October 9, 2025 • 55 mins
If you are a coach or player trying to improve your knowledge on the doubles court, then this episode is for you. Alan has assisted in coaching Jamie Murray to No. 1 in the world and has been around the highest level of professional tennis for many years. This will truly give you an insight into what it takes to be a fantastic doubles player. Training is specific and the margins are very small!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Ladies and gentlemen, if you like to coach or play double S
at a high level, then you need to listen to this episode.
I have a very special guest today.
He is currently the coach of I'msure you've heard of career high
number one in the world in double S Jamie Murray, Alan
(00:25):
MacDonald, Ali Mac appreciate your time.
How are we? Hi James, thanks for having me
on. I'm looking forward to this.
We don't get a chance to catch up as often as we should, but
I'm looking forward to spending some time with you on here.
One of the, one of the actual best things about this is now
that I live in the US, coming from Scotland, is I've actually
(00:46):
lost a lot of my Scottish accents.
So to have this conversation with Ally Mack here and, and get
some of that accent back is, is going to be quite good.
So thank. You how long?
How long now, James, for you over in States?
We have been in the States since2009, so.
Let me just tell you, you're you're doing, you're doing very
(01:09):
well with the accent. There's some absolute shockers
out there, as you as you know. Jacob firmly springs to mind.
I don't want to throw him on thebus, but he's, he struggles.
Johnny Mack, do you see that? John McEnroe called him out for
it and then post match interviewat the Aussie Open.
So where's your Scott Jackson mate?
(01:30):
So if you are British, you know,Al McDonald, if you are not
British, he is the best double splayer you've never heard of.
I think many people can agree with me with on that.
He is sitting there repping the East of Scotland tennis from
Edinburgh, Ally Mack. It's it's I don't think people
(01:54):
truly know how how good a doubleS player you actually are or
were so. Well, I appreciate that.
And and we and we for a context,we played on the same team quite
a bit bit together. Like you're good sort of what
are you, 91 birthday? You're like 12 years younger
than me, but we played some, some men's teams together And I
(02:17):
I didn't actually didn't really ever coach you being away in a
few trips with you when you're ajunior.
But so I've known you for a longtime.
So yeah, it's been, it's been great to to catch up a bit.
Yeah, and, and we're catching upright now, so this will be fun.
So let's let's delve in, shall we?
Ally Mack, you are currently coaching Jamie Murray.
(02:39):
He is ranked #48 in the world indouble s.
One of the biggest reasons that I wanted to get you on here was
with my background in, in college tennis, double s is
extremely important. If if you have a good team, it
means for the most part you you play very good double s.
(03:03):
And I wanted to get you on here to, to really talk about your
experience with Jamie, but also coaching double s at the highest
level on the professional tour. So just to start off, Maca Ali
Mac, the first, the first question I have for you is it's
(03:23):
in regards to training. It's in regards to practice,
right? Say you are at home and you have
two weeks off and there's no travel.
What does the training look likefor a double S player?
What are you doing? If you can be as specific as you
possibly can, Obviously there's no, there's not really any
singles going on here. What What does your coaching and
(03:45):
what does a training look like for one of the best double S
players in the world? Yeah.
OK. So I mean, let's be specific to
Jamie 1st and then maybe can take a few sort of more general
points out of that. But for for Jamie, usually going
to train when he's when he's noton the road, he's going to train
(04:07):
probably an hour and a half to 21/2 hours a day.
Tennis physical side will be on top of that.
He'll do one or two sessions, usually try and do 1 longer
sessions, like an hour and a half to two hour session and
just get it all done in in one go.
And he's been playing double s for a long time now and he's
(04:29):
been, he's kind of got his routines and and his ways of
doing things. So he'll always have certain
things he wants to get done thathe needs to feel like this is
the stuff that is happening the most often in matches.
That is the most important to tome to perform well.
(04:50):
So that'll be a lot of his base around his his net stuff.
So it's kind of his volley skills, not just in a kind of
wall position where he's he's kind of getting rhythm with his
volleys, but attack neutral defence, which is a huge part of
the kind of system that Louis Calle has coached from way back.
(05:14):
As kind of drilled into him as that you're not just kind of
training to be doing kind of general skills.
There's specifics around like phase of play, attack, neutral
defence that that you need to need to cover.
So you'll be doing a lot of stuff close to the net ball can
be fast, fast hands, keeping hishand out in front, deflecting
(05:35):
the ball. But then also defensive skills
could be being attacked from a midcourt ball when he's the net
player or being attacked by the by the net on the other side.
There's so many different situation that you can you can
be in attack mutual defence on the court and and that's again,
a big part of Louise influence is making sure that like you
(05:58):
can't specifically go OK, you don't have time to go.
You know, you're serving bowlingand you hit first volley and
they attack you poaching or we'll set up another situation
where your receiver partner and this and that you can get into
like 200 three 100,000 differentsituations where where you're
(06:20):
trying to think of everything that's possibly happen.
It's more about developing thoseskills for Jamie that that he
needs. So like the same hand in front
to to deal with the pace. If he's got more time to be more
offensive, he's going to use more body more more arm a lot
based trying to the gelaty at the net.
So obviously, if it we're talking about a sort of typical
(06:45):
session, he would start at the baseline and warm up and do
some, some ground strokes and cross boards again, move into
once he'd warmed up physically and warmed up his his shots,
he'll do a bit of attack neutraldefence.
