthy. It became a whole... And I'm not saying a political thing, I just wanna say I just affected me, I got four foot...
0:25:04.2 Jack Broudy: The whole covid thing, if it really affected you had family members and this and that, you're gonna think about it a whole lot differently than someone who didn't get sick and didn't know anyone that got sick really... Yeah, no, I think it's political and they're gonna think, Well, it's overblown. So I guess, yeah, it's a very personal thing. So I guess what you're saying, or at least what I'm hearing is you think these anxiety problems have always been there, and we're not bigger wins than we were 40 years ago, it's just people talk about it or...
0:25:33.5 Aaron Rusnak: No, I think... You know what, I thought it was very interesting, 'cause I love the history of the game. And there was something that I used to tell my wife, and I'm thinking back of many generations back and name comes to mind to me, it was a guy named Stanley, Lou Holland, he was an amazing player, and I watched a ton... The 60... Yeah, yeah, much all these black and white films and how raw labor praised Him as they wanna greatest, but just never... His body failed them. And there was something I remember reading, it was at The Tennis Hall fame, and it stuck out to me because at that time I was going through injuries and something that back then, I'll see the way they treat athletes as far as illness, injury exerts a little bit different... And I'll see what we do now. And something was how he did a lot of pain killers, a lot of things to kinda mask what he was going through, and maybe think of that back then, there was something in a paragraph that was written, and this isn't a titanes, a write-up about him, and it was all about how he knew what he was capable of doing, but how his body basically was failing him and how basically he was asking is paying with these drugs at the time that we're given the anti...
0:26:44.3 Aaron Rusnak: Anti-inflammatories, all these different things, and I was thinking back then and fast for right now, I'm thinking someone like him, I could totally see how that could mentally affect you knowing that your level is there, the skill level is there, but the body is not a bling. And that's hard to take. And I know that from my own personal experience, I can speak fully for me, I'm not gonna sit here on your podcast or any time, and my friends who know me ever trout that I was gonna be some amazingly top ranked player, my dream was never to be number one in the world, there's many kids out there. I wanna be number on the world, my dream as a tennis player is my parents remember was to play at the US Open and a night match, that was my vision as a kid, I wanted to play in the most raw New York... Be the underdog playing under Arras Stadium at night. That was my dream as a sage. That's a class. That was my thing. That was my driving force. It wasn't a certain ranking, everyone I come across as you know, walks of life who played and try to make it...
0:27:50.3 Aaron Rusnak: Everyone in different goals, mine was to be the best I could possibly be, and I stuck to my guns being a servant baller on both serves, I never stayed back... Everyone knew in my generation to do. What was commentating as too, you came in on your second servant singles, that Conner.
0:28:05.2 Jack Broudy: Feedback. How annoying you were like resets or to Taylor dent or something?
0:28:11.5 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, actually, it was funny, my idol and tennis, my first, I know Tinashe plans who brought me into the game, who had interested me was on tragedy, but the heroes in that unless historically, but my person who I idolized my game after it was Patrick Rafter, he was my idea was the guy, there you go between him and Edberg and rivers esk was an LLM, but yeah, there was many sermon ballers. You on a Sparkman, you can go on a.
0:28:40.2 Jack Broudy: ManyChat morning this morning. Just for the heck of it, I watched a 25-minute recap of the Sampras theater or match while in the 5764 in the fish just this morning, and are both of them better or two was serving involving every time. What's more than he does now?
0:29:00.4 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, I think the thing that... On that little note there, I think that's the hardest thing. I think that's also a thing that I remember listening to on a podcast, I was with Paul anion, you talking about Sampras could not grasp about how players couldn't tennis serve involve anymore, say a windmill to why people weren't doing it. And one of the things that was so true, 'cause I noticed that even towards the end of my career was not only where the player is getting better, but the balls are being changed, they're more heavy duty balls that series trying to slow down. So people are getting looks at passing shots that you think about even when you were growing up, they would never have a chance to look at a passing shot, it... And I looked at it and I was like, it's so true, because I'm thinking that they made... They change the surface, so they all strong open, they change the grass of woman, so every surface, even though they're different surfaces, the speed was similar. So someone is... You remember back in the day, you had people who are Claypool S, You guys are reasonable rates...
0:29:58.6 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, right, you had all these certain people that were Busta or something over gear. It was amazing. It are amazing in clay, but struggled on a grass court, now you see players being able to go from one surface the next and not have huge hiccups in their game.
0:30:15.7 Jack Broudy: And you're saying it's because the game is sort of evened out, slowed down a bit on... Because I remember Sampras couldn't get past the second round of the French.
0:30:24.6 Aaron Rusnak: Every head-on, I had one long run, I think it one semifinal run, I think ever... I think that was... It just said... I think that's a thing like right now, like me watching a crested the finals or Newport, I play at Newport, and it's like, that's old school grass. That's the way grass was... It's like the first time I ever played grass and the only time I paras was actually at Newport, and it was imminent Ona vent actually, and I actually loved it. It enhanced everything in my game, everyone came that much better, every survey came that much better, and.
