Todd Dissly: Nor Cal Tennis Director Growing the Game

June 2, 2022
Written By: Jack Broudy
Todd Dissly: Nor Cal Tennis Director Growing the Game

0:00:10.8 Jack Broudy: Hi, and welcome to live in it to 45. I'm your host, Jack Brody, and today I'm with a very good, long time tennis friend and a phenomenal coach, I mean the tenant under King in the USTA really, for quite a long while, Todd Dissly, tied, salona and wherever is... Listen.

0:00:32.4 Todd Dissly: I'm so happy to be here, Jack, looking forward to having a good time here with you today.

0:00:36.3 Jack Broudy: Yeah, absolutely. Well, for starters, why don't you mean there's so many places we could start... We could talk about USTA and the tenant understand of what you're doing in the Bay Area, now you've got four locations and you're really dominating a lot of the tennis in that Google Apple area that Silicon Valley, and I guess tennis must be booming up there, so... Wherever you wanna start, I'd love to hear it.

0:01:11.7 Todd Dissly: Yeah, sure. For me, I just kind of started as a tennis player, I was a tennis player and played Division 1 tennis, but I was never gonna be a pro, obviously, I was just physically limited and didn't have enough of what it takes to make it... I knew that right away. Way. And so I started teaching.

0:01:38.3 Jack Broudy: But you in a good ball, you and I had once before, a couple of times before.

0:01:41.9 Todd Dissly: Oh yeah, yeah, no, it's good. I'm in pretty poor shape, but I'm gonna get back in the 50s here, I think pretty soon.

0:01:51.7 Jack Broudy: You'll be proud to be... Citi just was on Amazon looking up leather, jump Roselli saw someone doing doubles today on Facebook, somewhere she was doing doubles and she got to 37, and I thought, Well, my prime... My record was 78, double, 72 or 78. I can't remember any more doubles, so I wondered if I can still do 10.

0:02:16.4 Todd Dissly: That's pretty good. Yeah, no doubt.

0:02:18.7 Jack Broudy: We're all always getting back in shape it... It's always gonna come back. You... Yeah.

0:02:25.4 Todd Dissly: No, so I knew I didn't wanna do an office job, I like people being outside, I found that I really was a good teacher and I like doing that, but I stumbled upon a couple of things early on in my career, and one mom you mentioned the ten and under stuff, it's really not 10 and under, it's just entry level. So having the right, the balls that are slower and bounce lower and having a smaller core in a smaller racket just makes it so much easier to play, so whereas before... And I saw it right away, whereas before, you take people dozens of private lessons before they get hit a ball and then they can hit the ball, but they couldn't rally, so there's really two things working here, we got the smaller court, we got the smaller racket, we've got the slower ball, which makes it really, really easy. I think about pickles, pickerel taken off so much is dogs small Corp, a smaller racket and a slower ball, so the entry is much easier, so I always claim that I can get someone to rally the ball anyone off the streets and less than three minutes.

0:03:37.0 Todd Dissly: And it's really simple. So it's a whole different progression, whereas most coaches... And this is why I really have trouble with traditional teaching models, is it's turn sideways, racket back, they drop the ball in front of you, you hit the shot, you go to the end of the line, you wait in line, and then you come up again and hit it's just you might wait years to have a real role... Well, you can't even really... You can hit the ball when the coach puts it right there, so now when you use the smaller cord and slower balls and then it's more than that, and that's one thing I wanted to communicate with you today, I see you people, I travel around the country, and do some coach developers and things like that, and then I see him out in my local area too, they've got the equipment, but they're still using the red ball is the one male, but they're still teaching, turn sideways, rack it back... Go to the end of the estate playing tennis, baseball, and it's like, all we need to do is teach how to rally, and once people can really... That's the fun.

0:04:42.3 Todd Dissly: And so by doing two touches and having a short area with the software ball, you get people in a rally and second, so that's really been my secret sauce for the last

0:04:53.3 Jack Broudy: Three is really amazing, so even the court is smaller, I didn't know that. Yeah, we would bring a little net or do you just paste or is on the court? Well.