So he could be, you know, movingon to the ball and and trying to
use his body to attack it. He could be getting a a tough
(07:06):
skidding volley that he has to get under it and use his hands
more to spin it. He could be, you know, being
attacked from the baseliner, could be being attached to the
net player, could be, you know, attacking with power, with
precision, lots of different areas that he needs to be, needs
to be sharpened. And then once he moves into his
volleys, he'll do his kind of general volleys from the wall
(07:29):
position, kind of more neutral. And then he'll do some stuff
where he's finishing the point being more offensive and also
being more defensive and also his first volley.
So this is where it kind of, I mean, I think everything I said
so far could be transferred to almost anyone and would be
(07:51):
useful for double s. But now we're talking about a
world where if you're atomic first volley, then there's some
amazing double S players out there who don't really have a
first volley because they don't they don't serve in volley.
So it's kind of an art that is not necessary for everyone
anymore. Whereas 30 years ago if you said
(08:11):
I don't practice my first volleythen and I'm a double spare,
then you'd get kind of laughed at time.
So it's and for like thinking toyou actually like you probably
served volley 100% first and second like when you were from
1516 up. And.
Actually, when you've got good volleys, like it's not the
(08:33):
absolute strongest part of your game, but if I was coaching you
now, I would 100% not be having you serve volume 100%.
Interesting because because the the sort of British double
system that Louis has introducedand some pioneers here because
huge part of it is tactical unpredictability.
Sorry to interrupt you Maca. Can you just explain to everyone
(08:56):
who you are referring to with Louis please?
OK, so Louis Caye, he's he's originally from Montreal and
Canada and he so he wasn't a high, high level pro tennis
player. He's a more of a sort of
recreational club player, but very smart guy, university
(09:19):
background, moved into coaching and just really sees things from
a sort of fresh perspective. And so he moved up through sort
of doing very well in clubs in Canada, got moved into
federation. He was Davis Cup captain.
He developed a bunch of Canadiansingles at and double S players.
(09:40):
So like the idea that just the double S coach had actually kind
of not always the case, like he was involved in Greg Roseski's
development, Daniel Nester he was very involved with, he was a
very good singles player as well, etcetera, etcetera.
And then around sort of 2000, hebasically he started to spend a
(10:04):
lot of time in London and then live in London to his
relationship with his now wife. And when Judy Murray was looking
for the right person to really develop Jamie and give him the
skills he needed to go as far aspossible in the game, she
basically researched who would be the best person and
(10:25):
discovered that Louis was that person, but also that he was in
Britain. And so he was employed privately
initially by by Judy and Jamie and also worked for Colin
Fleming, initially another Scottish player.
And then the LTA realized how good he was and started to bring
him in more formally. And now he's been there for, you
(10:47):
know, 20 years doing not just doubled, but coach development,
working with singles players, a lot of different stuff.
He's, he's like a baseless supercoach And he's, he's kind
of he's, I've had the chance luckily to spend a lot of time
with him last kind of 10 years working with Jamie, which has
(11:09):
been great for me. So going back to what you said,
by the way, Ali Mack is college coaches that are listening to
this are going, I can't tell youhow much this will help them
right? But the how specific you are
being when it comes to warming up volleys.
(11:31):
You know, you bring up attack neutral defence.
What exactly does that look like?
Is it a different footwork? Is it a different positioning
with your hands? What?
How long are you doing that for And and what does it look like?
It's usually, well, the the sortof mutual.
Part. Is usually more like rally kind
of situation. So Jamie would always do that
(11:55):
part or not always, but he he tries to do it with the
baseliner in the corner. And even better if there's 2A
baseliner and a net player against him and he'll play in
the cross court position and thedownline position and move
between them quite often. So he's still being physical and
(12:15):
kind of feel like he's moving and and kind of having a match
kind of intensity, but he's justlooking to get a realistic kind
of situation where the ball's getting hit properly at him.
He's heading to the right targets, which means, I mean,
one thing that I think actually is really useful for any double
(12:40):
S coach, which I've fallen prey to and kind of try and avoid it
is when you, especially if you've only got two people
training is and you're doing this kind of drill is the
volleys feeding the baseliner. You know, like they stand in the
corner and everybody goes back to them and it's been volleying
and it's accurate, but it's not training your patterns of like
(13:02):
if you're playing against someone at the baseline, you're
over there, obviously often havea partner, but you can isolate
them by moving them as well. So you're not going to just play
into their back end corner and then just keep following it
through them. Then you can play through the
middle and then if it comes backto you angle off the core and
you create these patterns. So you kind of, you'll be
falling neutral, like purely neutral only for a little bit,
(13:26):
like up the middle almost. You might just do that to just
get timing and then you'll put me or whoever's hitting with
them in the corner and start to work them around a little bit
and, and just make sure they've got the right trajectory.
That's that's another huge, I mean, that's maybe the most
important part of Jamie's volleying aside from having the
(13:47):
right physicality, the right athleticism, being low and
keeping his hand in front hands.The ball is like makes your
trajectory of his shots is, is good.
Because if you're always fallinglow over the net and finding
that trajectory where you're notlike popping the ball up, then
it's going to be consistent. Also, it's going to be hard to
to attack. So even if you're bowling with
(14:08):
less speed, if it's low over thenet then you've still got a good
chance to to do something with it.
How long is he doing drills likethat for?
He'll do his volley stuff probably like you like to keep
it, like to move on to differentthings fairly often.
