Clever Angle
Helping people find work that they love through the stories of others. Join host Tevin McGee as he interviews a guest from a different field of work every week to give the listeners a better understanding of what jobs there are in the market and the roadmap of how to get there. Come along on this journey as he searches for the answer to the question of is college in 2024 overrated? With the boom of online learning and swelling nationwide student loan debt Tevin is on a quest to better inform his audience of which career paths NEED to go to college and which paths may have a different way of achieving your goal. So if you are undecided on your future career or curious about a certain field and want to hear from people that are in the trenches of that career already then this podcast is for you.
Clever Angle
#44 Triumphs in Tennis and Trekking A Conversation with Austin McDaniel
Stepping onto the court with a racket in hand, Austin McDaniel's life serves as a reminder that it's never too late to chase a passion. From his unlikely start in tennis at age 11 to his present-day adventures both on the trail and the tennis court, Austin's tale unfolds on this episode of Clever Angle. His story is more than just about hitting balls across the net; it's a chronicle of personal triumphs, strategic gameplay, and the joy of coaching players from their first serve to competitive college matches.
As a freelance tennis coach and hiking enthusiast, Austin delves into the art of balancing coaching techniques, the challenges of managing a varied schedule, and the importance of qualifications in professional tennis coaching. His experiences, particularly the transformative four-month trek on the Continental Divide Trail, reveal how pushing one's limits can uncover potential we never knew we had. Whether it's navigating a tough backhand or a rugged mountain trail, the lessons Austin shares resonate with anyone looking to master their craft or their next big adventure.
Wrapping up with a heartfelt reflection on the local tennis scene in Jonesboro, Austin touches upon the decline and resurgence of competitive play and the profound impact a dedicated coach can have on a player's growth. His life, interwoven with tales of strategic plays, transformative coaching, and the enriching experience of embracing one's passions, is an ace that's sure to inspire. For those itching to grab their rackets or lace up their hiking boots, Austin McDaniel's journey is one you won't want to miss.
Day 41 Podcast Episode feat Austen
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Welcome back to episode 44 of the Clever Angle podcast. Thank you for tuning in today, and today we have Austin McDaniel. He's a tennis professional. Here in Jonesboro. We're going to be talking about all things tennis and he has some interesting hobbies that we'll be talking about. As far as going around the world, he just got back from a backpacking trip and he's got one scheduled for next year. Austin, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you, good to be here.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, man. How long were you gone for on this last trip that you just went on?
Speaker 2:So for my hiking trip this year, the continental divide trail, I was gone for four months on trail and give or take a few days travel, so big chunk of the year.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. We'll get into that a little bit later, but I do have some questions about that. But we're here to go over just what you do as a tennis professional and that sort of thing. So before we can get to your career, I want to go through kind of your origin story about how you got there. So what was your life like growing up family life, school and some of your interests when you were growing up?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've always been a very active person and ever since I was a kid I was the young one that was always running around the neighborhood with anybody that I could find, or sometimes by myself, always outside, always active. Sports didn't come along until maybe I was nine or 10 and got into basketball, had some friends into that, started getting into basketball, and I think I very quickly realized it just wasn't my sport. I don't know if I just wasn't competitive enough, it wasn't something that really got me and then phased out of it. And then when I was 11, I actually me and my family, my mom, dad and my older brother we moved out to Ridge Point, which is a neighborhood in town and they have a country club around and I knew of some of the kids around there and they all played tennis, golf, other sports and I thought this is what they like to do. They don't want to just run around throwing sticks in the backyard like I used to.
Speaker 2:I picked up tennis just out of a way to hang out with people and golf seemed boring at the time and tennis quickly got my attention. I played like ping pong and things like that and tennis made sense and I think from the age of 11 on. I just got absolutely hooked on it. I wanted to play every day, not to beat people or for the win, but just the challenge of doing better and sticking with it. And it just man, it really keeps your attention.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it's interesting that you said you started that around 11, because having kids now it seems like kids are getting into sports a lot earlier than that, in 11, interviewed Marco last week and he was saying how 11, 12 was like late to get into sports like that. So to hear you and him got into it around the same age and now you guys are coaching it professionally, that's interesting. My daughter has been in cheerleading since she was three so I'm like how much of a difference it would have made if you would have picked it up earlier. Coming from like, when we grew up it really wasn't pushed on us that much, you just got to be a kid more and I think now it's more of a training so you can do something at the next level past high school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think part of the reason maybe for me getting into it late was definitely just the exposure. Once I was 11, it was there because I moved to a place where it was there Beforehand. I didn't know anybody that played. But also I'm 28 and whenever I was growing up playing they didn't have what we call 10 and under tennis, where they have the smaller court, smaller rackets, lower compression tennis balls.
Speaker 2:And I think kids who got into tennis at a younger age back then it was good. It built their hand-eye coordination, all that stuff. But in some ways it could be a disadvantage. They could learn bad habits because the ball is higher, their have, the rackets are heavier. So some of my friends who I played that had played before me and since they were younger I feel like I didn't have that much of a hard time catching up to them because we were all learning the big court and learning from being an older kid that type of tennis as opposed to being small and having a ball bounce above your head, and so it wasn't that big of a deal back then getting into it late. Now kids much earlier. They're able to play early, get the right fundamental, the right technique and have the right equipment, it's a big difference.
Speaker 1:You said you grew up playing with some friends and some people in your family. Who else in your family plays tennis?
Speaker 2:Nobody. I really was the lone tennis player for the most part in my family. My mom said she played in high school very little. I've never seen her with a racket in her hand. I never got her out on the court. It was never an interest for her to play anymore. But she knew of the sport. She knew about how it works. So if we watched it on TV she knew it was going on. But other than that nobody really knew it was going on and they didn't know how it worked and any of it really.
Speaker 1:So did you play like junior high school, like when did you start playing your first competitive match?
Speaker 2:Pretty much two weeks into playing I got talked into playing a local tournament and most local tournaments at the time were all ran through the country clubs. The country clubs had a pro there that was certified through an organization we can talk about later, usta, and there's sanctioned events. You sign up for a membership, you sign up for the tournament, you go play, you have fun. You most likely lose, but it's about playing and having fun. And only playing two weeks I thought I have nothing to lose and my friends are playing, I'll play and I remember playing in it and they put me in a beginner division. I got lucky in one, but again, it's small stuff, it's local. But that was the first competitive tennis and then just mostly stuck with that. Tennis as far as school goes really only happens at high school level and when you play high school tennis it's a little bit different ball game. But most of the competitive tennis from juniors that they care about is the USTA tennis that's the year long and sanctioned and ranked and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:You said that you this was like two weeks after you started playing you entered a tournament in one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just like a little one day tournament system my friends and yeah, I don't know. I think it was the. It's based off age division, so it was 12 and under tennis and I don't know. I think I was just athletic enough I could keep the ball in. I knew strategy from might sound funny, but ping pong it's a racket sport so I could read angles and move well and hit the ball in at that age. That's all you need.
