ADD 10-20 MPH to your serve in 30 Seconds, NO joke

[arche3]

You are not even coherent. Do you also go around saying that Federer is a product (sic) who doesn't love tennis because he doesn't play for free?

Yes. I am. I was criticized for giving my opinion of ians approach. I guess I was not lovey dovey nice.
A player can very well play for money and love of tennis. We play for the love of tennis. But ian is not a player on his channel. I dont think he makes videos because he loves to talk about rec tennis improvement in video. Or to teach rec hacks or kids. Its a job. Comparing ian to federer is laughable and an epic fail. Federer plays tennis (a game we all love) for money. Ian makes videos about playing tennis. Do I need to spell it out any clearer?

 

[arche3]

Why not look at it the other way? Those who watch the free stuff put out by Will H. and others (like me) are the ones who are ripping them off by not buying their product. Like asking for samples of everything at a farmer's market and then walking away without buying anything.

The free stuff is the carrot for people to buy the paid content. You are not ripping them off. Do you always need to be led by the hand?

 

[Shroud]

Why not look at it the other way? Those who watch the free stuff put out by Will H. and others (like me) are the ones who are ripping them off by not buying their product. Like asking for samples of everything at a farmer's market and then walking away without buying anything.

1. Do you put out vids or are you ripping them off. Its not clear.
2. This reminds me of the Simpsons when they did a spoof of the npr pledge drive and the announcer accuses everyone of stealing who didnt pledge.
3. In this case they sent a free teaser on how to increase my serve speed and screwed up the diagnosis. No way I am paying for that or their other stuff because I now doubt the quality. You think I should just pay sight unseen for this?
4. Its not like I am hacking in to get the free stuff. They offer it FOR FREE. Now if I sent around my Wilander on Wheels pdf of their tips to my friends then yes they would be stealing that, but I dont...

That is because you might have a brick-and-mortar coaching business going, and this is your side thing, while for the Internet coaches, it is a business. You don't produce the lessons and videos they do, so there is really no comparison.

You are right. No comparison. 5263 is giving his time and advice for free because he loves the game and cares...

 

[RajS]

I too started at 39! It has been 10 years now.

Nice coincidence! Would love to hit with you and some of the other San Diego folks if I come there, even though I am sure I will be outclassed... maybe some day!

 

[sureshs]

Yes. I am. I was criticized for giving my opinion of ians approach. I guess I was not lovey dovey nice.
A player can very well play for money and love of tennis. We play for the love of tennis. But ian is not a player on his channel. I dont think he makes videos because he loves to talk about rec tennis improvement in video. Or to teach rec hacks or kids. Its a job. Comparing ian to federer is laughable and an epic fail. Federer plays tennis (a game we all love) for money. Ian makes videos about playing tennis. Do I need to spell it out any clearer?

You didn't spell anything out at all.

There is no difference in principle between Federer and a coach who makes money from videos. Fed has sponsors and tournament organizers who advertise for him, so he doesn't show up here or in your mailbox. But he is being advertised for sure.

Tennis industry is not only about players. The guy who sweeps the court is also part of the industry, as well as a rec player like me.

 

[sureshs]

5263 is giving his time and advice for free because he loves the game and cares...

And Nadal must be a very bad person because he doesn't

 

[Shroud]

And Nadal must be a very bad person because he doesn't

No. Nadal is a bad person because he single handedly ruined tennis...

 

[arche3]

You didn't spell anything out at all.

There is no difference in principle between Federer and a coach who makes money from videos. Fed has sponsors and tournament organizers who advertise for him, so he doesn't show up here or in your mailbox. But he is being advertised for sure.

Tennis industry is not only about players. The guy who sweeps the court is also part of the industry, as well as a rec player like me.

Ok... federer is in the same job as ian. Lmao. Don't forget the court sweeper too. Same.

My comment was ian is way to wordy on his videos.

 

[sureshs]

These online instructions are already dead in the water it seems, but maybe I'm wrong. Too many of them out there, lots of info on Youtube you can get for free etc. Its lost its value, because too many have come along and watered it down. That would explain the aggressive emails the main guys are sending out all the time, trying to retain their customer base.

The idea is great however and guys like Will at FYB latched onto and made a market, a name for themselves and plenty of money. Good for them, nothing but respect. Now the next big thing has to come along.

Do you actually know any juniors/college players/pros or their parents/coaches who use these online instruction sites on a paying basis?