So there's not kind of getting too seamy and like to keep it
(14:29):
fresh. I mean, as I said, you've been a
double S player on tour for likealmost 20 years now.
So that's where the training canbe not boring, but to be a bit
repetitive. So like you'll probably do that
for like 10-15 minutes and then maybe do some smashing and then
move on to serve. Just serve for 5-10 minutes for
(14:52):
trying to after we've warmed up,trying to make it realistic
served a spot goes his first folly.
So he's got his momentum becauseagain, that's something that I
and he's fallen full of a coupleof times, like when he's looking
to develop his serve and like feeling like he serves a real
(15:14):
priority for him that you can get a bit easy to just stand in
line and hit, you know, 100 serves in a row and feel great
with it. But you're not like certain
volley movement. So like, and then you go and
play some points and you're likerushing it or falling into it or
tossing it too much more in front or whatever it is.
And so like trying to keep that realism is is huge and it makes
(15:37):
it more, more fun as well. I think as long as you've got
that. Again, I have AI have an agenda
sometimes for these calls and I completely go off it because
genuinely what you're saying is,is so interesting to me anyway.
And if we've lost you because you don't like double s, sorry,
this is what this is going to beabout is this is going to be
(15:57):
about relentless double s. So here's a question though.
You are coaching one guy, you'recoaching 1 double S player,
right? Put yourself as a college tennis
coach in the US and you've got 9.
You've got nine guys or, or ninemen or nine women on your team.
(16:18):
What's the best way to do that? Is it, is it 6 on a court and
you're feeding? Is it one-on-one for 10 minutes?
Then all together is it coaches?Take those.
How How would you how would you set that up if you were coaching
double s for a college tennis team?
That's a brilliant, brilliant question.
(16:40):
I mean, I think first of all, I think I'm sure like the Polish
coaches are really switched on to have this anyway.
But like this idea of having your system, whether that's like
what Louis does or what you've come up with yourself or you've
learned to someone else, having our system is super important
(17:02):
that you can teach to your players and that they buy into.
And then, you know, if you imagine you've got your nine
players, you can take this one player here and he or she can
play with any of the other eightplayers and they all know
exactly what they're trying to do on the court, what the system
(17:23):
is, where the positions are, what your philosophy is going to
be. Then after that, you can start
to tailor it more to the individuals because a huge part
of it is playing to your strengths.
So like, let's say you and I play together, like you might
want to, might want to have you being at the baseline and me at
(17:44):
the net more often, you know, solike, it's not like, oh, we both
have to play exactly the same way and both serving volley all
the time or do this or do that. Like some guys are better
served, some guys want to stay back, some guys want to come in.
So within the system, there's lots of scope for playing to
your own strengths. And that's that's a huge part of
(18:06):
it. So I think in terms of the
training there, what you can take from what Jamie does is
let's get because more than singles probably double s is is
there's things repeat quite often, like the first force off
the rally. That is a lot of situations that
(18:27):
repeat and let you can train forthat happen again and again.
So I think understanding based around like what your players
strengths are, like how to trainrealistically for those things
that happen the most in the match is really important.
And, and a lot of that will be like your pro score situations,
(18:48):
your down the line rally situations.
There's a lot of one-on-one backthese days that even at the the
kind of top level. So I think like finding a way to
get volume in that, but also remember that serve and return
is, is huge. So like you've got to, you've
got to take care of your serve if you're going to be a good,
(19:10):
good double s player. And then the converse of that is
the better you can do to, to kind of neutralize first serves
and get balls in play and, and find a way to win extra points
on return. Then it becomes like a really
good package. So it's those, I think those
elements how to work those into the sessions and still keep
energy and focus and and enjoyment is is really big.
(19:34):
And I think you can you can do it because like everyone,
everyone is going to get attacked at the net in a double
S match. Unless you're like there's a few
like ladies teams out there who are actually almost like winning
slams staying both back on servesometimes.
OK, so like in your past, I would I would just say, well,
(19:57):
that's ridiculous. But you know, it's just
something that they're doing theworks that OK, that's a new
thing that that works for them. Find their their plan to their
strengths. You know, if you don't want to
have one foot off the net to getteed off at, then that's
tactically smart. And like you look at you look at
(20:21):
Sarah Rani. I'm singling her out because her
serve is so slow. But like she is unbelievably
good at everything else. Like she's such a good tennis
player and she's got this one weaker area, but she's managing
it like she they she and Vavasori won U.S.
Open Mets that against all thosesingles players.
(20:41):
Like you'd think, you know, her serve against Taylor Fritz or
whatever is going to get absolutely munched, but you
know, they make it work. And she's winning a ton of
women's double slams as well. So it's, it's just, I think it's
quite good that to have this always have this concept that
you're for double s like you, you just, you're training to
(21:05):
your strengths. You're trying to you're trying
to learn the positioning and theterritories that you need to
know to, to be in the right place to, to force your
opponents to play low percentageshots, which is a huge part of
Louise kind of philosophy is like you're not really out there
(21:26):
to beat them playing lights out tennis.
You're just making them feed themselves by squeezing their
spaces and making them feel so much pressure from your
positioning and your choice of shot and also by being
tactically unpredictable, havingtactical variations.
(21:46):
So that that's what I was sort of mentioned about if I was
coaching you, not because you didn't volley decent, but
because you need to be tactically.
It's better to be tactically unpredictable.