0:05:03.1 Todd Dissly: You don't need anything, you just start anything in terms of progressions, things are much easier when you're closer together, you and I can toss the ball back to Rooney. Yeah, yeah, you're just... When you're close together, it's much easier as you get further... For the way, it gets... Magnitudes more difficult if you start on a full-sized court with a really fast ball, I mean... Yeah, it's hard to play tennis, but if you're on a four-foot court with a slower ball and you're just bumping it back and forth and you're getting your competence, your getting touches on the ball, no anyone can rally in its line.

0:05:44.4 Jack Broudy: You know, that's really interesting because when I think back and I'm older than you, and I knew you when you were really young, man, and I was just not that terribly old, I always... I never used the red orange green balls, but that's 'cause they really weren't as available or as I know, but I never believed in the little rackets because I always thought Well... 'cause I never thought in terms of what you're doing a miniature, I always thought, Well, how do you have any fun? I can't even hit the ball over with a little rack, there's no leverage, so what I always saw was the best was to do sort of what Agatha... Take their actors. And so I like my kids having that satisfaction of being this tall, but being able to take a big racket, like a big bat and just get it around, plus it also gave them that figure in that I talk about it, but the philosophy is completely down a different track down a different... You're saying the most important part about tennis, which I agree with, just keeping the ball in play, that's the most... Of the items, brothers Ralston.

0:07:04.3 Todd Dissly: So it starts with a really well-done self-rally, so I see coaches all the time, they do UPS, bounce the ball up on the strings, you see them doing to the kids, but you gotta do it right, you gotta get it eye high up here, you know where they're touching, and I use your Figure 8 on a self-riband touch, bounce, touch, bounce touch.

0:07:24.3 Jack Broudy: Or you have them go both sides right away. Oh.

0:07:27.4 Todd Dissly: Everything, everything is forehand-ed back and everything, I figured everything is a confidence of... Rito, your point about, there's room for everything, right? What I'm saying is, Hey, we're gonna start out with something that you can control and get competence to shorter racket, even for adults and begin makes it more manageable. They can control it, they can go, they can rally by themself, and then what we would do, Jack, is I touch for hand back in then you touch for Him packets and I touch for hand bag and then you... Then we take a step back and before you know it, we're having this figure at all, are you going... Meitner, three minutes, you can take anyone off the street and take them through these easy progressions and they can rally

0:08:14.5 Jack Broudy: Not... Wait in a minute. Do you give them a condottiero 100%? So you lied, you start with a cotton on grip.

0:08:21.9 Todd Dissly: That's the baseline, once you master the continental grip in the self-rally, then you go to the partner rally, it's not the the only other grip I start to introduce, and I started with the continent of grip, because with the continuity before him back in half volley ball, and most importantly, you got the right crier, the Serve, right, of course, costs what happens in the traditional tennis and they give you that forehand grip, and then you get the player that's got the forehand, and then they turn it over the wrong way for the back end, and then they get the pop serve, the terrible serve, so we get them right right away dialed in right here, so that they're ready with their surgery, and then once they have that master dimes gave a forehand grip and they're off and running, and then I'll start to get into that.

0:09:03.8 Jack Broudy: Longer races, do you think... What you're saying is, Get that the whole body flow, but for a total... This is a whole different way of looking at it. And I can see why it would work so well, especially even, especially once the kids strong enough to hold the... I'm thinking, of course, with my kids, it was always serious ten, his parents, and the kids were four or five years old, that was to me, that was a real 10 undersea, more like six and under. But I was wondering if they could do it. Could they could have set for five-year-old, Hold the Conner and obviously you have to have two, four hands first back and versus I'm guessing is that's what you do it and then connect the two. Right.

0:09:47.4 Todd Dissly: Right, right. So we do a progression, it's to balance and trapped to the strings, so they have to learn how to do a beautiful syros, we start day one is learning how to do a baltasar Jane, because they have to learn how to toss it to their partners, so that's a progression to choose, 'cause we're gonna toss a ball back and forth and learn how to move and hit crosswords, and it's a real science people.