0:31:02.8 Jack Broudy: Player played to all your strengths...
0:31:04.7 Aaron Rusnak: Oh yeah, and then end players who normally stayed back, struggle because of the balls, you know, skidded through the court or the ball, if it did not going fast, ly stayed very low and employers had to play it at much slower.
0:31:16.4 Jack Broudy: Interesting, and now that I think about it, back in the 70s, when the guys would try to come in on Clay, they would get hooked because the lot was used a lot more. When I think of orontes, Bela and board, my God, they had the most incredible Topspin labour see jobs anymore. But it was used a lot back that, so that I didn't even think about the ball change.
0:31:42.7 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, even when I played futures, what was interesting was, is in the early 2000 I was playing... It was something I noticed, I don't know if all my friends know it, but I noticed was when in the first few years I played, they used regular regular duty US Open balls, and then right around maybe 2005, I wanna say it was... I started noticing, at least at the future levels I was playing, I started using heavy duty US Open balls, no, it's not a huge drastic change, but it's a change stuff... Most of the venues I play that were hard for us, I only played one futures event in clay, but it still made a difference to me, the way I played...
0:32:23.1 Jack Broudy: Well, I never really talk about it. I mean, the only difference I ever thought it was like the obvious difference, the rackets were more powerful, bigger, and the grips got smaller and the strings obviously they got a lot better over the years, and I never thought about the ball itself. See, I'm here in Colorado now. I was in California most of my life, and I can tell you here, you have to use a heavy duty ball because you are a mile high, so the balls fly here, so you can't Stargate quality.
0:32:58.5 Aaron Rusnak: For... So funny is actually outside of Newport, who Allen favorite or My best success in my plan... Creosote in California. Oh, really? Southern California. Yeah, whether it's Claremont.
0:33:13.8 Jack Broudy: I know that too. I've been there been Carlson, cared. You play at The Barn Center, or do you play a poorly field and see...
0:33:24.5 Aaron Rusnak: So here's the finding, so one of my coaches who lived here moved to San Diego, his wife, a school teacher in his San Diego District, and he was John topper. He was working at the time at... Oh my God, the cost a tennis resource as bad...
0:33:46.5 Jack Broudy: Yeah, five minutes from my house.
0:33:48.2 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah. He was working side by side with Skipper dando.
0:33:52.5 Jack Broudy: I know very, very well in... I know the whole Redondo family, but I just... Well, yeah.
0:33:57.9 Aaron Rusnak: Great family and a train out there, and what was so funny is when I went out there, I played the men's national events in 2006 there, and I played a... I think he was a sophomore or junior. For a USC, I lost two and three sets first from... And when I first came out there, I had really no one to hit with, and my coach had just moved down the ulema three months prior to it, but during that time when I was out there, he was nice enough, he kinda got me connected, and so we skip, they got me cacti with one of your former student, Steve foreman. I hit with him and Steve was... Steve was a man, him or playing out of the Bobby Riggs tests.
0:34:42.7 Jack Broudy: Where I was a pro. I probably saw it up at one, I saw you... I was a pro there, how funny. So.
0:34:48.9 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, so at the time, Larsson, you watch this play.
0:34:53.4 Jack Broudy: That was a... A and everything else. Yeah, Larry, I were very good friends in the juniors. Kanal guy.
0:35:01.8 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, no, go. Yeah, what was so funny is actually he was born in Elmhurst, Illinois.
0:35:06.1 Jack Broudy: Oh no, I didn't know that. Yeah, he was.
0:35:07.5 Aaron Rusnak: Born in Illinois, so I was like, I never knew that I oiled. I'm like, where did you grow up? And I say policy, he was born Elmer, live here a little bit. Then he moved to California, but.
0:35:17.0 Jack Broudy: I didn't know. That's funny, I know his brother too. I took lessons from his older brother, Steve.
0:35:21.4 Aaron Rusnak: Okay, okay, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to think of the guy's name, but... Yeah, there was another guy that worked there. But his brother was the head director and head pro at the Decatur tennis center where there was the future indicator to cater at Georgia, right? Decade no, Illinois. It was a nanoscale Illinois. I'm trying to get the guy's name now, I think the brother's name is Steve, but anyways.
0:35:47.2 Jack Broudy: So for it, you hit with forming over at Bobby Riggs, that's case must have been...
0:35:52.9 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, we played sets and I fell membranous to thank you saying it made fun of me. You don't ever stay back to you, 'cause I literally would chip and charge off of Steve tennis serve and come in, so I've shipping, I'd smack it and come in and he's like, You never try to build that.
0:36:10.6 Jack Broudy: In a day. How do you do on those sets or... Don't you remember? Just practice sets.
0:36:15.7 Aaron Rusnak: They're a practice that's... I think, to be honest, the only the last one I can remember, I think Steve.