Like you, if you come in on serving volley on every second
serve, then eventually you just start to have to pick everything
(22:07):
up off your shoelaces and it's too much pressure, it's too much
stress. Whereas if you're like 40% stay
back and 60% serving volley, then there's a bit of
uncertainty about well, what's is he coming in?
Is he not in the head in deep? Am I hitting short?
Am I taking place off it to dropit to his feet or but then he
stayed back and he's crunched the next shot.
(22:29):
You know, and also understandinghow to use eye formation,
understanding when to switch between first serve, second
serve. It's really interesting the the
tactical considerations of like,what are we actually trying to
do with first serve and second serve?
Where am I trying to put the ball?
(22:50):
Where am I trying to put my partner at the net?
Where do I want to move to to give us the best chance to start
the point Point well? I think the biggest thing I'm
hearing for coaches out there inthe US is don't try and make
your players someone they're not.
If they're really good at something, then coach that and
put them with the appropriate partner to allow them to do that
(23:13):
really well. Yeah, that's such a good point.
Yeah. And I, I mean, I love Clayman
with guys who got big serves andcan smash it around to the
baseline, you know, like the, because like, I love being up at
the net. So that's a good combination.
Like the only issue with that isif there's not a certain level
of like competence on the net, stuff like I've got a pretty bad
(23:37):
start. So there's more likely they'll
have to deal with tougher balls when I'm serving.
But it's just all these considerations when you're
looking at putting team teams together and some sometimes like
2 like pure double s players together or both serving the
volley, both coming in, both trying to be at the net.
It doesn't work as well as, you know, a combination like there's
(24:00):
there's teams out there and the men's at the moment, like it's
kind of changing. The style of doubled is is
almost evolving again, because there's guys who aren't like
traditionally amazing volleyers,like if they don't have a first
volley, but they they're good atservice partner because they get
like that close to the net and just knock things off and
(24:23):
they're comfortable and they're brave and they don't mind the
ball coming faster than and their partners served big and
maybe even stays back. And so if the ball goes over
their head, then the partner's buying them to give a crunch and
off you go. So I think just going back to
Louis for one second, like that's where he was really great
(24:44):
is that he didn't kind of maybe because he didn't play like
super high level, but he didn't like just go along with what was
sort of normal or this is conventional.
Like he he's kind of tried to tried to see, you know, what
maybe could be improved. And also he actually looked at
(25:06):
what top players were doing, which should not coaches.
They don't always do, which that's a big lesson for me is,
is sort of like Louise got videos of players from the like
1930s, like hitting open stands,forehands, like quite modern
looking shots. But then the same player,
whoever it was that Fred Perry or someone doing a coaching
(25:27):
clinic and teaching like side onand hands to target and all that
sort of stuff. And like there there's a guy who
was doing something quite modern, but the convention of
coaching is totally different. So like the the the other story
I need to mention actually that I saw yesterday randomly was
Jimmy Arias, you know, the USX player and now commentator who
(25:51):
was like one of the first like guys with a modern forehand,
like sort of the grip, the rotation, the open stance, all
that stuff. And he said that he when he was
like junior, he got a lesson from the guy who was an ex pro
who kind of told him all this sort of stand side on hand to
target hold the finish like this.
(26:14):
And his dad, who was a mathematician but not a tennis
player. After lesson, he, he came off to
court and his dad was like, that's the biggest load of
nonsense I've ever had in my life.
Like if you stop your racket here, then how can you be
accelerating when you're hittingthe ball?
You know, and like you've got touse more rotation and you've got
to use your left arm to, to turnyour body and got your racket up
(26:36):
to then have momentum when you hit.
And like he he wasn't kind of constrained by convention of
what gone before. He was just like, right, this is
what you need to do. And then he's about to stand
into a top player by with this shot that everyone stopped
dropping. Like Paul, Terry used it as the
as the blueprint for what for what he would do with his his
(26:59):
players at the Academy. Very interesting stuff.
Just remember, Macca has two young kids, but he has time.
So if you ever need some double s for your team, don't be afraid
to give him a call. I'm.
I'm on permission. I will.
I will pass on his number. All right, here's a question for
(27:21):
you. The number one double s player
in the world right now is Lloyd Glasgow.
He's playing with Julian Cash, right?
Yeah, if they played against Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal
in their primes 10 times in double s, yeah, who wins?
(27:41):
Wins out 10 times. I mean, that's a, that's a fun
question. I think it depends a little bit
on the situation. Are we, are we saying that Novak
and Rafa are they're fully into it like Davis Cup style?
Yeah. Final of a master they've
(28:03):
bothered to like, yeah, all the way to final and they're,
they're going for it. They're going for it.
Yeah, I think I'm going to go. I'm going to go 64 to Novak and
Rafa. Interesting, like the two of
the. 3 or 4 best players of all time and the Rafa won a lot of
(28:24):
double s Double S. Titles.
Got it. Got it.
And why? It's just got that competitive,
Yeah, fire, doesn't he? So you go back to the partners
you're talking about putting yourself in the right partners.
Why are these guys the best double S players in the world?
What what do they have? Is it the partnership?
Is it the relationship? Is it their first serve?
Is it, is it just Alan? What I guess my question is, is
(28:47):
there a perfect partnership thatyou that you want to put
together? Yeah.