Speaker 1:Yeah, was that a singles tournament or a doubles tournament?
Speaker 2:Oh, that was singles, singles, singles, doubles would have scared the crap out of me, yeah.
Speaker 1:You said that pretty much you only play competitive, like high school tennis at the high school level. They care more about the USDA and things like that. Take me through your High school tennis experience.
Speaker 2:So high school tennis I started right away ninth grade, and I had a good group of guys, a lot of my friends, that were in ninth grade with me.
Speaker 2:We all were able to join at the same time. We had a big group and when we joined the high school team a lot of the guys on the team were seniors, and so it was an interesting dynamic. We had all these freshmen coming in and then seniors, but yet I think a lot of us freshmen were actually up to par with those seniors. A lot of the seniors. There was a couple who were really good and there was a few who just played casually and then all of us coming up at that point had played competitively, took lessons, understood the game really well, and so that was a fun dynamic beating up on some of them. And then, just through the course of high school tennis, I played singles my first year and did pretty well, got beat out in state by the senior on the team who was our number one singles player at the time, which you know him as Jason Morgan.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, I guess I didn't even realize that y'all had played tennis together.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So he kicked my butt out of the singles tournament my freshman year and then I think he might have went on to win. I'd have to ask him about that. And then my junior year I played doubles with one of my good buddies on the team in the same age and we did well, made it to state finals and pretty much won out, until again we faced our own teammates and lost there. And then my junior year I played singles, being the top guy. Okay, I got to throw this guy out in singles now and I went on well, was able to win through conference and state and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:And then senior year was a little bit tricky. I went into that year. I got sick, really bad, with West Nile. It's a similar disease to it affects you, similar like mono. So I was very fatigued, very sick and weak and that was pretty much hit me the whole summer before my senior year. And so when my senior year came around, I played, but it was couldn't practice, couldn't do anything, showed up, played my match, went and slept on the bus and then by the time the state and conference came around, I was okay, ended up doing decent, got beat out by a really good player and every year we did win as a team. So that was good as earning doing my job, at least earning points for the team. We won state every year Individually. I won one year in singles, one year as a doubles team and then the other two years got beat out in singles.
Speaker 1:So what was? What is the scoring? Like you said, you're scoring points for your team, like how does a tennis match work as far as scoring goes?
Speaker 2:In high school tennis what you typically do is for conference is you have a couple of teams for doubles and then you have two people playing singles, and so they refer to as a team of singles. And when you're on the court, if you win your match, you win, say, the very first match of your bracket. You get a point and then you move on to the next round. And if you win that round you could earn two points and so your.
Speaker 2:If your team is good from a wide standpoint you have a lot of good players then you're gaining lots of individual points and then, if you keep making it further, the points get more, worth more. And so if you make it to the finals as an individual, you're pretty much securing your team into a good spot. And so doubles they're trying to win. They're earning one, one point first round. If everybody does that, you get four points. You move on up, everybody wins again, you get two points. Eventually you might play each other, though, because it's still bracket style and then the yeah, you're just trying to win as many matches as you can and at the end you got to hope that your team wins more points so you can win a state tournament title for your high school and not have anybody individually win If your, if your team is doing good enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so concluding your senior year. What was your plan for tennis in college after that?
Speaker 2:I think, getting pretty sick. That summer really hurt me because, again, most high level tennis is actually played outside of high school tennis through USDA and I wasn't able to really compete any. There was no tournaments to show what I can do and stuff like that, people scouting and stuff like that. They really only have my junior year to look at. And then I think for me as a player, that kind of got me a little bit. It made me feel a little weak. It made me felt like I wasn't able to produce the type of tennis that I knew I could. I kept playing. I definitely didn't lose any love for it.
Speaker 2:But when it came time for picking a college I got decent offers. I was looking at maybe division two or some really low level division one, but when it came to offers, most of them almost all of them they're out of state and with men's tennis the scholarship money that you can potentially get is pretty low. It ended up my decision ended up being based mostly financially. I stayed in town in Jonesboro, went to ASU where they don't have a men's tennis team, but the price for me to attend ASU was the same or less than if I had traveled away from home and competed in tennis and not really sacrificing tennis because, again, it's USTA, it's a lifelong sport. You can still get that competitive itch. I stayed in town, was able to actually pick up my tennis career and start working doing that early and still competed through USTA tennis and then I didn't really didn't end up not going anywhere to play.
Speaker 1:So when you just graduated high school, what level were you playing USTA tennis at?
Speaker 2:Juniors is a little bit different than adult tennis. Adult tennis has like a system based off 0.5. You start as a 2.0, you can move up to 2.5 and so on. Junior tennis it's really just you play tournaments, you can win points, and then you can see how many points you have compared to other people in your state, maybe like top 20 or 30, something like that.
Speaker 2:I didn't really compete heavily in tournaments, but if I was playing in a tournament, most of the time especially if it was local I felt like I had a chance to win. So it was always like an upper category. If I was traveling out of state to play, that's where the competition was always a little bit above me. But when it came to high school tennis, I felt there wasn't anybody that could beat me. My mindset was I'm going to go out there, I'm a favorite, I'm going to win.
Speaker 2:And then when I graduated I could play adult tennis when you're the year you turn 18. And I was like okay, I'm going to go play 4.5. And I know that doesn't mean much to maybe some people listening, but 4.5 is that threshold where people go. Okay, you pretty much have mastered everything. You're a really good player. And when I started playing adult tennis, I actually started off as 4.0 because I had someone talk me into it. They're like, hey, this is your first year, you can self-rate, and if you only did high school tennis I could play it 4.0. And so I actually got to play on two different 4.0 teams, one through Arkansas and one through Tennessee, and that was a lot of fun. Then the next year you get bumped up.
Speaker 1:But yeah, how did you do during that year that you were a 4.0?
Speaker 2:It was a good year. I don't think I lost any matches. I played on a team through Arkansas and we played our. You have a little district thing where you play some local people and then if your team wins out that you go play a state tournament. And it's similar to high school, where you have a team and you play other teams and you're trying to win a majority of the courts and then if you win majority of the courts, you move on to the next matchup against another team and so on. And the way the courts are divided out is you typically have two singles courts and then you have three courts that are doubles. So you would need six people playing doubles, two people playing singles at minimum.
Speaker 2:I played singles every year. That's my game, it's what I had fun doing and they pretty much knew if they stuck me out there, we're going to win at least one court, and so for Arkansas team, that was the case. And then on the Tennessee team, that was the case and that was a lot of fun. Those guys, even though it's Tennessee and I'm from Arkansas. If you're having a USTA team, you can have a certain amount of out of state players, as long as the majority of the team are from the state. And so they recruited me and one of the other guys that I played with here in Arkansas and they essentially they're like hey, we'll let you room with us and stuff this and that We'll pay for your dinners and it's going to be a good time.