0:36:20.8 Jack Broudy: Me, 64, is the guy was a... We traveled for 10 plus years together. I mean, one kid was good, I number one on the country and I've chopped up maybe five gold balls, maybe seven or eight call doubles balls with Steve Johnson, he's good, he... Not height seems like a... No, Odetta big tennis forehand.
0:36:45.8 Aaron Rusnak: Remember, I was just gonna say it's tennis forehand. Yeah, don't let that Paul said he escorted, but...
0:36:54.8 Jack Broudy: Interesting, that's really funny. So back, back to today, fast forward, so you were into 2015, and so now we're seven years later, when I'm watching you... I watch you every day, I don't know if you noticed, I always hit the like button 'cause I'm like, Am I love to see that? And he's a beast. So yes, so now, like I said, you're really... You're running the hills with your kids, you're running around the cones, and you really drive your kids hard. It reminds me of someone like Andy Murray, 'cause he doesn't really... I don't think he plays more than a couple of hours a day, but I'll bet it's in the gym four hours, I'll bet he's doing physical work four hours a day, and maybe 10 is two... That's my guess, is that kind of what you're doing now is just a couple of hours of tennis and then just be working on what... Flexibility, strength, speed, all that stuff.
0:37:52.9 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, right now, to be honest with you. So I still have a heavy teaching load and a lot of... It's funny, a lot of kids, I teach a very in-level, most of the kids now everything goes on, but yet it was one in rankings, really? Two to 12. Yeah, so it's like I could have four and a half out, I could have a lot of trial work with, so I still do a lot of hit in my lessons, I'd probably say every hour, less than... I'm probably doing 25-30 minutes at the time you.
0:38:20.3 Jack Broudy: Were... You gotta warm up and do the quick balagtas.
0:38:26.1 Aaron Rusnak: Probably... My typical week will look like I'll work up... We'll say a 40-hour work week, but of a heady time of my day, I'm at work, I'm probably doing 45 minutes a couple of times a week up hating where I'm working on stuff on the court myself, I have some really great colleagues who are like... They're like, I'm a glorified hitting partner, whatever you need to work on, so they're helping me work on stuff that I know that as you know your game, you know the things you gotta work on, 'cause you know those are the things that are gonna win you the points, and that's what I gotta get feeling good about and yeah, the rest of the time. It's a lot of fitness, it's a lot of... You said the hill running, I was... I'm a resistant band training special, so I do a lot of band stuff.
0:39:07.3 Jack Broudy: I don't know much, but I've done some of that stuff, but I know enough to be dangerous. I really don't have much information on that. So that's a whole thing with the band, with the board, the Brody board, I've used it with those things to try and strengthen from my core, I really like the bands and I like the idea of it, but I never got into it, so... You're a real expert at that one...
0:39:32.3 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, so band started bastar with me a long, long time ago back when I was playing, but never really educate myself more than we'll say the basic exercises or knowledge of it, and then right on I had gotten an injury with my back, I was like, Alright, well, if I can't do everything tennis, my other passion is fitness, so I'm like, Alright, well, I really believe in what bands can do, and there's a guy is a...
0:39:55.7 Jack Broudy: It's resistance training.
0:39:56.9 Aaron Rusnak: Right? Different Trains, right? And this guy's name is Dave Smith, he's called the band man, he's out Germantown, Wisconsin. And he has a schooling there, he's got...
0:40:08.2 Jack Broudy: I'll have to check them out and send me a link, I'll have to check.
0:40:10.4 Aaron Rusnak: About... Absolutely, he's really the one who got me into really hard core doing it, basically, because what I liked about him is there's other people that were bad ban people per se, but he was a former football player, but he also a PPT specialist, and he formed this whole system for Asian athletes or people who live the chronic pain, and create systems on how to basically help people create ranges of motion that their body wouldn't have let them to do, and basically using bands to help assist them to be able to get into a range of motion that their body typically wouldn't be able to go into from example, like a certain squat or a certain lunch, you can use bands in certain ways to actually allow a person to go down into a deeper squat or deeper loneliness.
0:41:00.5 Jack Broudy: You have it for leverage and balance sure.
0:41:02.5 Aaron Rusnak: Right, correct. And the other thing that I like for bands is sometimes... The thing is, sometimes bands can get... In some ways, I'm gonna rap about certain things about... You can't build muscle like You can't... Latino me, at least I can speak really my age, my whole thing is all about maintaining what I have, I can still improve things, you can still increase the ranges of motion and get stabilized through ranges, I use bands and is metrics, a lot of body weight training, so I'm not really big, and way is not saying I'm not against it, it's just that at my age and knowing the injuries I've priced at in my own career, I don't go that route, but for me, it's more about being able to control my body throughout a range, so I see we can go into a range and know that I'm gonna see my body can handle the load as opposed to going into a range that my body can't handle load, and then.