So I think in that specific case, they, they've what they've
got to their advantage, not to get anything away from them, but
they, they've come into this kind of British double s
(29:07):
environment where they've got these role models who've already
done it, like people that they know that like it's, it makes a
big difference. Like, as you probably know from
what your junior days as well, Like if someone that you know
starts to do well and you know, hang on, I'm not, I'm not like
way worse than them or no, I cancompete with them, but I, I
(29:28):
didn't think I could compete with that guy who I thought was
on a pedestal. But you just kind of get this
belief that you can do it. And, and I mean, I keep going on
about it, but like Louis brilliant at that is giving
people belief that they can do something.
Like you'll have either stats showing this is where you need
(29:50):
to be or this is what you have done so far.
But you also then can like do these very, very good coach,
obviously, like he can then bridge the gap between where you
are and where you need to get to.
And he can really tell you that he's got a vision of where you
can get to. And you kind of even if you
don't never quite had that belief or vision, like he can
(30:11):
take you, take you there. And those guys like their
strengths as a team, like they're an unbelievable serving
team. They've both got great serves
and they're both really good close to the net and they also
good athletes getting back to the smash.
So it's like horrible, horrible sort of pressure stress playing
(30:35):
against them when you know they're rolling through their
service games, you're hitting OKreturn, but they're just
knocking off point over. You know, they're hitting their
spots, you're not getting chances and then suddenly you
know they're not. Neither of them are like world
class consistent returners, but Julian's kind of getting a lot
of balls in play with his lob and he can get have a cut to his
(30:56):
forehand and and hurt you there.And Lloyd's can be a bit
streaky, but he can really like he's got a very good backhand
and he's kind of he's got a goodforehand.
Lob can RIP his forehand sometimes.
Like they when you're playing guys who aren't necessarily
amazing returners, but they've got that serving side just
locked up the pressure just build builds, builds.
(31:18):
And when they went on that amazing run in the summer, like
they were just initially they were just kind of rolling
through matches like serving really well, holding, you know,
92 plus percent or whatever, andthen just finding a way to break
because you play when you're holding all the time, you play
with confidence on return. And then they started to when
(31:43):
Lloyd got to number one, they won like so many tie breaks
because I think off the back of that, it's just there's so much
confidence there and belief thatyou're going to get it done.
And I think we all know that that kind of feeling at whatever
level we're at of when you're winning, it reads more winning.
But there there there's lots of different ways of kind of
putting together that kind of team that you're talking about
(32:05):
that that works together. But I think in the men's, in the
men's side, like, for example, Pavich and Arevalo are a bit
different. Like Arevalo's a bit more
limited as a volleyer than Lloydor Julian, but he can be close
to the net and put it away and perhaps got a good good lefty
Sir are well, a great competitorlike good from the baseline
(32:28):
athletic big serve, you know, like the different ways of
making that. That's a perfect team.
But I think most of the teams that in the men's who really do
well like the serve is the is the key factor like different
ways of taking care of your server that's having a cannon or
being amazing first volley or having a great service partner.
(32:50):
But you you have to get your kind of 90% plus holds to to
really do well. So for college coaches out there
that are that are looking at British tennis players, I think
it's pretty common that a lot ofa lot of Brits are very good at
double S coming into college because there's a lot of events
(33:13):
and tournaments in the UK that are involving double s.
Like for example, County Cup, County Week, you know, playing
on wet Astro on a Tuesday night for your club, like double S is
a massive part of of British tennis.
So I have a question for you, Maka, in regards to are you able
to share? I vaguely remember this, but are
(33:36):
you able to share what Louis Calle does with the rope on a
double floor and how he shows people angles of trajectory
based on the rope? Yeah, well, I'll, I'll describe
it a little bit, but you can definitely find it on YouTube as
well if anyone is interested. You can certainly tell you
(33:59):
double s and loads of stuff comes up and there's definitely
some rope action in there. But essentially, again, this is
how Louis kind of sold his theories to top players.
You know, like he's not a playerand he's trying to tell Daniel
Nestor like where to stand on the court.
(34:20):
He to do that, you need more than just the sort of authority
of, oh, I used to be a great probecause he didn't have that.
He needed proper facts. And he went through the same
process with the British players, which is basically, I
wish I had a whiteboard or something.
But basically you, he's got a rope.
(34:42):
It's basically 2 ropes that havea point here that they're
connected and you can create angles on the court.
So if, if I let's say I'm hitting from what's down here
like this, is the ad side hitting that way?
OK, so ad side hitting from the corner.
Here's the here's the tram line.I connect cross core that way or
(35:05):
down the line. And then obviously the the ropes
show the sort of extent to whichthe ball can travel and then the
territory that you need to coveras the player.
And actually when when you do it, you'll see it if you watch
Louise, much better version thanI just did.
The place you moved to again arelike, they're not very sort of
(35:26):
intuitive. So you like, for example, when
you're poaching on a wide serve,you don't need to cross the
centre service line, which because we hear the word
crossing, then we always feel like we have to move further.
So it just it gives you confidence.
Again, it's another thing to give you confidence that that
(35:46):
you know, you're doing the rightthing and that you're you're
you're making quite small as possible for your opponent by
getting to the right place. And it's really interesting
because I think he had a lot of pushback from some of the
players initially in Britain of kind of like, you have to be
kidding that I need to stand there.