Speaker 2:And so I got to go play with them and kick some butt and we won the Tennessee State 4-0. And then Arkansas Our, my Arkansas team actually lost the 4.0. And I remember beating a guy on my last match that day and as I beat him he smiled he's like you might have beat me. It looks like we're the team going to state or going to sectionals. I said, oh, don't worry, I'll see you there. And he smiled, turned into a frown what do you mean? I said I got to play through Tennessee, so I'm going to, I'm going through Tennessee and I got to play him in sectionals and beat him and it was pretty fun.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, that's awesome Me and he's here too. He doesn't have a mic, but we've done some lessons with you. How would you describe your game? We've never really seen you actually play, other than like feeding balls, and so so I. What did your game look like when you're competing in leagues and stuff?
Speaker 2:man, it is drastically changed since juniors to adults. So growing up I did play a whole lot and I went to a lot of clinics and stuff like that, but as far as one on one professional instruction we weren't really in the place to have a lot of that. I wasn't able to take lessons and I would take a maybe One thirty minute lesson a month with the coach work on something, and then I was pretty studious myself to actually go out and do that. But even then I developed my own game where I had a pretty extreme four hand grip and my my forehand developed into this real heavy western western grip for people who know the grips and stuff, very heavy topspin game on the guy that I feel no rafael, no dog had that kind of wippy forehand that just spins of all deep to the court. But then my backhand I couldn't really learn how to do it to hand very well.
Speaker 2:I grew up throwing frisbees and so I always had a natural One hand motion to come through and so I had a one hand backhand from the get go and it was also a little bit extreme due to I didn't know you're supposed to change grips. So my forehand grip I had the same grip and then I would turn my racket over and use the same grip on my one hand backhand. The motion was fluid and technically sound, but the grip was a little extreme. So very spin, heavy off both sides. I was very crafty because I played people who had much better training than me and I had to find other ways to win. So Very junk bally, throw the low slice of the lobs, bring people to net, pass them moon ball, high topspin, all kinds of crazy stuff.
Speaker 2:And when I was eighteen I essentially started coaching tennis and realized, okay, if I'm using a western grip and I'm hitting with a ten year old over there, I probably shouldn't be whipping a bunch of heavy topspin at him, so I'll just slow it down. But with that grip it was really difficult. So I learned if I switch my grip to more Traditional grip I can hit the ball flatter and lower to this to a kid or a beginner. Out of necessity for coaching actually switched up my grip and then switching my grip meant I had to use a different grip on my backhand. That changed my whole game. I just reworked it. Now I'm more of a traditional, lower flatter, still throw out the whip before hand, but I'm. My game is always been Heavy topspin. Stay at the baseline. I rely on speed, second run down shots, throw the junk ball at people and just make people beat me. If they're gonna beat me, they need to earn it and they don't all quickly, piece by piece, take them off the court.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So how long did it take you, from when you were still competing at the four level gamut of four five to where you are like, okay, I'm going to pursue a career in coaching?
Speaker 2:The transition was a little odd, I think. I don't want to say I got roped into it because I always wanted to do it, but when I was in all the way back in junior high we had to do. You had a shadow for a job, so you pretty much had to intern with someone and thirteen or fourteen year old me have rolled. I want to intern my tennis coach. I was interested, it seems really cool, and I did that and I think ever since then and back in my head I thought that'd be cool to do. And so when I was eighteen and I made the decision to stay in my hometown to go to college, I that man, I was here. So during that summer after high school, I'm here in town.
Speaker 2:I'm not really doing anything work wise. I had been working I can get into that later earlier but I was working it trim jim, the local tennis racket club area, doing equipment work and stuff. But as far as coaching, when I was eighteen I got hired at ridge point to fill in for clinics and stuff like that and they just kind of needed a almost just needed like an extra body on the court to fill in and they knew I could do it. And the next thing, you know, they want the pros left, and so then they need a new pro. And then it was like I'm doing good, they're training me and I just got hired on to it, so you want the job. It's open now is like yeah, sure, so I just kept going with it. And next thing, a few years goes by and yeah, I just settled into it.
Speaker 1:At that point where you had got you accepted that job? Were you certified at this point or you just had experience on the court and was around the club and they just knew you so they just allowed you to teach.
Speaker 2:It was definitely a benefit of connections there. Everybody there knew me. It was the club I grew up playing at and I always, even from a young age, I played with the adults there, so they knew I was respectable, they knew I mannered and stuff like that, and when they needed somebody and I jumped in, it was just yeah, they knew I was a good player, they knew I communicated well with people and then, after filling in for those clinics when they needed someone, they trained me and they saw that I could fundamentals, I could feed well, I had a good I to recognize different things and that was it. I didn't really have to prove by certification, it was more Trial by fire. They saw me in the work so what I could do, help me do it better and things like that. I was always asking questions to figure out how to do it better and that's where it progressed. And then from there, after once I'm there for a year or two, it was one of those things where experience comes everything, and so experience by being there, doing it, learning and then results people coaching you can. I was able to see if people could see where they're going from, where they started, and that's the number one thing was experience.
Speaker 2:I had work. Part of the job at the country club was also shop work. We had a shop, had to do all the other stuff string rackets, maintain courts, run leagues, charge bills and I was already doing all that type of work to this other facility trim gym and sorry, knew all that stuff. So that was a big benefit. Other outside experience, other than just on court coaching, I think helped. But the number one thing was just being well Connected with people, being able to communicate, being good enough as a player to do the work to. If you can't feed the ball, if you can't hit back and forth with people, right, that's kind of part of it. So you can be a good player. But then you also have to have a good eye. You gotta be able to see what other people are doing, why they're doing what they're doing, how to fix what they're doing, and that can be tricky to.
Speaker 1:How would you describe your coaching so?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I think I try to be a technique first type of person I don't know if that's just because I like that as a junior and I had to develop it myself that I feel to me that's one of the most important things I can give to people, because Anybody can go out and hit. But I feel like your only practice doesn't make perfect. You just practice makes you better. Whatever you practice, if you're practicing wrong technique, you're just gonna get better at it and that's not good. So if I can teach people proper technique and really home that in, then anytime they're not hitting with me, we're working with anybody. They're gonna continue to get better. So I think I try to do technique heavy first.
Speaker 2:If they're an advanced player that shifts a little bit, it's definitely very drills, movement, a lot of fitness stuff like that, and strategy, live ball play, a lot of things like that. But yeah, beginners, intermediate players technique first for sure. Beginners is also tricky because you want them to have fun, you want them to show up and feel like they're studying for a test. You try to have that, that blend of okay, I wanna, if I know they want to get better and I want to stick with it than, yes, technique. But if they're just getting into the game, my goal is to get them playing as quick as I can and then try to adjust the technique accordingly. But technique first, yeah for sure that's interesting.