0:41:51.4 Jack Broudy: That makes sense because with the band, you're not gonna be... It's not gonna be like free rates. Yeah, it sounds like it's safer actually...
0:42:00.8 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, so for example, think of it just as simple... As an example, I think I was just so straight like we'll just say over Ed Press. The Band's hardest point of resistance is at the top of the peak is a headstart, and it's actually most of the time, more times than not, that's where the injury normally stems from. So the great thing I like about bands, it helps people learn how to control deceleration, that's where most injuries come from, so you think about... Let's say now I'm in tennis, you think about looking in football where a guy's back back peddling all... So you go to slow down and make a cotton also boom. He hurt his hamstring. Early think I get baseball, the guys running to the base and he goes to slow down to hit the base and make a move, and also the same thing pulls up a Quad, A hamstring or cap, something goes... You can use bands to train those motions, more of like that eccentric loading phase, you can train it so that you're stronger in those areas, so your likelihood of getting injured is decreased, so it's kinda like I was tired at jump roping.
0:43:01.3 Aaron Rusnak: We're talking a little bit about John's like, I love jump roping. I try to premise it 'cause I was talking about when I set my feet, but it's just like, I'm always... At my age and my training regimen now I'm looking at how are ways that I can push my body to a certain limit that I know I'm going to get the games or they get into a certain things I need to be able to get into and have the repetitions and doing it and not get hurt. So bands is one of those things you just like that hill stuff, you see me post with Hill stuff, I do band stuff on the hill, I do different time.
0:43:34.9 Jack Broudy: We'll start posting that stuff because I gotta tell you, a month ago when I was watching it, he said, Oh, I'm gonna go back into it. I don't know, I got inspired. Thank you. And I bought a jump Road, and I decided even at my grand old age, I thought, Well, what the heck, I'll start jumping rope again, but the band sound like a smarter thing for me to even be doing...
0:44:00.1 Aaron Rusnak: Well, my thing is, when I started getting injured a lot, those that know me when I played future in that, they wanna know how I play, but they also knew how injury-prone was. And a lot of it was because of a couple of things. One was over-training, I didn't listen to my body when I was in pain, I pushed through... Sure, He's kind of old school, as you know, it's kind of like the.
0:44:18.6 Jack Broudy: The don't be a whip and just push through this, like what in there to thank you to say, we used to run up and Palo Alto together, I guess they would pay it doubles and we were real pals. We'd be running and because you hurt, I go, Yeah, I have a little cramp. He goes, panipat is groovy at... This is back in the 70s, right? Yeah, yeah, he would go... Just say that to yourself, just Larry as he was a card man that I know that guy worked hard to... Oh man, he was an artist working guy in the juniors I ever met my guys like foreman and Sam and those guys, they were so bloody talent. They never did shit. I mean, Stephen foreman. He never did weights, I begged him and I tried to get him to read. I took him to a yoga class once, he's gonna get so marinos, I published this and he watches these. So it's bad. I took a new yoga class when he was 14, he brought in... I was so embarrassed, he brought in fries for McDonald's and he's doing the stretches... And he's eating the fries.
0:45:21.3 Jack Broudy: I was born, I was freaking mortified. I said, Steve, you embarrass me. I know this 'cause I used to do a lot to other... Back in the 7, 90, and I said, You're embarrassed me. And I was so mad at him. But I mean, those guys didn't do shit, they just played by... They were Oracle's Big, Steve forming big. They just played ball and they didn't do any of that stuff, but that's a funny thing. Now.
0:45:51.9 Aaron Rusnak: It's funny because it's going back over, it's like even in Juniors, it was not maybe the biggest guy out there, but it's like I tell the kids now that I teach in these group classes or I probably let me go... I have a fitness background from going back from my dad and my grandpa, my grandpa, my mom's side, he was a professional body biller, who was on the magazines and the forehead back then, most of it was all upper body and chicken legs. That's right. But one of the things that they really stemmed into me is the hard work will always pay off, and.
0:46:29.6 Jack Broudy: My father too that that's all shit.
0:46:32.0 Aaron Rusnak: Right? Sound embraced the suffering and... And I told these kids, I said when I told a story, these kids actually was two weeks, we go in this group that I worked with at my one job, and I said something, kids like, I have trouble handling a heat, and I said how I overcame and I said, I did. I said when I was 13 years old, I really see more sweats, right? Yeah, well, what I used to do, I told me, said there was a really steep concrete Hill Road by my house, and I would bike for an hour and I would go out at the hottest part of the day, and I would bike around and then I would run this hill non-stop for 30 minutes, I'd run it, spread it, jog it down, run it, do all different types of movements, I'd even bring my racket, I bring the old ankle Way to put him on my arm.
0:47:15.1 Jack Broudy: I was just gonna say... Yeah, it sounds very similar. When I was a junior, I would wear full sweats in the summer and were ankle waits, and then I practice like that, and then I match... It was felt a yeast.