0:10:12.2 Jack Broudy: One learn any of this stuff from me, so where did you learn it or did you really just come up with

0:10:18.1 Todd Dissly: No no, I didn't. Candid, not come up with it. You know, I got hooked in really early with a guy named Kirk Anderson, and he is... Lee really brought me into this coach developer group years and years ago, and brought in all these great minds from all over the world, and he was the guy that got the 3660, the quick star and really started changing it, but it was a real science on the equipment, and then the progressions, and I can't stress enough about the progressions because the balls are ubiquitous now, everyone's doing, but they're not... That doesn't do it. If you're still teaching, turn sideways, racket back, stand in a line, you don't understand the importance of a partner Rally, I don't Jack, I don't feed tennis balls hardly ever. To a lesson, I'm not on a basket feeding balls.

0:11:20.0 Jack Broudy: I hear that 'cause I never was much of a theater either.

0:11:23.3 Todd Dissly: There's a time and place for that, but we have everything's partner, so right away, you and little Johnny Ryan, you're playing with someone right away, so... Yeah, so I got in with... I got with that group, Buch staples, a few other people, and Davis, a lot of people at the USTA. USTA is a lot of fashion sometimes, but these guys back in the day, we're really bringing in minds from all over the country, Mike Barrel, you've probably heard of Mike Barrett, took The Art of the beginner to a whole new level where it's really high... To me, it's really... People are very technical and tactical, it's not just bouncing the ball, it's very... We do things with the kids cross for down the line drills with six-year-olds, it might be on the ground, it might be one round at first or the two touching, but they're definitely getting the idea of... I'm gonna move them over there. I'm gonna go open up the forehand, go to the back, and

0:12:25.1 Jack Broudy: I have to ask you, it sounds like it would somehow in a back door kind of way, promote what we do as well, you and I, with the the hip rotation and everything, it sounds like the drills that they're doing a sort of getting them lined up properly at a young age, do they enhance it or do you feel like after they get through this, they still just poke the ball and you need to give them more of the stroke nuance...

0:12:56.2 Todd Dissly: No, no, 100%. So there are two big factors in my life early in the teaching world was one was the help from the USDA and then the other was you and getting the balance of both sides of the body and getting bilateral coordination. Social, yeah. So really getting... Like when I describe that, you see your figure right there when I'm doing myself really... So from day one, they're connecting the figure as the forehand to... So yeah, I get that criticism. When you use this stuff, they're just gonna poke the ball and this and that, but what we're doing, we're finding really good contact points, and as they get bigger, the stroke gets longer as it... As it needs to be, doesn't need to be a very big stroke, when I'm only hitting two feet away from

0:13:49.2 Jack Broudy: A... What I'm thinking is when you have a little rack and you have a six-year-old, I'm picturing it, and they're doing cross cord down the line, my first thought is Why? 'cause I've done that drill from the base line were younger and had the Wilson, the loans, but as a short quarter, it's still the same, you would have to deflect a down the line ball coming with you to make it go cross-court to change the direction, you pretty much have to be at the 45, not so much sit down the line, but definitely when you're the guy going cross-court, you would have to do it right. Yeah, so that's what my first thought was, it sounds like these drills just go really well for developing... I'm impressed, so... No wonder you were... So you were the head onto for a while, I often the president or something, big time like that, on what I was avoiding everything back... Yeah.

0:14:43.6 Todd Dissly: No, no, I really... I did a lot of workshops, and I do a lot of Coach development, training, trainer, training coaches, and then learning how to train... There's just so much more to coaching, a lot of coaches just grew up and they coach the way that they were coached, if their coach was a base slider, the they coach baseline, if they were technically used in eastern... Grip, you and I are learners. I wanna learn, I wanna know why, I wanna pick it apart. And so... And I wanna get to the roots, so I'm just always trying to learn from what... Whatever I can... So I just took examples from other people, when I started getting the tender, then I immediately saw the need for the adults, 'cause we do a ton of adults, and that

0:15:42.1 Jack Broudy: A little practice for them to...

0:15:43.8 Todd Dissly: Oh yeah. Oh yeah, really? It's insane. You'll take... It's incredible, someone with very little athleticism, and again, within three minutes, I have them bumping it, forehand bumping up back in with a partner, and then over the net, and then three minutes they're playing tennis, laughing and moving, and it's three minutes when you know it makes sense, it makes sense because lately, you know, I moved from SoCal and I'm living in Colorado, and you don't believe it or not. It's ridiculous. A couple of days ago, it was Thursday, it was 87 degrees. 85, 87. And yesterday, Friday, and today.