Speaker 1:how would current Austin coach high school Austin? Oh gosh that like what, if anything about your game would you change? Because you said you when you started coaching, you change from the western grip and all those things. If you had a student like that come in, wanting to get better, wanting to work with you, would you change his backhand? Would you change like what were some things that you would give yourself back then?
Speaker 2:So when I did is a junior get the chance to work with the coach? Part of that was wasn't their fault that my technique wasn't changed. I was already doing what we call best practice. I was already doing what I was doing at a high level. So it's do we really change it in, risk Going backwards and then they're not being able to catch up before it's too late.
Speaker 2:So if I was coaching myself, I might not change Too much of certain things like technique, but I would probably change the backhand because the backhand grip Was an issue and if that had been changed that would have probably helped more than it would have hurt. Would have been a quick fix. And then my volleys. I had my body technique was off because I never followed, had that extreme grip as always at the baseline, hitting crazy top spin. So I would work with myself or volleys and then Course overtime coaching. You get really good at volleys. That's where you're at most of the time is up at the net. But yeah, I would work on my technique with my backhand.
Speaker 2:The forehand technique wasn't necessarily the problem. It was the lack of switching grip from the western backhand Sorry, from the western forehand grip. It was the fact that I didn't really know to change my grip. That was the biggest technique issue. The forehand was a little extreme but it was technically sound. The backhand was dialed and worked for me, but it was not technically sound. I just got good at it from practice.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. What is a typical day look like for you? Or let's say, a typical week was a typical week. Look like for you now.
Speaker 2:So now it's definitely a little more chaotic. When I was at the country clubs I was there for almost 10 years Ridge Point Country Club for five and Jonesboro Country Club for about five and then now I'm freelancing my coaching, working with Coach Marco here, the Earl Bell courts and stuff, and doing it all on my own. Essentially, I have to do my scheduling a little bit better. I have to be on top of it, like messaging everybody, because the times are not consistent, because I am basing my times off weather a lot more. So if the weather's bad on the days I normally coach somebody, I can't coach them. I got to make sure to check with them and see if I can switch to a different day. So I spend a lot of the early parts of the day making sure I'm contacting people and you know the phone work and then when it comes time to actually go coach, I, you know, make sure I got all my stuff I need and stuff like that comfortable clothes. You need to make sure you have the shoes and rackets and everything. But you show up and I get all my equipment out. I try to stack my lessons. If I have three, four lessons, some of those lessons might be using different equipment and I have to make sure I grab all that equipment at once when I start the first lesson, otherwise I'm leaving the court and you don't want to do that. I'm having to leave the court and go grab other equipment and waste time. Make sure you get all the equipment out there so I can get going, and then, yeah, it's just an hour and it rolls into the next hour.
Speaker 2:Depends on the lessons. If it's a group lesson it can go longer. But yeah, I'm typically on the court. You don't really sit down at all. You don't really have time to really eat much if you're stacking a big day, so it can be physically. It is very physically very draining and you're just, yeah, just kind of work with everybody. You got to have like pretty, pretty good attitude the whole time. You got to have a lot of energy Even if you don't have it. You just have to fake it because you don't want you know you don't want the person across the net from you or people to feed off your energy if it's negative. You want to make sure you're always there ready to go positive and so trying to pretty much maintain that through the whole day and keep it up for everybody and give them the best you can.
Speaker 1:So basically every day is a little bit different. Just to be on weather and how many clients would you say you're currently working with just ballpark number.
Speaker 2:Right now doing things the way I'm doing right now, I think hours wise, it's a little tricky because one of the big cons of leaving four to five months for a hike and just saying see ya and then coming back, and especially coming back in the winter, I'm not going to be able to pick up the clients until probably springtime. But right now, even with everything being the way it is, you'd probably tend to just 10 to 12. That's hours. So, like some of those are group lessons, some of those are split lessons. People wise gosh, I have no idea. Sometimes I'm in and out, I'm coaching the after school kids and there's there's probably 15, 20 just there that you mingle with, and I have a couple of different groups adult teams they could have anywhere from three to six people on each one, and then I have probably three or four of my hours Otherwise, or split lessons. So there's a couple of people there, so I'm in contact with a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely yeah. It's one of those things that's like you eat what you kill. So you're just out here getting clients making sure that everything's scheduled and, like you said, now that you're not you know, technically a part of a structured club, it's more so like a sole proprietorship. It's more on you to set the schedule. So we talked a little bit about USDA and qualifications. What are your? Do you have any qualifications now as far as like, level one, two, three, or are you still just based on experienced?
Speaker 2:So when I was at rich point and I guess I should say this is back in 2013, when I first started there, I initially just was working there and there wasn't any expectation that I would need to go get certified. And then our director at the time mentioned it to me and one of the other pros like okay, like for our entire work staff, like me and the two other people, they're like we should all have certification and I'm sure. And so we went through an organization called us PTA and at the time the certification was pretty tricky. It was a little bit, I wouldn't say difficult, but it was tricky to get organized because you had to do, you had to work with this guy, jim, and just got him Jim can't remember his name. You worked through us PTA and you had to do these workshops and essentially you got tested on your abilities. So he would feed you certain shots you had to execute, say, 10 cross court, forehand topspins. 10 down the line, topspin, backhand, same thing. Then you had to do underspin, all the same thing. You had to execute your volleys like deep cross court, short cross court, same thing on the forehand and backhand. You had to execute a three ball, three bouncing drop shot before it left the serve box and if you weren't getting nine out of 10 or 10 out of 10 on all those, you would get deducted. And then after that you essentially got a rating.
Speaker 2:I think the ratings were like I think you could be a recreation coach and that was pretty much the you just paid for membership type thing. I think there was probably more to that. And then it was like P one, p two, p three, and I think I said that backwards like P one was the best you wanted to get to. But pretty much you would never get rated P one on your first go. They want you to be at least a P three or P two and then you retest, you can get it. And so me and this guy, we did pretty well. We got rated P two at the time and now I think that it's just listed as professional status. I think there's it's not recreation, but there's a level. Then there's professional and then I think there's like elite, and elite is someone who's been doing it, certified 10 years and other stuff or something crazy. But yeah, I've just maintained the regular professional status.
Speaker 2:It's not something I've ever needed to look good on a resume Most jobs. Back five, six years ago. I looked into some other jobs in the country just to see what the resumes they were looking for and most of them they were looking for if you were had two years of experience or you were maybe certified and I was like blow that out the water. So I just didn't. I never really cared too much about it. I think if you're getting into the job, it's. It can be more helpful. If you don't have connections at facilities and things like that and people who know your credibility. It can be a way to get your foot in the door, make some connections, but for the most part it's never been the driving factor of me applying for a job.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I started playing tennis about a year and a half ago and I don't know what it is about tennis. Maybe you can elaborate a little bit on this. It's a. It's something. It's an addicting sport. It's something that, once you get into it, your research and your rackets and how to hit stuff. Do you think that people can learn solid technique from like YouTube videos and things like that, or would you recommend someone that's a beginner, that's wanting to get into it, to immediately start with a coach?