I need to stand there. And then he had to get the ropes
(36:08):
out to show, you know, the the sort of angle to geometry
doesn't, doesn't lie. And then obviously the players
buy into that and then they start to win more matches and
then they're fully sold. And then eventually for him, you
know, like he doesn't really have to prove that much to
people anymore when he's tellinghis players like do this or do
(36:31):
that because they're not going to go, Oh, you need to prove
that to me because they know that he's he's got the answer,
which again, as a coach is something to aspire to, isn't
it? If you can kind of get the trust
of your players like that, then it's really good.
But but I definitely recommend just getting on YouTube because
there's quite I noticed that recently there's quite a few
clips of Louis doing conferencesor he had a video, double S
(36:54):
video that he put out in Canada originally, which has all the
rope stuff in it. It's really, it's really good.
You coached Jamie Murray to number one in the world.
Well, you were definitely coaching him at that time.
You've coached him for a long time.
When he's playing his best or when he gets at a level of #1 in
(37:16):
the world, What? What's he doing very well on the
corner? Yeah, so he he's like as as sure
anyone who knows has seen him play.
I know he's not like a power player.
So like his his weapons are a bit different from like the
ability to blast through people.And I think the big thing that I
(37:39):
mentioned before that is within that kind of British double
system that that he really embraced.
It took, maybe it took him a while to embrace it, but is the
playing for strengths. I like not thinking that he had
to hit a hard forehand or a big forehand, but that he could use
his block and his slice, his chip and his lob more to create
(38:01):
that tactical uncertainty in theopponents.
That's going to create stress, pressure, unpredictability.
So if he's not, if he's predictable, then he's kind of
dead because he's not just goingthrough you, he has to go around
you and. Unpredictable.
Unpredictable. Yeah.
I think I mean, it's true up to almost, you know, any level,
(38:25):
like maybe there's some guys whocan serve well enough and big
enough that it doesn't really matter what they do after the
server. They never never call a poach or
never change what they're doing.Then they can get away with it.
But for everyone else, it's really it's really massive and
that counts in serve and return.So like as I talked about there
(38:47):
with the return, like he he'll use his, he'll use his chip lob
or he'll, you know, lock it low with his back end.
He'll do different things with this forehand where you'll you
can sort of short inside out angle or lob it or put a bit
more patient at turning it down the line and just getting loads
of balls in play and just keeping that constant pressure
(39:10):
on the opponent. And then whether it's serve,
it's the same thing. Not obviously serving as a
lefty, you can get quite predictable, but you need to
just get the balance right whereyou know, everyone hates
returning lefties. So use that strength, but also
you've got different spots you can hit and different plays
you're going to do. So that's huge for him.
(39:32):
When he's playing well, he's unpredictable and he's he's
really kind of the big folks didnot so much technical or sort of
intellectual. It's it's more like the passion
when he's really playing well, like he can, he's done all the
work in the practice court and then he just goes out and
(39:52):
competes and plays the performer, A competitor.
And I think that's another thingthat that is really, really
important for for players to to understand is like I'm coaches,
I guess is, is that once you getout in the court, like that's
that's the most important part. You can't.
(40:13):
It's like trying to play golf and trying to fix your technique
mid round. You know, sort of work.
Does it You? You got to.
What you go on the court with this, what you've got, but then
you've got to bring the energy and focus the passion and and go
into it. Just so everyone knows Jamie
Murray's UTR, he has a 14.48 double S rating right now.
(40:34):
Thought that was quite interesting, right?
I wonder. What?
What do you want to check? Do you want to check Lloyd?
Lloyd. Because like the top top guy,
the singles are like 16, right? Roughly.
I think Jamie's been close to that in Double S.
Actually, I don't want to check right now just in case it messes
anything up. Not the most ticket, yeah, but
I'll definitely let you know, right?
There seems to be a lot of noiseout there, singles versus double
(40:58):
s players. And you know the Here we go.
Here we go. Yeah, the exhibition at the US
Open and double S players not getting the attention they
deserve. And I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll stop.
I'll stop there. I'll let you do the talking.
Yeah. Tell us.
Tell us what's going on out there on the on the ATP tier.
(41:21):
Yeah, So I mean, I obviously I'ma bit biased on this, but what
first of all, I think like it isit's always going to be like
singles. It's always going to have more
attention, more money, more everything, you know, and like
rightly so, they're the ones whobring in more attention.
(41:43):
And you know, there's some unbelievable players out there
right now still, even after, youknow, fed the Dal retired and
Djokovic is probably not going to be around for that much
longer as this next generation coming.
And I think the, the sort of double side of things, it's
(42:05):
amazing to have the singles players involved in the top
singles players. So like they're always trying to
find that balance where where they can get top singles guys
involved in double s because that, that's like the ideal
because you get really interesting classes of styles
and great matches. And also the, the tournaments
they do, they do essentially need double s.
(42:27):
You know, like if U.S. Open didn't have double S then
they wouldn't have anything to put on their actually courts And
from like the second Monday probably or even the Sunday.
So like they have to kind of coexist together the the next
the next double that the US Open.
I think it basically, it did piss people off a bit the double
(42:50):
S players because not because I mean, I personally think it's a
really good idea. I thought they could I thought
they could be just as successfuland they could still have the
normal mix in the tournament in the in the normal two weeks of
the tournament. But I think their idea is that
they want to keep developing it and make it like properly
(43:12):
prestigious. Like this is the mixed double S
like they want to have that prestige.
So fine, that's their call. But the I think rightly, the
problem that the double S guys had was apart from Vavasori and
Irani and maybe one or two of the women who play double S and
single to a high level, there's no access.