0:47:28.1 Aaron Rusnak: And I would tell the kids, I said, You'd be amazed when you do this stuff, I said, at first I go, your body is telling you, please stop, but in your head, it's... You know, it's a physical mind fight, and I would tell my tooth exactly, I tell em, I said I would just keep thinking about what are my goals? And that's what's driving me to keep going, I just keep going and keep going, and you still make it. I learned to basically embrace the suffering and I care through my juniors, and I said, I used to love whether it was a futures tournament, money tournament, Newman, Jack and juniors, I said, back in the day, we didn't have the super tiebreakers is that you know, as you know you can be playing in a theremin and then you play it. A nine-point bar. Yeah, well, I told the kids, I said, I remember the days when I was in Junior, so I played three singles matches and sometimes two or three doubles matches, and all of them were full... 23 sets. Full set scoring. So you could plan 12 or 15 sets. I said, You would see kids like after two or three matches, you can see me in the third set, they're Walter and I'm balancing around, you know what's a mental part of the game or you're looking around, you send...
0:48:32.1 Aaron Rusnak: The person is fresh. I can be like the first set and you're struggling.
0:48:35.8 Jack Broudy: You know, our biggest wins were in three sets, guys that were better than me, but this is back in the 70s, right. But the guys are better than me, and they were cool dudes, right, they had girlfriends and everything, and they would smoke cigarettes and they would drink a little not... I didn't do any of that stuff until I got to college, but I didn't do any of that step in the juniors. Right. And part of it was mental, 'cause I thought to myself, well, I'm not gonna mention his name, good player in new Egmont top five guy, and he was in win for me, but yeah, I was down for one and the third, and all I could think mentally was I saw that guy last night, I saw him smoking a cigarette with these girls, and I saw him drinking up here, I deserve to win this match, so number one, it was mental, and number two, I really think I outlasted him 'cause I came back and beat in five and the third. And I really do believe that between the mental part, in the physical part, yeah, guys like us, you know, it might not have been the best guys...
0:49:32.9 Jack Broudy: We can outlast players. You know, I'd be the last one standing, so to speak.
0:49:37.6 Aaron Rusnak: Well, it's a funny... As you mentioned that, it's funny because I never... Well, I physically never had my first alcoholic drink, I should drink until it's like 28 years old, and what was so funny, I was at... I was at a blue, so my wife got a kick out of me because I went and played my first futures of... That was actually a decade. And then I know if I was gonna get into it or not, I drove the three and half hours to go down and sign in, and I remember playing all the Southern Illinois futures and I feel are future throughout this time I played for that first summer, just to see, was it even go enough to compete at that level? So I was there and I'll never forget, I played it. I won't mention their names, but I play the futures in God free and these guys were some of the best collegiate players of these schools, I don't mention the schools, but lully were drinking, partying all night long and her... I was on this guy to eight, right. I went to bed.
0:50:27.9 Jack Broudy: So I was straight As, I don't know. Two. Yeah.
0:50:29.8 Aaron Rusnak: Wow. And I would come in there and I'll never free this one guy, if I mentioned his name, you know them, but I'm not gonna do it, but he literally didn't sleep the whole time. And I remember telling my wife, I go, I can't get over this, that these guys are drinking...
0:50:46.1 Jack Broudy: You know what I taita, that talent. They could get away with it or... Not always, but they did get away with it, I always pissed me off 'cause I was envious, I guess...
0:50:55.1 Aaron Rusnak: Oh, I had a guy tell me to his name, but I had a guy, a room in it who was a heavy pot smoker, I mean literally would be high as it can be, and he forgot he came a room do with them one time and you... He didn't do in the room, but he was constantly high, he went through the Match, High futures Match High, he plays this guy who at the time was number two in the country for Vanderbilt, a good school, and he sees the guy 7676, Jack. The only thing that this guy they roomed in could do, and this guy... Okay, for stop. This guy was 67. So if you can imagine, I even... What is the one thing he can rely on his servicer got him through the... I watched the match, he changed every second ball, he thanked the warm-up balls out of the court, he couldn't get the ball in the court, and the guys from Vander both looking like him like, Oh my God, this is gonna be an easy match, and then you wouldn't believe when he lost the first set, this guy from Veles Lucius mind, because he's like, You know, this guy had two hands up all hands, he was like an Michael Gamble, a ring, two hands on both sides, so which means he's very steady 'cause those guys...
0:52:07.7 Aaron Rusnak: Tease a wall, and every time this guy needed to tennis serve, he was like a tampered pop and a or make it where the guy missed to return and then it gets to the breaker and he's like Sampras for all soloed a few returns, just goes for broke. The guy miss, and then he went to set like 75, and I remember going home, they were going back to hotel and calling my mom and my wife and going, I can't believe this, I gotta work so hard serving and volendam my first tennis volley and make him my return I playing real tennis, and this guy is literally high, I knit, and he's a sing people off the court, he's only wind to match because of the SERI.