Speaker 2:I think you would want to, if you're getting into it and you know you like it. Like I would recommend, go out there, try to hit one or two times and if you think you're going to like it, then, yeah, I would definitely recommend a coach, because, I mentioned earlier, I think technique is the foundation. If you're just playing all the time or you're trying to do it yourself by looking at videos online, the videos show you the right thing, but they don't tell you if you're doing it or not, and so you could think you're doing something. It could feel a certain way, but it takes the right eye to go no, this isn't quite doing what you think it's doing. You need to try to make it do this or feel like it's this, and that's the pro con of the video.
Speaker 2:I like videos. I reference them to some people. I'll be like, hey, check this out. This is a good example of what I was telling. You see how this person is doing this. This is what we're trying to do now. Let's work on that, and then I'll go on the court and work with them and they have that reference in their head of the video. Since I can't have them sometimes, I can have them feed me a ball, I can demonstrate, but other times videos are good for that demonstration purpose. But as far as learning, I think you still you're better off just get a coach and even if it's only once a month type of thing, to check what you're doing and make sure it's set right, if you really want to get serious with it and you want more consistency. But yeah, you would want to, you'd want the coaching for sure.
Speaker 1:Starting to play tennis. It's one of those things that you use muscles that you normally don't use all the time. Yeah, your forearms are hurting or parts of your legs are hurting, things like that. What are some good recovery tips from when you're starting that can help you keep your body in playing shape?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm the absolute worst at this. I've always been a just go, never stop, never stretch, and I think now that I'm getting a little older, I'm not regretting it, but I'm realizing the importance of that recovery you're talking about.
Speaker 2:I think one of the underestimated things is actually is just sleep and diet. If you're being really active all the time, you want to make sure you're eating well, you want to make sure you're eating the right calories so you don't get tired the next day and your body can heal and can recover. And when you're, if you're not sleeping very well, same thing. So those are two overlooked things. And then the other thing is I can just say stretching. There's a low hanging fruit there, but you could take it up a notch.
Speaker 2:If you really feel like you're getting pretty sore the next day, then I would try to maybe start implementing some yoga and just make stretching something that you do not just after a tennis, but make it a all encompassing thing. Just be more flexible as a person, because if you're pretty stiff as it is and you're going out there and you're trying to play something as dynamic as tennis it's more of a you could get injured. And if you're hurting, if you find yourself hurting in a specific spot all the time after tennis, then yeah, you might want to isolate that and do those specific stretches after your matches and stuff. For the most part it's yeah, diet, sleep and then just a little bit of focus off. The court is where it's important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Another area that I wanted to ask you about was just the racket. There's just so many it's like overload. When you start trying to figure out what kind of racket you want to get at the beginning, it doesn't really matter if this racket helps you with topspin. You don't know how to do topspin. So what are some beginner friendly rackets, like two or three, that you would recommend to somebody? Because I think there's a lot of beginners that are in the area and they always ask me and I'm like man, I honestly just picked one that looked cool and then I just figured out how to use it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, yeah, rackets are really tricky because props to the companies they do all the marketing to say you need this and that, but in reality you can get something and stick with it for a long time. And so what that something is should be a high quality and simple racket. And what I mean by simple is you don't want something too light, you don't want something too heavy, you don't want something that's trying to do some type of gimmick or anything, you just want baseline middle ground. Sometimes beginners think they need the big, oversize heads because they can get more power and they don't know power yet. Sometimes they think that they need, they think that they need rackets to be lighter so they can swing them faster, but in reality you don't.
Speaker 2:You want a good amount of weight on a racket because that gives you stability. You don't want too much because then you can't swing it. Head size you don't want it too big because then it's just trampling effect. You're going to lose control. A recommendation I always give to everybody is Wilson. They make a racket called the Ultra with a U, and if you get the Ultra in the 100 square inch head size, which is a baseline middle I was talking about any racket in that head size is going to be good. And then the weight is about 10 and a half ounces. So again it's that middle ground weight. It's not too heavy but it's got enough weight that it's not going to be flimsy. And then grip size just go middle line. There's one, two, three, four. Just get a two or three size grip If your hands normal, get a three.
Speaker 2:If you're worried about it, get a two. You can always put an over grip. So, yeah, that Wilson Ultra is a good one to look at. Head is another company. They make a racket called the Radical. It's a little bit smaller head, but it fits that category of stability. The weight and you want the yeah, you want that 10.6, 10.8 ounce range.
Speaker 2:And then Babelot is another big company. They make a racket called the Pure Strike. Pure Strike is one of their more controlled based rackets and what that means is it's got that head size you're looking for that kind of 98 to 100 square inches. It's got the weight, that 10 and a half ounce range, and compared to their other rackets and for that company the weight is distributed more like equally throughout the circumference of the head of the racket, so it gives you more stability.
Speaker 2:Some rackets do suit players, some players better, so like the Aero Babelot, aero is a racket that a lot of spin heavy people like it's not because it gives them top spin, but if they know how to hit top spin properly, you can get more width on the racket because more of the weight's at the end and so it kind of whips and less of the weight is on the sides. But for most people you don't want that. You want middle ground on everything and then later on, as you develop your game and you feel like you need something that's a better tool for a certain thing, then you can switch rackets. But yeah, baseline, you just want that 98 to 100 square inches, no more. You want weight, about 10 and a half ounces and you want that middle ground on the grip two to size, two to size three.
Speaker 1:It's interesting that you name those three rackets because, doing my own research, I never came across it as any of those rackets. As, hey, this is what you should get as a beginner. I've heard of the Pure Arrow and I play with the shift and, like I said, there's just so much information out there you don't know which direction to really go. So that's interesting that you said that In preparation for this episode, I was listening to the other episode that you were on the day 41 podcast. I'll have that linked in the show notes and a quote on there really stuck with me and you said I left my dream job for a dream. Would you consider coaching tennis your dream job?
Speaker 2:If you got to do a job and make money then yeah, it's for sure. I still love being on the court. I like having the racket in my hand, like hitting a ball what's as simple as that. It's the thing that attracted me to the sport in general was I saw a ball and there's just something about hitting it with the racket on the strings and watching it fly through the air in the exact way that you intended. There's just satisfying, and so when I'm coaching, I'm getting a little bit of that. Obviously, it's about the other person, but seeing that other people achieve that goal of I have this thing in my hand, this tool, and I'm trying to manipulate this thing through space across the court and then watching them get better at that and better at it and then make it not just something they're trying to do, like golf, but then also compete against someone to do it better than them, to use their tools that they have to do it better, and so to see people do that after they've worked on it really hard is always satisfying. To be able to be on the court myself and still hit tennis balls all the time, and, yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2:If I couldn't do it, I'd be very upset, and even being on this long hike it sounds funny, but I was like I had days where I was like I wish I could. I wish I was just on the court today. I wish I was. Even if it's working with somebody, it's still being on the court. So tennis is still definitely a dream job for me. It's not if I didn't have to make the money doing it. I guess that'd be a dream, but since I need to make money in life and it pays, it's a job. And so it's a dream job, though, because I do still love being on the court every day.