I don't know of any among the many junior players or coaches I have encountered in various clubs (not that I am sure since obviously I didn't ask, but because it has never been mentioned).

Is the membership mostly comprised of adult rec players?

 

[Topspin Shot]

Is the membership mostly comprised of adult rec players?

I would think it is.

 

[sureshs]

I would think it is.

If so, it is a problem.

Serious juniors need to be out on the court getting real lessons and hitting and playing matches. Between that and school and homework, I am not sure that spending time on these sites will help.

Adult rec players will most of the time never cross the 4.5 level, so a large amount of this detailed instruction will not translate to much, absent the commitment to time or fitness.

I can see a segment that can benefit: junior rec coaches who are not good players themselves, and parents who coach their own children to save money. They can get something out of this and pass it on to their students.

 

[LakeSnake]

Why not look at it the other way? Those who watch the free stuff put out by Will H. and others (like me) are the ones who are ripping them off by not buying their product. Like asking for samples of everything at a farmer's market and then walking away without buying anything.

It is a strange world we live in. To reach customers, Google essentially forces you to give away free material, that has taken years or decades, and $Ks, for you to acquire, on a weekly basis. Once they are there, you then have the task of converting people who found you because they are disinclined to pay for anything, to paying customers! On top of that you get random surfers with a sense of entitlement criticizing you for trying to make some money off of your expertise and all the free content.

 

[sureshs]

The "software model" changed everything. Before that, everything was physical. A big company or a prospective individual customer would not say: Design a machine, employ several people, pay to manufacture it, test it, and then come and drop it by our office for a free trial. If we like it, we may or may not buy it, chances are we won't.

With the software model, you spend money and provide an almost fully working code drop to a buyer, before he will even consider you as a vendor.

After the software model came the Internet software model around the time of Google, where the entire product has to be provided free of charge and money is made indirectly through ads.

 

[arche3]

It is a strange world we live in. To reach customers, Google essentially forces you to give away free material, that has taken years or decades, and $Ks, for you to acquire, on a weekly basis. Once they are there, you then have the task of converting people who found you because they are disinclined to pay for anything, to paying customers! On top of that you get random surfers with a sense of entitlement criticizing you for trying to make some money off of your expertise and all the free content.

Lol. So me criticizing ian means I am entitled? He has a right to make money. Im telling him he is advertising wrong to reach a larger audience. He takes so long and never gets to the point that i would guess a large percentage of audience stops and leaves his video before anything of value is spoken. Contrast that with some jeff salzy vids where he gets to the meat usually under a minute. Then explains in more detail. His videos you can actually watch all the way through and feel you learned something. If ian has a large number of his audience leave before the video even makes a dent how successful will that be in selling his premium content?
Noone is saying that he can't try to make a business doing web coaching.

 

[sureshs]

Nice coincidence! Would love to hit with you and some of the other San Diego folks if I come there, even though I am sure I will be outclassed... maybe some day!

Just let us know when you plan to come here.

 

[RajS]

Just let us know when you plan to come here.

Thanks, will do!

 

[tennis_balla]

No. Nadal is a bad person because he single handedly ruined tennis...

Please elaborate.

 

[Essential Tennis]

Yes. I am. I was criticized for giving my opinion of ians approach. I guess I was not lovey dovey nice. A player can very well play for money and love of tennis. We play for the love of tennis. But ian is not a player on his channel. I dont think he makes videos because he loves to talk about rec tennis improvement in video. Or to teach rec hacks or kids. Its a job. Comparing ian to federer is laughable and an epic fail. Federer plays tennis (a game we all love) for money. Ian makes videos about playing tennis. Do I need to spell it out any clearer?

Making public, personal judgements towards somebody without actually knowing them isn't very nice.....but that just comes with the territory for me, so I honestly don't blame you one bit I could make a long list of things in response to the accusation that I don't love tennis (and I'm tempted to because it honestly hurts to know somebody out there thinks that) but I won't because I'd hate to blab on and on without getting to the meat of my reply ;-)

In all seriousness, I completely agree that for a long time my videos were way too long. I repeated myself way too much. It took much too long to get to the point. I typically tried to cover way too many points in a single video. All of those things occurred because I really do love tennis. I love to talk about it, and I love trying to help people improve. The over 200 episodes of my audio podcast should be proof enough of that. I've never made a dime off the podcast, and yet there's well over 100 hours of me answering questions that listeners have submitted.