0:52:46.6 Jack Broudy: Feel too. That's why... That's why there's guys like us, you know, it always seem that way, and it's an obvious thing to state, but yeah, the guys with all that talent, I think they take it for granted a lot, like us who have talent, but not all that talent, we just go You know what, we're gonna work like a dog, and it's just... I'll tell you what. It's a lesson to be learned. You know, and of course, when you get a guy like a dollar a fitter who's got both, then you got people that are greatest of all time, they got talent and they've got what we've got, which is, I gotta work harder, I've gotta work harder. Every day, federal ARN to drop shot after five years, and that all non-doll improves is served after five or 10 years. They're always improving. Gosh, let's not even talk. Joanie had to live in the shadow of Peter and the Dolores first four or five years out there. So imagine how he felt. PANOS really, this is great. And it's very inspiring. This is a really inspiring talk, I know it will be for everybody out there, I would like to do this again, I should wrap it up now, but I'd like to speak to you after the tournament and see how it went, if you wouldn't mind doing that with us.
0:54:03.7 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, no, that's fine.
0:54:04.7 Jack Broudy: Morgan, is it? Maybe a Atwater can follow you and go check it out...
0:54:11.6 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, no, it's... At the end of September, it's September 24th. They made a little bit longer in the past years on my head and play, didn't they held it last year, I didn't go, to be honest, it, I just wasn't comfortable with how bad covid was and ever still saline arms. I'm gonna pull the plug on the goal this year, but in the past years has always been only three days, this year, it's running Thursday through Sunday, were pastors... It was a Friday through Sunday, it must be a big draw, so the venue this year, it's the same venue place, they've taken a lot more team, so basically what they're doing this year is in the past, they would have men's and women's by five Men's and Women's Open the... Saw the national stuff, and then they would have four in over nationals, so you're plans actually gonna play men's basically meant 55 Nationals Open level. And then I'm actually the captain for that team, and then I'm going to be trying to be playing on the foreign over division, and then also there is a mixed doubles option as well this year, so I may do that as well.
0:55:20.4 Aaron Rusnak: I've never done mixed doubles, so that would be something new for me. I've never played next doubles, so that might be an option. It just depends upon how I'm feeling. So.
0:55:29.2 Jack Broudy: The only problem is scheduling, if you're in the different, three different divisions, it's gonna be it scheduling and you might have three... Four matches in one day.
0:55:40.7 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, so that's part of my thing where I'm waiting... If I have to let one thing go, it might be the mixed doubles because with the 40 over division, it strictly doubles, and the team that I'm a Captain of, there's basically two doubles teams in one single player, and the year I came back after my back, I only played doubles, there was no singles black for... Was just strictly then. And then in 2015, that year, that was a little Heartbreaker, realreal, that team in 2015. I was a captain that year as well, it was a really good team, and we be upset is actually Southern California with the number one... See, we upset them in the quarter finals and the semi-finals that actually with a team that we play, 'cause it's a fight... It's a flight system. Yes, double elimination. Yes, and the team that we had played, we had already beaten them, and unfortunately though, our singles players who have been playing got hurt in our Horry... When we beat California Southern Cal, he got hurt. So we only had five players, so we had to basically throw him into the two doubles position, they threw me into singles 'cause they're like, You're the finest of us all, you go play singles, and so I had not played singles in years to attend...
0:56:56.7 Aaron Rusnak: When you have to... Tsingtao haven't done that. Right, so our number one doubles team, they didn't lose a single match the whole entire time, they were a rock for us, they basically... The team that we already been... What they did is they... Through their number one doubles, they knew they weren't gonna win that. So they put their number one doubles team at Number Two, the sandbag, and they beat our number of two team partially 'cause our for one guy couldn't move, he rolled it ankle couldn't really move all... So basically, long story short, it came down to me, I played a guy who played one at Penn State, was playing futures and stuff at the time, and I lost the first set 6-4, I won the 60... Everyone, the second set, 6-1, and then I was up 96 in the super breaker only to lose it. 11-9 Nino. The thing about it, at least a aerosol, remember this? It's like yesterday for a nice logo.
0:57:57.0 Jack Broudy: Remember the one you lose...
0:57:58.6 Aaron Rusnak: Yes, so the nine, six points, like you said, when is that close to every team, every team's watching in the finals and... Long to short, I had a wide tennis serve he.
0:58:12.1 Jack Broudy: A ball off or on the ice, quarter of the ad court.
0:58:15.1 Aaron Rusnak: That was... I wanna say that was the ad court.
0:58:17.5 Jack Broudy: Okay, beauty kicked it. Well, you're writing or left. I left, I see a... You slice it, okay.