Speaker 1:Do you have an example of someone that you worked with? You started working with them and then they've had good results from your coaching. That made you feel. Do you have a story that you could share?
Speaker 2:The tricky thing is being at one club for five years and another club for four years and then being here for the Chameau now last year. I've not had too many people that I've worked with from, say, stark Young Jr all the way up to, say, college, but there's been a few and so I think, more than an individual case, I've had many people that I've been able to work with who went on to play college tennis. There was, as far as that age group, a lot of the people I worked with at Ridge Point. There was a few from that group that went on to play college tennis and seeing them compete at that level is definitely satisfying. Knowing man, I remember being on the court with them with that orange ball, that low compression, teaching them the first time they were doing top spin and stuff like that and seeing how it's progressed. Or whether it's certain adults who, when I was at Jonesville Country Club, I have a few adults that I worked with out there who started off as two, fives and three O's and now I'm looking at them like they're competing at four O and stuff like that and seeing their success on how well they're striking the ball and doing this and that, how that technique. That looked good but was obviously shaky because they weren't comfortable with it. And see now how okay they have the technique now they're comfortable with it. Wow, look what they're doing. So being able to see that has been good. It's more of a broad thing.
Speaker 2:Because there's not too many individuals that I've been able to stick with too long, I'll shout out Greg Arnold. He was somebody. He's an older, a little bit older guy. He's late 40s, 50s and he's the owner of Backbeat Music and he's always kept tennis as a competitive thing for him. It's something he did for fitness, to maintain his fitness, but he's a high level player.
Speaker 2:He was a four O and then I jumped into JCC. He was working with him and he'd been alive like a four O for a long time and he would bump up to four or five sometimes and go back down, but he was willing to work on new things. He worked on those new things and next thing, we took away some of his weaknesses, we made him advantages and he's consistently a big threat at four or five doubles and it's like man, everyone's like where did that come from? He's been this four O for so long, so I think that's actually one of my favorite cases where you have someone who came and they had been working with people and I jumped in and I don't know if I just clicked with them right, saw the right things, and then now boom later in life and they're playing their best tennis. Yeah, stuff like that's always my favorite.
Speaker 1:Being a predominantly singles player, was it difficult for you to get into coaching doubles.
Speaker 2:I definitely played a lot of doubles. I actually I played a lot of higher level tennis. Once I was 18, or even as a junior, I was able to play me and some of my buddies would play in adult tournaments because you could play in what we call the open division. The open division would only be doubles, and so we would. In order to play up against some of the adults who were four, five and five O level, we had to play doubles, and so, out of necessity for that higher level competitive play, we would play doubles, and I would always see how much better they executed things and how easy they made it look. And so when it came time for me to coach, I already had an idea of what I didn't do. Well, and it's almost weird, I almost learned because of the lack of my own ability. I learned what I would wanna teach in people.
Speaker 1:Man.
Speaker 2:I don't do. I'd never did this well, so if I can teach other people to do it, that's what they would wanna do. Not playing a ton of doubles or having too much initial instruction on it wasn't too much of a setback because I could, with experience, tell them hey look, you're gonna wanna learn to do this, because if you don't trust me, you're gonna regret it Like it's gonna. You're gonna have a hard time if you're not closing into the net, for example, if you're not hitting those good angles, if you're not being safer on your serve, whatever it is, if you're having a singles mindset where you don't wanna close the net, if you wanna go for the big serves, all these things. If you're just trying to pass people all day long, I can tell you it doesn't work. So when I started being a lot more studious with doubles and then helping people in doubles, yeah, I feel like I didn't have too much issue. There it was. Yeah, it was welcome. I like it, it's fun.
Speaker 1:Now, when was the last time you played a competitive match?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh. So last year or this year I had my big long hike and before I did that hike, I was looking into hopefully being able to play USTA Adult League Tennis again and I started talking to some of the guys this was back earlier in February and they informed me that like we don't really have enough people to play 18 and over 4-5. So good luck. And just being where I was with my interest, I was like I'm not gonna go out of state to go play, I'm not gonna bother to do that. And since I didn't get to play, or I knew I wasn't gonna play, I didn't really make it a big deal to find a tournament or anything. And then, if you go backwards from there, I had the holidays and then last year I was on another long hike, which I was gone even longer. It was five and a half months and so it didn't play there. So my last competitive tennis was probably early 2022 or late 2021, so it's been a minute Looking to get it back this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so do you think that? Why do you think that there's not that many people around here at the higher levels that play, cause you said 4-0, 4-5, they're probably 40 and over that are still playing around here? What happens to all these people that go and they're good in the state and then they just disperse, like what happens to people from high school and college, to where they don't play anymore?
Speaker 2:Two things. I think on a broad scale you get a lot of people who, if they're good enough to be 4-5 and 5-0, a lot of them probably played when they were younger, they probably had instruction, they probably did tournaments and all this stuff made it their life, and I think they get burned out. So there's burnout problems. So a lot of people get burned out. But then when they're 30, 40, they go. Man, I only get back doing something again and they get back into it and it's like riding a bike If you were good at tennis you can pick it back up Not maybe not the level they left, obviously, but they pick it back up.
Speaker 2:And so you see that. But then I think in Jonesboro specifically, we lose a lot of. I had a lot of my friends who moved off to, say, fayetteville, or they now live in Little Rock, and so Little Rock has a good amount of guys that are 4-5 and up for sure, but something Jonesboro's just tricky. I think it's burnout and I think maybe a lot of the higher level athletes left for other stuff. And then in general, that category, the managed as many players who've reached that level, and the ones who don't get burned out yeah, they stick around and play, but even then it's not guaranteed that they do. And yeah, it's just harder.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, me and E talk about this all the time and it's like almost burning the candle from both ends, because when we entered the tennis scene there really wasn't a 2-5 sector either. So there's not really new adult guys that are 18 and up that are wanting to play tennis, and then there's not higher level. So you've got a small group in the middle there. So in my experience, you just play the same people like over and over from the 2-5 to really 3-5 is where we're playing right now. So, yeah, I was just curious like where they all went, because me and E were always like, yeah, who do you think would win between Marco and Austin If they played singles? Who would win? Because that level of tennis we're just not used to seeing any one play. So I was just curious about that.