0:16:25.8 Jack Broudy: It's just non-stop snowing one... Man, I can't believe it was middle of May, and there's literally 8 inches of snow on the Aisin myself these days. Not playing nearly as much, right. I'm doing this internet stuff all the time, and when I play a video a lot, so I'm not even just plain, I used to five, six, seven hours a day, so yeah, I've been doing my little drill some lack or do with the two brackets, and you know it's still just playing tennis and we're playing with a racket, streams and tennis ball, so I can feel you... You know what I mean? It's just any kind of just giving a valve with some control is a really great thing, so I can see why the adult... I never, ever, ever considered it a...

0:17:16.9 Todd Dissly: Abdul is the biggest in the juniors is great, but the adults is amazing. So for beginner adults, we're changing the world, we're growing the game. You talked about, Oh, you're the top of this room, so I did get some awards and growing the game just because it's fun and it's easy. What's your SAT yourself making tennis fun and easy. That's the trick, not standing them in the line and feeding balls and going over all this technical stuff when we do go over techy, first fundamental is we call it the hammer grip, 'cause it's just easier for them to visualize hander. That's our first fundamental to get that grip down, and then it's getting on our surfboard stance and getting the contact up by your eyes and to... Once you can do that, you're often running, you learn those just a couple of fundamentals, and then I use in a shorter cord and a Sowell anybody can play tennis.

0:18:15.7 Jack Broudy: And what I see from that, of course, no, be... What I see is by having contact right in front of your eyes, you are ready to make sure that when you make contact, the ball is in front of your eyes when you're lined up a lot. That's really it. Have you got this all... You know, that's it. Have you got all this stuff written because when we should be talking about how to get this in front of more people really truly... And also, I'd like to get it on my site because this is something I think growing growing the game people in... I wanna see it. Why are we losing courts? Why are losing vinoba? And it's because of what you say, you're not having fun. Right away. And they coach, I even tell you, Well, you know, you really wanna have fun, you're gonna be a good play, and that takes a million balls, well, that's enough to throw a lot of people off... Right, right. Yeah, so of course, my questions or is it all just you and kit all in your head or a... No, no.

0:19:21.5 Todd Dissly: In some bad... No, no, there's... Like I said, I'm one of dozens of coaches that are really into this and I'm always learning, but I have taken it to a new level, and I've infused everything with my living at the 45 and contrary motion and all the Jack Roddy influences in there as well and that's one thing I'm doing is I've really turned internally to my company, so we've got foreman amazing program, if you've got all that in there, it's hard 'cause you get... You get people in and it's a process. So we do, in our company, we do monthly all-hands meetings, so two days will go through developing our coaches, and it's as much the progressions and the activities that we use, but it's also the other thing I've learned recently, thanks to the coach development from at the USDA as well, it's not just what to coach, the contact points and the grips, but it's how to coach, how do you explain things? Briefly, make sure that people understand you. How do you demonstrate things succinctly, and by showing them and then having them understand it, so that your message is communicate. So that's a huge part of this puzzle too, so I spend a lot of time working to my coaches how to do a proper demonstration...

0:20:56.7 Todd Dissly: I mean, how many times do you see someone you know at the tennis parts, okay, we're gonna do this. So when you get a short play coming today, the ball, you drop it short, it goes over your head, you can like, you do this, alright, everybody ready, go. And everyone's living around going like the heck did this guy just say and they're like, Well, you know, I think it's if you hit two... You see it all the time. You gotta be able to as a coach, as a coach, you have to be able to communicate effectively, communicate what you wanna communicate and have them understand it, so coaches are always just pushing information to people, but you've gotta pull it... You've gotta say, Well, well, why are we doing this? How does that affect you? When you do that, why do you wanna do that? What do you think? Because that's how we learn. We don't learn, if I tell you, Jackie, I want you to hit the ball to 45, I can tell you that 60 million times, but until you say, Oh, I wanna hit at the 45, 'cause that's the perfect place for a one...