For a long time I resisted people like yourself who told me to "stop talking so much". I wanted to stick to my "style" and create instruction the way I wanted to do it, but the reality is you were correct. I needed to adjust to fit the ever decreasing attention span of your average internet user. These days I throw out any takes where I don't get to the point of the lesson within the first 30-45 seconds, and I try my best to keep every lesson within 4 minutes or so, but it's still very hard for me, haha.

Anyway, the old saying goes "you can't please everybody" and it's most certainly true. My common sense tells me that I shouldn't have posted in this thread or tried to defend myself, but I felt compelled to communicate a little bit from my end of the computer screen. I'm working hard daily to improve. Hopefully some of you are seeing that and appreciate it. If you still don't like what I'm putting out then that's totally fine - plenty of others to chose from.

Cheers!

 

[arche3]

Making public, personal judgements towards somebody without actually knowing them isn't very nice.....but that just comes with the territory for me, so I honestly don't blame you one bit I could make a long list of things in response to the accusation that I don't love tennis (and I'm tempted to because it honestly hurts to know somebody out there thinks that) but I won't because I'd hate to blab on and on without getting to the meat of my reply ;-)

In all seriousness, I completely agree that for a long time my videos were way too long. I repeated myself way too much. It took much too long to get to the point. I typically tried to cover way too many points in a single video. All of those things occurred because I really do love tennis. I love to talk about it, and I love trying to help people improve. The over 200 episodes of my audio podcast should be proof enough of that. I've never made a dime off the podcast, and yet there's well over 100 hours of me answering questions that listeners have submitted.

For a long time I resisted people like yourself who told me to "stop talking so much". I wanted to stick to my "style" and create instruction the way I wanted to do it, but the reality is you were correct. I needed to adjust to fit the ever decreasing attention span of your average internet user. These days I throw out any takes where I don't get to the point of the lesson within the first 30-45 seconds, and I try my best to keep every lesson within 4 minutes or so, but it's still very hard for me, haha.

Anyway, the old saying goes "you can't please everybody" and it's most certainly true. My common sense tells me that I shouldn't have posted in this thread or tried to defend myself, but I felt compelled to communicate a little bit from my end of the computer screen. I'm working hard daily to improve. Hopefully some of you are seeing that and appreciate it. If you still don't like what I'm putting out then that's totally fine - plenty of others to chose from.

Cheers!

Ha ha! Great that you read this here amongst the rec hacks. Lol.

I actually do see a pretty good improvement (for myself) in your content in the essential tennis videos this past 6 months. One of your serve videos was fantastic and to the point. Gave just enough info to help and left enough carrot for those that wanted to delve further.

Glad to see you here.

 

[wihamilton]

NOBODY loves tennis more than Ian.

 

[Mongolmike]

Making public, personal judgements towards somebody without actually knowing them isn't very nice.....but that just comes with the territory for me, so I honestly don't blame you one bit I could make a long list of things in response to the accusation that I don't love tennis (and I'm tempted to because it honestly hurts to know somebody out there thinks that) but I won't because I'd hate to blab on and on without getting to the meat of my reply ;-)

In all seriousness, I completely agree that for a long time my videos were way too long. I repeated myself way too much. It took much too long to get to the point. I typically tried to cover way too many points in a single video. All of those things occurred because I really do love tennis. I love to talk about it, and I love trying to help people improve. The over 200 episodes of my audio podcast should be proof enough of that. I've never made a dime off the podcast, and yet there's well over 100 hours of me answering questions that listeners have submitted.

For a long time I resisted people like yourself who told me to "stop talking so much". I wanted to stick to my "style" and create instruction the way I wanted to do it, but the reality is you were correct. I needed to adjust to fit the ever decreasing attention span of your average internet user. These days I throw out any takes where I don't get to the point of the lesson within the first 30-45 seconds, and I try my best to keep every lesson within 4 minutes or so, but it's still very hard for me, haha.

Anyway, the old saying goes "you can't please everybody" and it's most certainly true. My common sense tells me that I shouldn't have posted in this thread or tried to defend myself, but I felt compelled to communicate a little bit from my end of the computer screen. I'm working hard daily to improve. Hopefully some of you are seeing that and appreciate it. If you still don't like what I'm putting out then that's totally fine - plenty of others to chose from.

Cheers!

I applaud you for recognizing that the way you want to teach may not be the best way to teach. Good for you. And I truely do mean that.