(43:33):
Like there's no, like there's noway to get into that club, you
know, and to call that a Grand Slam championship just seemed a
bit, especially when it's with the fast 4 and you know, there's
a few matches on the first day where, you know, I don't think
that certain players were reallyin in it to win it for the the
(43:54):
long haul. They were there to make the
event better. And, you know, responsibility
to, to kind of, you know, I mean, basically appearance fees.
Like, you know, they came and did their did their stuff.
So I think whatever that looks like like to give, they should
be giving access to more double S players to to get involved in
(44:17):
that. Because I 100% guarantee that
having sat at this side of courts watching matches, double
matches in America, especially America, Britain, maybe the most
of anywhere, like the punters will love double s and the
punters are playing double s. If they're tennis players,
they're that's what they're playing in their clubs.
(44:38):
And we want, you know, as spectators, we want to see these
clash of the styles and these great matches and be more likely
to get that with Taylor French playing like, you know, Matty
Pavich and Gabby Zabrovsky. Then you are, if you have Fritz
(44:59):
and Andreva playing Opelka and another singles singles player
is, is it's that clash of style that that makes it for me.
And I think the, the just the, the fact that it was kind of
almost a closed shop was a bit of an issue.
And I think I think they're probably aware of that.
(45:19):
And that especially could the one genuine double S team
actually won it. I think they might kind of look
at finding ways to to make that a bit different next time,
because it's definitely here to stay that event.
It was a huge success. I just think it could be, it
could be even better. And I think like the you quite
(45:42):
often hear, you know, like the single players are way better
tennis players and double s players.
And on occasion there's a lot oftruth to that.
But it's a very different sport.You know, it's not like the old
days when all the singles players were serving in
volleying in their singles matches and then they all played
double s as well. And you know, it's it's a
(46:03):
similar discipline. It's much more split now, like
single players, the best single players probably genuinely have
great serve, great returns. So automatically you're decent
at double s, but you can still get exposed by the kind of full
timers. So I think yeah, there's a,
(46:24):
there's a lot of kind of yeah issues around just where the,
where the balance point is on, on the, on the 33 singles.
But I, I think it'd be a huge shame if if it just kind of got
scrapped completely, which I think some great Expos and
current pros kind of talking about in those in those terms.
(46:45):
I'll be honest, I used to watch so much tennis purely.
Well, it all started obviously because of Andy.
I remember exactly where I was when he won Wimbledon the first
time and then I remember exactlywhere I what where I was when he
won Wimbledon the second time. And obviously huge role model
hero. But now I don't, I don't really
(47:07):
watch tennis that much, but I'llsay this.
If there was a court level camera of double s, I would
watch that. I, I would, I would really enjoy
seeing how they're actually playing.
And that's that's. The thing though, like the
talking about the spectators loving it, like it makes a big
(47:27):
difference to be at the courtside, seeing the speed and
the reactions of the players. Because I mean like, I'm not
going to pretend that double S doesn't have a few issues
because like I don't really unless I've got a real interest
in the players involved or you know, I'm doing it for scouting
(47:49):
purposes or something. I don't really like watching
men's double S that much unless it's particular like type of
style where there's more balls going into play and some guys
are staying back, some guys are coming in.
You get a few matches where it'ssort of serve, miss, return,
serve, miss, return, serve, return, volley, put away, like
(48:10):
quick points and the time in between the points needs to be
part of it as well. I think.
Well, there's a few things they can do, but I don't think
anyone's really, really driving that kind of stuff in the, in
the sort of HP or ITF to like like really change and do
(48:30):
something with double S that will that will kind of make it
even even better for the fans. Well, I've taken a lot of your
time Maka, but a couple more things for you first.
First thing is a story going back to 2000 and I can't
remember somewhere in the 15 sixteens maybe.
Anyway, we are on day three for East of Scotland, Day three or
(48:52):
day 4 E of Scotland County Week,Division Three I believe, and
we're playing the north of Scotland.
Macca and I are the east of Scotland, we're playing the
north and we walk into the clubhouse and sitting down
having a wee scone and a cup of tea was Murray.
This this was 20/18/2018. 18 There we go.
(49:14):
That was your last. That was your last time, wasn't
it? Yeah, I need to need to get back
in shape. But Jamie was sitting there and
he decided to show up to play for the North against the East.
He I do believe he won a couple of matches, but I think the East
got got it done and then and then I believe the East of
Scotland played the North of Scotland at County Week this
(49:37):
year in Division One. Who, who?
How did that one go, Macca? That was a nail bites in five,
four wins for the East, which probably was a relegation
decider in the end. The North unfortunately for them
went down, but we, I mean that apart from the sort of
(49:58):
intercounty rivalry stuff like that's the the first time, last
two years, the first time there's been two Scottish teams
in the in Division One accounting week.
So that was that was great. But obviously we still have the
bragging rights after last couple of years, which is nice.
A. Lot of healthy, healthy
competition I should say. While we're on the on the topic
(50:20):
and if there are any anyone involved in college tennis
listening across the pond that it is 100% worth letting your
players play county week if they, if they ask, if they if
you did county week 20 * a year,it would be absolutely insanity.
(50:40):
But as a one week it is worth more than any futures or any
training week. It's an unbelievable place to
compete, to play different styles, to put yourself under
pressure to, to kind of just play a ton of double s, have a
great team environment and Chuck, Chuck yourself around on
(51:01):
the grass a bit. Yes, well, if you don't know
Ally Mark, he definitely does Chuck himself around or put the
grass. Last thing, back to Jamie.