0:21:52.2 Jack Broudy: It's brilliant. I actually just finished the book about six months ago called don't be afraid to ask... I think that's what it was called by trade. Goulet was a great book. Oh, cool, yeah, it was a brilliant book, and I think it was called Don't be afraid to ask, and it was all about what you're talking about, and so I found myself in the last six... Since I read this book, I started applying instead of telling people everything and figure out a way to ask them... And so that's brilliant. I'm just amazed. So it's more than just the drills themselves, it's how you convey them, is how you get the player to understand and learn rather than... Here's what I'm teaching to

0:22:39.0 Todd Dissly: That, yeah, you really gotta be athlete-centered in asking questions and follow-up questions, so that they are the ones driving it. It feels very bizarre, I have to admit. It's like you're going from, I have all this information, I'm the tennis coach. They don't know why they need to approach in Bolland, why you wanna hit the ball at this point, I know this. So you wanna give it to them, but you can demonstrate it, and then by the art of asking questions, you can get them to understand, Oh yeah, if I hit a deep ball, this is a student time, if I had a deep ball, then I can expect a shortfall and wanna get a short ball as an opportunity, you get them coming up with it, and that's where true learning happens. They learn, so one of my goals is training my staff, I tell them all time, what was your learning objective for this lesson, one thing, one thing, I wanted everyone to understand how to shape an arcing ball, I wanted to technical better shape in our ball and why that was so important. So when someone leaves the lesson and said, What did you learn today? And they go, I don't know, they say, Oh, I learned how to get it to shape that ball and how that creating problems and gave me more depth and then it gave me up...

0:24:00.4 Todd Dissly: You get them to actually take ownership of it and it's a... A better relationship and students get better faster and quite frankly, when you coach this way, it does feel foreign because we used to just push, push, push, push, and now you're pulling... You're just kind of like... You're a teacher, you're really pulling the information, you're getting people to actually learn, so when they walk away, they tell you what the learning objective is, so that's the ultimate test, if a coach and a lesson... And I say, Well, do you guys have a good time today? I said, What did you learn from the coach? And if they can all tell, if they all say, Oh yeah, then they don't know... Well, the coach wasn't effective, but if they all say, Well, I learned how to a split step and they gave me better rhythm and timing, well, then that was the learning objective, so that's a atonal walk around my coaches carts and just hobbies what you guys learn today, and you can tell when the coaches are on point because their students all will say, Oh, I learned how to really get a good balance today, and I know that when I have balance and a better control and a better power, and it's like, Wow.

0:25:14.6 Todd Dissly: Yeah, you learned something. Great job coach.

0:25:17.3 Jack Broudy: But I... Attentions all the time, you just have a pin point like that, I think when I look back, I'm like, way, I could've used some of this stuff. When I think back, I go, I'm thinking of some of my best progress, and they were always lessons, sometimes it was a clinic, and I'd go, Hey everyone, today all I want you to think about, Orford even talk about the batch, is see if you can get weight on your back foot to contact, so... Throw your back foot back. So you're lined up with the 45, that's all we're gonna do. And I only did it several times, but with different players, and every time the success rate, it was a great clinic, and everyone was like, I'm probably the best in my life, you know, just getting or saying, Okay today, keep your hips continues. Don't stop, make sure whether you're a ready position or hitting a ball, you're always in your figure whole day, stuff like that, and you know that... Just for me, it was, I guess, a crap shoot, but it sounds like you've taken it to a science now.

0:26:23.2 Todd Dissly: Well, that's really key, really having one objective because again, what happens in coaching is we get so excited with all the information that we have, we over-communicate and it's turn sideways and get it out in front, and don't forget when it's low to slice it or come to the internship, it's like Holy crap. Like, how are you gonna learn when there's 50 different objectives in the lesson, but if you have keep the hips continuous and you leave that through your whole clinic, then people can get it. So that's what we're trying to do, is build better lessons and have higher quality lessons and better players.

0:27:07.8 Jack Broudy: And all your pros are on board, all the guys have hired, you're a Director basically of four different clubs, tennis facilities in the Bay Area. Like I said, silicon, not... So you have meetings with them once a month. And everyone's on the same page now, do any of them think it's too rigid and too strict, like, Hey, nobody else has to do this, why am I doing this or all on board or you just give a ticket to ride, say... Yeah, no, no, good question.