0:58:23.6 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, and he a hard through that through the juice... Well, my duce side of the court, I had a half tennis volley, which Luke knows my apolitical fires off my racket into the corner, the kid ran, smacked it over through the alley, through the alley to hit it as a winner, the next point I'm sort gonna do side I tennis serve, I come in... This time I had a ballet, the open court angle, though not deep, I hit an angle. He gets to it. He lobs me. Vegas is similar to Colorado. Most of the labs are going long, kinda the height, the wind, and then also just the way it was playing a... The most people there, everybody was talking about it all divisions that it was just really difficult to love, it was just kind of... Everything is blowing. And so when that lab went up, right now I thought I was going along, I ran with the ball, but as you know, instead of running the bone, I ran with the Bounce, so I messed up and what happens in the base lines there, like the real big fat baselines and smack dab on the line and when it hit, it's skated forward, so here I am like a kid running, jumping off the fence, lobbying the ball back, and it goes about two or three feet over the net and he just smashed it over, but the moral the story, I guess, or more or less the stories as I lost, but I could honestly say that I was disappointing, they lost, but I wasn't mad and I I...
0:59:48.9 Aaron Rusnak: Whole team, as much as we were just a point, we were in the finals. 'cause the team that won it, we be in the Aliyah, God. We had it on the... That we could have won if I could have just pulled it out, but the nice thing that they were all even same agreement was that every point from 96 on... I didn't make an error. The guy who read to come up with big sheets, it was not like I missed an easy Valley or I missed a return or I double fault it, I did none of those things, it was all credit him... I don't Armenian the Jones name now, but he earned it. He earned that, come back to win. It wasn't like I gave it to him.
1:00:25.8 Jack Broudy: It wasn't like Nevada, who missed the easy boletaceae three times. Right, I got it.
1:00:32.9 Aaron Rusnak: Right, right. Great. Yeah, so yeah, like I said, so I shall remember it.
1:00:41.0 Jack Broudy: I was gonna say that, you know, those matters stick with you, man. I remember matches from the juniors... I do, I remember Mannington, I won and once I lost one day, I like to do the interview, but when they sell interviewed me, I got gnarly stories, we all do battles out there screaming matches under hand serves, all kinds of shit happens to.
1:01:11.8 Aaron Rusnak: Be... I'll have to tell you a story of one of these times, one of my doubles partner with AWS in a wild card tournament, it real quick, Amari lost to match, who played at Minnesota, I played against... I lost him in three sets, and I double-faulted at 6-5 for the e75, but the serves in by a lot.
1:01:36.7 Jack Broudy: Ancoats was a double fault or was...
1:01:40.0 Aaron Rusnak: It was a double fault by him, and we'll just say that, but long story short, my doubles partner, who I've known since juniors, we travel together, and this is back when Craig Hailey was the coach at Illinois, had two of his players playing right next to me in the event, and I still remember those guys who was Michael coins and ruminants are playing each other in a tie, and literally I was just... I was like, Okay, I can't change it. There's no lines, person is no one for me to call on santhosh Scott spot, my doubles partner is in the bleacher, he goes, I haven't seen a call since that bad since by 12.
1:02:19.0 Jack Broudy: Or so other people saw it and he took the match from you on a dugout. That is cold. What did you do jack out after the matter to me, the part we... Jack.
1:02:30.4 Aaron Rusnak: This is the funny part of the story. So I am shocked that he called it 'cause it was very... I didn't have strong stir it off, it was way in... Anyway.
1:02:39.8 Jack Broudy: It's a big Tesco kick, second tennis serve in the middle of the teeth.
1:02:44.9 Aaron Rusnak: Back... Yeah, my body makes the comment, they start arguing, so my body decide through my buddy has not tennis shoes on, he has flip-flop on, he goes down the aluminum bleachers, the kid realizes that my body actually wants to fight him, so he grabs this stuff runs across the court, while Reuben and Michael coins are playing a point out, they have to call a lot, the kids gets hit by the ball, they're firing the ball back and forth, he runs up these little stairwell, another stairwell. Now it's a foot race. The kid runs past the clubhouse yelling, Help me, he jumps into his minivan and my buddy runs and basically breaks the sliding glass handle off the minivan, the Termen director thinks that my body is me, and I'm actually gonna be helium, not gonna let you... I'm actually laughing that I lost this match, and I said I've never lost a match and never felt that bad that I could care less that I lost the match, it was comical as something out of a kit, it's a circus. So the Tournament Directors like... 'cause I had to get a person to fix the door and it was a whole chaos thing in that, but it was funny, I laughed at him, I go, I go, I've never had a match at...
1:03:57.6 Aaron Rusnak: I lost that. I don't even think I could remember. Other than the call I said, I was actually laughing 'cause even Craig highly sitting on a bench and he's like, What is going on? Like you hear me, what is going on right now, you know.
1:04:08.7 Jack Broudy: I mean, that's the kind of love dogs partners have for each other, you know what I mean? The most partner was there to defend you, so I mean... Absolutely.
1:04:19.0 Aaron Rusnak: That... But yeah, so yeah, the shorter of the story... Yeah, I was like, it was comical, had lost, but it was comical that my friend did that, so... Yeah.