Speaker 2:And something else I didn't think about until you mentioned about coming on the scene and it being tricky to play 2-5 is that I forget. Up until three or four years ago we didn't really have much public tennis. Most of our tennis in town was actually. If you're looking for instruction or a league or anything, you had to be at a club.
Speaker 2:You had to be at the club. And so the problem there is, you're just not yeah, you're not bringing in the new numbers. And so when you look later down the line, you're like we're all the 4-5s. There wasn't enough 4-0s that bumped up this year, so why wasn't there enough 4-0s? And eventually you go down and you go all the 2-5s coming in and you look at places like Little Rock and Bigger Towns, where they have we have Burns out there, for example, they have leagues constantly going on All those courts.
Speaker 2:There's 30 plus courts constantly getting filled and it took a while for Jonesboro to get to that point where somebody stepped up and said, well, let's, why don't we run stuff?
Speaker 2:We have courts, why don't we run stuff on them publicly? And so once that happened, I think that was good for our tennis, because we do have a lot of 2-5s. Now we have more of those 2-5s from a few years ago who've bumped up to 3-0 and 3-0 to 3-5. And another two or three years you're gonna have a lot of guys that are gonna get bumped up to 4-0 and 4-5. So I think, yeah, I think in the next year, couple of years, that conversation will be a little different. I think there will be a resurgence of 4-5, because about five or six years ago I think, we used to have more 4-5s in town, like I had people that I would call up to hit and practice. But now the only other people I can think if I were to go practice my own game, I'd have to call another coach and be like hey, man, you wanna go hit? And most of the time they're like no, I've been on the court six hours a day, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's interesting. So you said that public tennis kinda came on the scene recently. What was that like and what year was that?
Speaker 2:I was back at Ridge Point still, so probably 2018, it was when, I know y'all, pat Malone. Pat Malone was the guy that kinda started initially with NEA tennis and now Marco's taking it up and he's the main guy with all the city tennis under his competitive coaching stuff. But when Pat came along, I think it was 2018 or so and he started doing some after school stuff and so he got a bunch of after school kids into it. Then, once he got a bunch of kids programs running, the next step is okay, now let's get some of these parents involved. These parents are seeing their kids play and they wanna play, and so I think he started getting that built up, started getting the teams, and that was when I started to come along.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's interesting because before I started playing tennis, I had no even idea that anyone played tennis. We've been members of the Trim Gym for 15, 16 years and it's just one of those things. People walk over to that side with their tennis bags and things, but it was just like a foreign world and now it's like you can't look anywhere without seeing tennis. So it's interesting that it really hasn't been that long ago, that it became more accessible to people in town. So Look, landing the plane here on the tennis conversation. If there are people out there that want to become a tennis coach, what is the quickest way and how long it would it take? What is the recommended road map that you'd give someone that wants to coach tennis?
Speaker 2:It depends on what type of coaching they want to do. I think I've had a little bit harder time with this conversation than I thought because my brain is switching from. The coaching I'm doing now compared to what I was doing is a country club instructor. If they're trying to do country club instruction, I would recommend that they start publicly, find some type of public outlet, something that they can jump on board with and work with small kids, because you don't have to be like some division one athlete to go work with small kids and you don't have it doesn't take the. You don't have to necessarily be a high-level player to have a good eye and know what somebody should be doing. You just have to be a good communicator and recognize it. And If they can do that, then they can build up from there and it's okay, they're level. If they have a good enough level, they get better at the rallies, they can rally with people, all this stuff. You can work with juniors, you can work with beginner adults, and so, again, if you're doing all that publicly, through some public outlet, that that would be the way to go. If you can find that and I know most tennis, I think, like in this country is public.
Speaker 2:So Jonesboro again has been weird where we had three other Country clubs and then we had public. Normally it's the other way around. So once you get like a year or two of experience maybe you're just working at a racket club or whatever it is Then you could start trying to find a position at, say, a country club or an academy and then if you could do that's where, yeah, just being able to document years of experience who you've worked with, maybe have some client recommendations that they can people that If, if you're trying to get hired somewhere, they can, they can call them and ask them. So that's probably gonna happen. And then that's where those certifications would be nice If you beef them up, because if you don't have that x-mata years it as a place for recommendation, then they can look at your, your certifications. But yeah, I would definitely recommend a little bit, go public. You can always work with kids and then you build up from there.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It's been very interesting learning some a little bit more about you as a player versus a coach. Still strive to see you play one day. I get somebody. I think that would be cool to see. But before we end here, I want to talk a little bit about your hiking trip. So what are some of the biggest takeaways you've had offer From this last trip that you went on? Oh, boy.
Speaker 2:The recent trip was a lot of miles in a shorter amount of time and Very, very much a solo adventure. I did the continental divide trails 2700 miles give or take 50 to 100, and I did it in less technically, less than four months and so that averaged 24 miles a day and Doing that met. I pretty much wasn't gonna be able to hike with anybody, because anybody I'm seeing I'm either catching up to him and so I'm gonna pass him and I'm not able to slow down. Some of the big takeaways was just my own Personal reflections. I had a lot of time to myself to think about where I'm at in life. Do I like that? Am I happy?
Speaker 2:A lot of that stuff, really learning what I can push myself through again, hiking that many miles a day Was definitely something that it pushed me to my limits and it made me realize, man, I really can't do whatever I put my mind to. I'm trying to push this big day. Let's do it. I can do it when I get back home. Now it's man, the ceiling is so high now I'm just like I can do whatever now and I Random gold mine. I would like to go do a hundred mile race, since I used to never think I could do it, but I've done back-to-back days on trail where I'm doing 35 miles a day at the pace that I would Technically need to do a hundred miler. So you learn stuff like that and, yeah, it's been takeaways, definitely.
Speaker 1:Just yeah, self-reflection, realizing what I can do and did you do any journaling or anything other than like the Facebook updates or randomly would see you have an update?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've always been. So I hiked last year as well and Appalachian Trail and I didn't post much. I made me did the 10 post and that was like an Instagram Facebook thing and I didn't really journal. And this year Wasn't that different I except for I did update a little bit more, I was posting more and for me that was my documentation. I did take a lot of photos and a Lot of those photos I haven't even posted.
Speaker 2:I probably won't post, but for me I can look back and as soon as I see a photo it could be a random tree next to a random bench, but for me that's my I like and look at that go. Oh, I remember that day, I remember what I was doing, I remember where I was at, who I was with, and so I think that's my documentation, was definitely photos. And Next year I got another trip. I'm gonna try to do a little bit different. Take on that. I'm gonna try to document more with film and Go that route, because for me, photos and film, audio, just talking about my trip I want, I need to do that more. That's a better way to document for me.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I know everybody's wondering that and if they're not, I'm wondering how much did this whole adventure cost you a?