0:27:38.6 Todd Dissly: It's taken a long time. So we started, which is just me in a court and a few students, and it's grown over the years, and one thing that we always tell our coaches and potential new coaches, it's like, We want all your ideas, so we're building the database, so we take everybody's information everyone's activities, everyone's games, everyone's technical stuff, we incorporate it into the system, but what I've found is we've had outliers, I guess that didn't wanna do it, but we're trying to build a company, a brand that has a consistency to it, so if you're in our operation in San Mateo or Mountain View or lost caddo Campbell. And you go to a rally one or an adult one class, you're getting the same fundamental, so it's consistent when you go to get the one-in, or here, you get the same thing is... For me, it's the only way we're gonna survive otherwise, my business is just gonna be like this, I get a good pro, he's gone in the business of... Pros are so transitory. They're always, always moving. But we have to have a base, so we've been building this curriculum and getting everybody on board, so you do have to drink the Kool-Aid a little bit, but I think that most people's eyes kind of even...

0:29:08.0 Todd Dissly: You mean you're a legendary coach, you're going like, Whoa, that's some concept that I had thought of and... Yeah, that makes sense. So I think when it's laid out and consistent, people can get behind it, and it's working so far, so good.

0:29:27.1 Jack Broudy: I love it, and I can help but think I do a lot of these podcasts, Leonov that, and with a lot of bright people, everyone's so it... I do someone, Dave Smith and I do somewhere and be doused, guy does a system in over in Monday, and the other guy, Dave, he's a big high school guy, but both of them, I think are very in towards what you're doing, but... Yeah, I mean, you're right, more collaboration the better, because I know Andy does a great job with very specific... And he travels all over Europe with this, just a nine and then day, and he's a high school guy, so a little... But he has 40, 50, 60 people on his team, and it refuses to cut anyone, which I think is a great... It's the only way to fly hand, he makes sure that everyone... They do a different way as though now, devil do it with thousands of tennis pros, but you do it in a whole different... You do it a little more, you're sort of then did your own thing, 'cause Andy, I don't know exactly what he does, but he does maybe a little the old school training, but with the balls, but he has some new drills from what I can see, but yours is really...

0:30:39.1 Jack Broudy: I think transit probably goes to both of those, I think they can both stand from it, that's why I'm saying, you know collaboration is the key.

0:30:47.5 Todd Dissly: Yeah, no, we've got great. You got a coach from France, and he's our Director of high performance in Mountain View, and the guy, he's got the spirit, he's got the energy, he's totally into it. And he's a guy that you would think maybe the message wouldn't get through to him, and he'd be like, Math, but we listen to him, he listens to us, and now we're a team and he... And I see him out there now is really gratifying. I was showing... We're interviewing... Coaches were trying to get some new coaches in there, and we're walking by and we walked by Coach Robins core, and there he is given an awesome explanation and awesome demonstration, even at his level, he's learned how to communicate better and he can see, Wow, this is really... Helping me become a better speaker, a better communicator, a master educator, so I think it's beyond just the Xs and Os of tennis and the technique, it's how to communicate effectively, efficiently, and really pound home that message.

0:31:56.9 Jack Broudy: Your pros are blessed. In my man, they are, in my opinion, not only are they making a good life and getting on the court all day, which is what a young program wants to do, they're also getting life skills that you would have to take a course in. Basically, you know how when you go to zero or IBM, they condition you in the first four to six months, you take these courses on how to deal with people and all the stuff, it... But your pros not only are getting that to get in the tennis education, they're getting education and how to communicate better, which begs me to ask, you're looking for some pros... Hey, it sounds to me, and so it's like an amazing opportunity for anyone of you viewers out there, you wanna go to the San Francisco area for a summer or a year, I spend some time or move there... I mean, I can't emphasize enough how it would be on you to contact this man here, because that's all I could think of why you're speaking, it's like... Yeah, I know anyone who's looking to improve and in is teaching and live in a killer place.

0:33:10.4 Jack Broudy: That would be the way to go. The hardest part up there would be to get a place and find a place to live, and then afford the gas money, get a bicycle, the API is the times that the opportunity is certainly there, that's a... It seems like a golden opportunity...