1:04:29.5 Jack Broudy: I can remember all kinds of gnarly matches, just like that, just crazy. That's feeling. Hey, cool. Hey, once again, thanks so much. Thanks so much for your time today. He really gave me an us to everybody out there, a lot of time and great stories and very interesting guy, you are, and... I'm happy to get to know you more and more, and I think I will in the future. I have this funny feeling. We're gonna do some stuff, I don't know why, but I think maybe you'll even be able to help me, 'cause like I said, I have my boards and stuff, but maybe with your straight, I always thought there should be an interesting way to combine the Brody board, you know the double swivel board, we just sat with straps, and I tried to do it myself on a half ass measure, I guess, but I bet you could come up with some really neat things.
1:05:22.6 Aaron Rusnak: I think... Well, I've very top before, a little bit before, I kinda think that outside of the box, those coaches and players that know me from this cagliari know that I build a lot of stuff and do a lot of creative stuff to make the kids learn, so... So yeah, I have a feeling that probably if you come out and then September, October, we get in the court too, I think I could figure our way out to help you out, so...
1:05:41.6 Jack Broudy: Well, I'll tell you what, and let's meet again after the tournament, 'cause I'm sure everyone out there is gonna wanna know, how did it go? How did you do on Mantis walking? Yeah, might take a week to recover, but... So you're just gonna play dubs, is that correct?
1:05:58.5 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, I'm just buying doubles. That's my sweet spot anyway, so my whole entire junior year career and beyond has always been that, and I think that's... If anything I could do over again, I guess it's probably... Things were different, as you know, at one time the ATP was gonna try to get rid of doubles as you probably heard back.
1:06:14.6 Jack Broudy: To... Yeah.
1:06:16.9 Aaron Rusnak: Now it's a big deal. All of a sudden, dubs is big, all of us sit, it's finally getting more of its notoriety, and as you know, it's its own game, I think it's special, it's entertaining, and as you know, most people play it, so...
1:06:29.3 Jack Broudy: You know, one of my pros has a big double thing, you know will be check... He does the tennis tribe. Yes, yes, I... Neri worked with him, we did a podcast recently. A great guy, and he's really into jobs too, and he's making a big push, and I think he's doing a great job, so...
1:06:47.5 Aaron Rusnak: Yeah, no, they say, I wish if things are a little bit different when I was playing, if I could have been just a double specialist, I think I would have just really give it a go, and I think my body wanna cooperate a little bit more, but if I have no regrets at Howard, I worked on that aspect. It's just as you know, as you know in your generation and everyone else, even the kids are playing out, gonna be always something coming out in me... Even this stuff now with the UT, I'm... The UT protocol coming out of some of the stuff that they're doing were... Yeah.
1:07:12.5 Jack Broudy: It's very interesting.
1:07:14.8 Aaron Rusnak: Interesting, I wish she was around when I was playing, I think I would have played that.
1:07:18.5 Jack Broudy: I... But on the other hand, it's a lot tougher to get those 818 people, and Smollett... I got a couple of guys out there right now. We'll go into Africa and going out to... Okay, they're going on over the bloody place trying to pick up points, it's much tougher than it used to be, right when in the late 70s, early 80s when I played, you wanna play some futures and challengers and satellites, you just entered and sometimes you had to go in a qualifier, and sometimes now you have to qualify to get into a qualifier, YEO are lucky enough to get into the pre-qualified, so it's a much tougher in some ways today as well, but you're right, I think things are opening up in other areas, I think people are seeing it that are not enough, people are making money at the sport.
1:08:05.6 Aaron Rusnak: I think that's my biggest wish for the circuit and just because when you lived it, you just see even... Even when I played in just so when you play, when you see even other people that you see the habit in to make it to the highest part of the game, and they just don't have the money and they get stuck is like our journey minus, because they can't get out of challenges, and I obviously they need better coaching or whatever it might be, there's some other intangibles that... Some financial reality, it's pretty sad. And we could talk another time with this way, it's... Unfortunately, when you have someone who's 100, we'll say 150 best person in the world, and they can't, they're just breaking even, where you have 150 best golfer and they're making a lot of money, and.
1:08:52.1 Jack Broudy: A golf has that lib fan, so that's even... That's a whole new opportunity for golfers, and I have a feeling what happened with tennis to be... We'll see about that, but I think it will happen with tens, I think the ATP and the WTA will be challenged by someone.
1:09:05.8 Aaron Rusnak: Sees... Agree, I definitely more anything, Jack, I appreciate you connecting with me in that and we're meeting up and talking, and I'll see it doing this podcast, so I'm really grateful for that and grateful of your time as well, and that.
1:09:19.2 Jack Broudy: You... And I know we'll say, I know we'll stay in touch, and like I said, we'll definitely get together, either together over there in Chicago when I come out this fall, or we'll do another one of these right after the tournament, 'cause like I say, people are not gonna know now how you did. And that's great. Now, keep following. You will be in touch for sure. Sounds good. Thank you, see you later.
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