Maybe the problem is a shortening attention span especially with a younger crowd, but I would think much of your target base is a middle age - older crowd, and it's not a shorter attention span that is the problem, you may be underestimating the speed with which they can follow you.

Speaking for myself, I can comprehend what the point of the lesson is and get frustrated with the delivery if example after example of the target lesson is given. I GET IT. Now teach me! You set up the lesson, now lets get working on it. Same as a drill class, or lesson... enough chit-chat... let's fix it.

There's the joke about why the old guy doesn't buy green bananas... cause he may not live long enough for them to ripen. You're topic is an area I know is a weakness of mine, you give an example to reinforce that you are familiar with this weakness in people, now let's move along... identify the specifics I need to be aware of, work on, drill at, monitor, etc.

Again, kudos to you and Will H. for doing what you do. It is a love for tennis, no doubt, and the same for all of us, a willingness to grow, learn and teach. Thanks.

 

[sureshs]

leed loves tennis more than Ian. Will Ian be posting here when he is 65?

 

[arche3]

leed loves tennis more than Ian. Will Ian be posting here when he is 65?

That depends entirely on how far Ian can throw a football and his standing long jump.

 

[LeeD]

You might have gotten me...
Today, just before hitting, I ran out to an empty court with a pretty decent old ball, stood halfway to the backfence, ran up 3 steps and tossed (staying behind my baseline), and the ball only hit about halfway up the backfence, not nearly over it.
It appears I've been aging since the last time I tried.

 

[arche3]

You might have gotten me...
Today, just before hitting, I ran out to an empty court with a pretty decent old ball, stood halfway to the backfence, ran up 3 steps and tossed (staying behind my baseline), and the ball only hit about halfway up the backfence, not nearly over it.
It appears I've been aging since the last time I tried.

yup old age does that. Explains why you think you beat WTA pros too. and why you forgot you posted that you did. No worries. Hope you feel better.

 

[Essential Tennis]

I applaud you for recognizing that the way you want to teach may not be the best way to teach.

I actually don't believe that there is a "best" way to teach. The information and methods being given need to be sound and produce positive results, of course, but beyond that teaching just about anything is style and personal preference. It's just as much art as it is "science". My natural way of communicating is repetitive and long winded. Many people are annoyed and exacerbated by that, other people truly love it!

That being said, people on the internet have a short attention span on average, and it's getting shorter. So given the medium I'm using to communicated being short and to the point is no doubt better than being verbose, but that doesn't mean that some people don't prefer the latter.

Regardless, thanks very much for the kudos. I'm more than willing to own up to my faults (pun intended) and try to improve my skills.

 

[mightyrick]

I actually don't believe that there is a "best" way to teach. The information and methods being given need to be sound and produce positive results, of course, but beyond that teaching just about anything is style and personal preference. It's just as much art as it is "science". My natural way of communicating is repetitive and long winded. Many people are annoyed and exacerbated by that, other people truly love it!

That being said, people on the internet have a short attention span on average, and it's getting shorter. So given the medium I'm using to communicated being short and to the point is no doubt better than being verbose, but that doesn't mean that some people don't prefer the latter.

Regardless, thanks very much for the kudos. I'm more than willing to own up to my faults (pun intended) and try to improve my skills.

Ian, I very much enjoy your content. However, I don't think the "way you teach" needs to have such a mutually exclusive approach.

For the beginner, yes, probably just the short quips are best. Quickly get to the meat. You're communicating to people who really only understand that tennis is played with a round hoop on a stick threaded with string. Get them quickly successful. When it comes to beginners, I think a few early quick "wins" are always desirable.

However, the more advanced your instruction gets, I think you can (and probably should) get more long-winded and explain more. Talk more about the WHY of a mechanic or fundamental. As players get more experienced, just being told what to do isn't good enough. Players will want to understand why they are being told to do something.

I think you can have the best of both worlds and satisfy 95% of your audience.

For what it's worth, please don't stop the "long-winded" explanations completely. Just target them more appropriately. When I watch your videos, I really want to see you explain WHY you tell me to do something.

 

[Mongolmike]

I agree with mightyrick. It is the "why", and then the "how" that I want to focus on, not so much the lead up- here's what happens, here's an example, here's another example.

But I also understand that you are casting a wide net, and that if we were 1-on-1 that you would quickly see the best method to approach my needs, and I would quickly see how you were trying to get me there. Tough to appeal to a very broad audience... and certainly not a captured audience at that.