0:33:29.7 Todd Dissly: Yeah, no, in tennis is booming, we have... It sounds bad, but the pandemic has had people outdoors, and there's also a lot of negative press with concussions and football, and tennis is really... It's becoming a really popular sport, so all the facilities in the Bay Area are just full of that, right. Really, it's a real boom out here in the Bay Area, so there's plenty of work... I appreciate you plugging getting matter. Yeah, 'cause that's really what I do is I am trying to help coaches become the best that they can be, so that our business is the best that it can be, so the tennis is the best that it can be, really just... We pay our coaches. This someone told me, you pay them. I said, Yeah, we pay them for... We pay them when they're getting trained... It's that important. It's like, Hey, you're working right now. Let's get into it. We're collaborating, we're working, but we view the coach education is the most important, they're my most important customer is my coaches, how do I make them better, how do I make them enjoy their job, how do I make it that they're developing their career? 'cause that's how I'm gonna get people that are happy, that are being happy out there with the customer, that enjoy their job and love what they do.

0:34:59.0 Todd Dissly: So I do it, you see on the cake, that's I see on the kyu, give them these clinics once a month where you discuss things for what... A couple of hours, I take it. Yeah, we do three hours, Monday and three hours Tuesday. And it's all experiential learning in...

0:35:17.0 Jack Broudy: They get paid for it, and

0:35:18.2 Todd Dissly: They get paid for it. Yeah, no, it's not me talking the whole time, it's Jack and me and another person working on a lesson plan and then presenting it, and then we're giving feedback, what went well, what would you do differently? If you do differently, what were some of the pitfalls you wanna avoid, and we get feedback from everybody, so we're teaching peer-to-peer... Yeah, once a month. Two days in a row, we do a six-hour workshop... Well.

0:35:43.6 Jack Broudy: Let me ask you, would you... I mean, as long as... As long as I'm plugging a year, would you take people... I know it's gonna be moving even more in the summer than the rest of

0:35:53.0 Todd Dissly: It... Yeah, for sure.

0:35:53.8 Jack Broudy: Because the summer, whether it's so perfect in the Palo Alto area... Oh yeah, it's ridiculous. I've spent summers there playing tournaments and whatnot... Would you even want people to come in for just three months, let's say... 'cause to me, I'm looking at these guys watching this Podcast going, Well, hey, if you wanna be a case, you wanna go to the rest chose you before You can't afford not to do this, it seems like such a golden opportunity.

0:36:21.7 Todd Dissly: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I think it is a great opportunity and yeah, I welcome anyone even part-time or even part-time, we have all sorts of different people, full-time people, part 10 people and retired people, young people... There's this summer even bigger than the rest of the years, I just packed all your lowering right now, it's crazy Jack in everyone's playing tennis, everyone wants to play tennis or at the kids into tennis, so tennis is really, really big, so... Yeah.

0:36:57.8 Jack Broudy: That's great, Listen, I've taken more than enough time of yours today, my God, the wonder, you and I chat over the year and over the years, I am always busy, but you always see a crazy business, so I think... I see why now you have all these instructors and that's just half of your job, and then you've got all the students smoking off of the instructors, and I'm guessing you're in touch with just about everybody.

0:37:26.8 Todd Dissly: Yeah, yeah, no, it's fun. I love a Jack, I appreciate being with you and all your wisdom and support of the years, I'm really happy that you're taking off, I'm in your real gem in the industry and... Well, thanks, you've been at the 45 Figure 8, these are just concepts that are beyond tennis and that definitely everyone needs to understand what those are and how to communicate that as well, so I appreciate you doing what you're doing. I see you're getting all the stuff on social media, these podcasts, the videos, those are cool, like video lessons you're doing now, are there a lot of that really new stuff, so thanks for innovating all that you do, and I see all these years, I appreciate that.

0:38:14.5 Jack Broudy: Thanks. Well, I'll be hitting you up as you are soon to do... I know we've talked about it years ago, but we really should do a collaboration, 'cause I think what you have is just pretty special, I don't even know if you need to collaborate, it sounds like you've just got it.

0:38:30.6 Todd Dissly: So... No, I mean, I... You... I use your in kind boards, I use the Brody board. Yeah, all those boards all the time with the little kids and all of that stuff help, so yeah, it's all in our curriculum, we've got all your terms in there and coil and un-coil everything, so...

0:38:48.0 Jack Broudy: That's great. Alright, well, I think I do much for your time, Deanna. Always your good friend. Okay, I'll talk to you, have a great weekend.

0:38:57.6 Todd Dissly: Alright, see ya

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