Speaker 2:Little bit. So it's typically, they say, budget $2 a mile. I think that's been the rule of thumb Over the last five or six years, but I think in the last two or three years it's probably changed. I think it's more like $3 a mile. This trip was almost 3000 miles, so my budget was about 9,000 and that's for Everything. So that's my on trip or on trail expenses of paying for food, paying for accommodation if I'm staying in a place which was very rare but if I'm staying somewhere, if I have to get a ride somewhere, that pace, that goes into that. And Then also that covers the expenses of traveling to get to the start, to travel to get home. And then it also covers my bills. My phone bills I pay for like an insurance when I'm out there. Your home bills don't stop when you go out. So I think for me $3 a mile kind of Was the budget and that worked out. It's been pretty good.
Speaker 1:What did your supplies look like. Were you hiking with a tin on your back? What did you bring, oh?
Speaker 2:Only the bare necessities I have. I'm pretty extreme even for what I do in that category. My pack is small. My my gear options are very limited. I have exactly what I need and that is I want to be warm at night when I sleep, and dry. So I have a type of shelter which is more of a tarp, goes over my head and keeps the rain off.
Speaker 1:I'm good.
Speaker 2:I sleep in a it's called a bivvy sack. It's like a small Tube, singular, almost like a coffin, but it's to keep your bag from getting wet or dry or wet or like buggy or anything like that, and I sleep in there. So I have a warm sleeping bag, because you got to be warm. That's really important. So that's your shelter, warmth. And then you have a pad that you want to sleep on, because if you're just sleeping directly on the ground, that gets cold and painful. So pad, shelter, for sure. The backpack it goes in. And then for food.
Speaker 2:This might sound gross to a lot of people, but I don't cook any food, but I will rehydrate certain foods. So ramen noodles, instant oats, couscous, stuff like that. I'll have a jar and I just put it in there, pour the water that I would if it was, say, boiling water, but instead it's just regular water and then after 30 minutes or an hour it's hydrated. You don't have to cook it, at least as long as it's instant and then just Tastes like left out room temperature stuff on your on trail. Food is fuel, and so I went very I went minimal there. Instead of carrying a whole cook system, you carry a water filter. That's really important.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of people who got sick with whether it's parasites or bacteria and stuff like that from untreated water, and for me that's extremely important because I can't afford amongst these extreme hikes, but I can't afford physically to Damage my body like that. I need my body to stay healthy, at least for a long time. Because I'm coaching tennis, I don't take any unnecessary risk of Climbing up things, climbing down things. If I can avoid it, I don't, even if I break my ankle, that could Take me out of the business for a while. Yeah, when I bring stuff, that's what I make sure to bring is stuff that keeps me safe, warm and Dry, and that's about it. So my whole pack weight, if you took food and water out, was only about Six and a half pounds on the Appalachian trail, which is crazy for most people. Most people are like 12 to 15 to 20 pounds of gear. And then this trip this year I was, yeah, just about nine pounds and that's just extra warmth, but very minimal.
Speaker 1:So how did you even get into Doing things like this? I've got a lot of things that are on my bucket list, but I don't think that's one of them, and now it might be. But I'm just curious how You've been a tennis coach. You're like you know what? I want to go walk 2500 miles.
Speaker 2:It was definitely a building building up type thing where I had I had been interested in the outdoors since I was little, always like being outside and everything like that. We went camping a little bit as a family. And then, I think when I was 17 mean a couple people we started driving out to Northwest Arkansas and doing waterfalls and this and that and I got hooked on that. I just I loved it and appreciated it so much and I wanted to be out in that moment in those places. And then when I started coaching tennis, some of the pro cons of that with your work schedule is that you don't work maybe as many hours as most people do per week, but the con is your hours tend to be when other people aren't working. You're working, so that can be annoying, but on the weekend or, say, friday, I schedule my own hours. So if I didn't want to work, if I could schedule all my stuff Monday through Thursday, I had three-day weekends a lot, maybe once or twice a week or month, and so I would use that time to go backpack and my job and flexibility there allowed me to do that. And then I Don't know as far as doing.
Speaker 2:And then the transition to the big hike was I just started getting. I'm obsessed with gear, no matter what I'm doing. I researched gear, found out about these long hikes and I thought, man, they can do it, I can do it. Maybe that's inspiration from random movies or whatever. And I realized if I'm gonna do it, I have to Put my life on hold. I can't have a full-time job. So I spent three or four years saving up my main part of my budget and then I figured Because I have three years of these hikes and I figured in between I could supplement with some side work which kind of what I'm doing now. I'm just coaching in freelance coaching. This is what I've been telling people, and when I'm done with my hikes Maybe I'll go back to full-time somewhere else, or yeah, it was weird snowballed. I got into the small stuff and then just saw that it could be bigger and thought why not?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and one of the last things I want to talk about is tell us a little bit about the journey You're gonna take on. Is this next summer that you're going on? Yeah, July.
Speaker 2:Yeah, mid-july I've got my last of the we call them the triple crown of backpacking in the United States. It's the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific crush trail that I'm doing next year, and then the trail I did this year is the continental divide trail, and the reason I listed them in that order is most people don't do the continental divide trail I did this year. They wait for that last. It's a little more extreme. But next year the Pacific crush trail is on the west coast. It's a border to border, just like I did this year, canada to Mexico or vice versa, depending on which direction you go.
Speaker 2:And yeah, I'm gonna start July 15th. I'm actually gonna start Attempt to hike this trail with a friend of mine who I met on the Appalachian Trail. So this trip will be the first time I set out with plans to actually hike with somebody and we have plans to try to do it very fast. We're just gonna push ourselves see if we can do it within 90 to 100 days. And yeah, it's gonna be a physical push for sure. But I'm gonna be in beautiful areas up in the Pacific Northwest up, and you know, I got Washington in Oregon, the big old growth forest and stuff like that. And then you get into Northern California, sierra mountains, go so Cal. You got the desert and stuff like that and looking forward to 2600 miles for that one.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, austin. I appreciate you taking the time to share your tennis journey with us, and then the other hobbies that you got going on. It's very interesting and I feel like I learned a lot in both areas. Is there anything else you want to say to the, the listeners at home before we let you go?
Speaker 2:If there's something you want to do, get into it, go all the way with it, because whether it's tennis, some other outdoor hobby, we only have so much time. If you're getting into tennis, I think it's great. It's lifelong sport makes you healthier. If you can play tennis, you can do anything. But no matter what you do, yeah, just get on with it and do it as much as you can, because we only have so much time and I Try to do a lot of hobbies. I've got again my tennis coaching and my hiking and play a lot of disc golf and I got try to post stuff on online if I can just Austin MC on my Instagram, but yeah, it's about it.
Speaker 1:Austin. I appreciate it. We will put all of Austin's links in the show note and I'll put the link to the other podcast episodes if you want to hear a little bit more About his hiking journey. But this has been another episode of the clever angle podcast. Subscribe on Apple podcast and Spotify, wherever you get podcasts, and until next time, peace.