Goals. Goals for the end of the year.
I'm sorry, hasn't played in a minute.
Goals, expectations. Can he still get back up to
where he was? What?
How are you? How are?
(51:21):
You, I mean, it's an interestingmoment for him because I mean,
obviously he's a lot closer to the end of his career than the
start. And it's kind of in his mind
like when, when he'll, when he'll stop.
I think his summer was tough because he got, he got sick, he
got pneumonia just after Wimbledon.
(51:44):
So he didn't really play at all until U.S.
Open and then played U.S. Open with no preparation, which
was really tough for him. And then he's not, he didn't go
to Asia just with various issueswith his health and partner
ranking, stuff like that. So he's got quite a lot of
points to defend the rest of theyear.
(52:06):
And I think it's quite a big, big moment for him, like where
whether he'll kind of, yeah, be able to defend those what what's
possible for him. Because if he finishes the year
without defending them, then hisranking will be in a tough spot.
But he's got a lot of stuff going on outside of outside of
his kind of playing career. Like he's he's tournament
(52:27):
director at Queens and he's got quite quite a few other things
going on when he's back in London.
So whatever he decides to do, I'm sure he'll if you'll land on
his feet. But it'd be lovely to think he
could kind of, yeah, have one last shot at a few of the big
tournaments that that you've kind of sell that in the in the
past without having any sort of issues around health or partners
(52:51):
ranking, stuff like that. Got it.
Well, the last thing I want to leave you with Maca, is we're
going to come to an agreement onthis call and this is what's
going to happen. If you are able to set up a golf
match with you and I versus the Murray brothers at a nice course
(53:15):
down there in East Lothian, I promise you I will get myself in
shape if selected and compete for the east of Scotland.
One more. That was I was going to I was
going to come to this like I wasgoing to say when you mentioned,
we're talking about that last time you were there, like I feel
I should feel bad for you. So you you spent all that time
(53:39):
grinding with us and there's other divisions and now we've
been in Division One for five years in a row, the Holy Grail,
the Promised land, and you've not been not been there with us.
So there's always an open invitation to get out there.
So yeah, I will. I'll do my best.
I mean, you've got a few contacts in East Lothian,
(53:59):
haven't you? You might be able to provide the
course if I can provide the opposition.
Yes, the course will be there. We will have a 36 hole
challenge. I'm not sure, I'm not sure
they'll come, I'm not sure they'll come to play against me
because I'm rubbish. But if we can find, let's find a
ringer of some sort for you to play with and I'll, I'll caddy.
Johnny, Johnny Barr will play. He'll be ready.
(54:20):
No, but he's useless as well, sohe just talks the massive game
anyway. Yeah, we'll find.
We'll find something. Sorry everyone that took so long
but hopefully that was that was beneficial to you.
It's not only good to do these podcasts and and conversations
in relation at times to, to obviously UTR, but also to catch
(54:43):
up with people and and communicate with people that I
don't see that often is is why I'm doing it.
Is, is to have real conversations and and to
genuinely have have fun when when we're talking.
So Maka, I really appreciate your time.
All the best the rest of the year with Jamie and I will see
you soon. James, thanks so much for having
(55:04):
me. I really enjoyed it, Yeah.
It's fun to talk double s and and hopefully I can make you
stick to that promise that you just made to me.
See you next year in Eastbourne.Cheers mate.
Yeah. Cheers James.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you like to coach or play double S
at a high level, then you need to listen to this episode.
I have a very special guest today.
He is currently the coach of I'msure you've heard of career high
number one in the world in double S Jamie Murray, Alan
(00:25):
MacDonald, Ali Mac appreciate your time.
How are we? Hi James, thanks for having me
on. I'm looking forward to this.
We don't get a chance to catch up as often as we should, but
I'm looking forward to spending some time with you on here.
One of the, one of the actual best things about this is now
that I live in the US, coming from Scotland, is I've actually
(00:46):
lost a lot of my Scottish accents.
So to have this conversation with Ally Mack here and, and get
some of that accent back is, is going to be quite good.
So thank. You how long?
How long now, James, for you over in States?
We have been in the States since2009, so.
Let me just tell you, you're you're doing, you're doing very
(01:09):
well with the accent. There's some absolute shockers
out there, as you as you know. Jacob firmly springs to mind.
I don't want to throw him on thebus, but he's, he struggles.
Johnny Mack, do you see that? John McEnroe called him out for
it and then post match interviewat the Aussie Open.
So where's your Scott Jackson mate?
(01:30):
So if you are British, you know,Al McDonald, if you are not
British, he is the best double splayer you've never heard of.
I think many people can agree with me with on that.
He is sitting there repping the East of Scotland tennis from
Edinburgh, Ally Mack. It's it's I don't think people
(01:54):
truly know how how good a doubleS player you actually are or
were so. Well, I appreciate that.
And and we and we for a context,we played on the same team quite
a bit bit together. Like you're good sort of what
are you, 91 birthday? You're like 12 years younger
than me, but we played some, some men's teams together And I
(02:17):
I didn't actually didn't really ever coach you being away in a
few trips with you when you're ajunior.
But so I've known you for a longtime.
So yeah, it's been, it's been great to to catch up a bit.
Yeah, and, and we're catching upright now, so this will be fun.
So let's let's delve in, shall we?
Ally Mack, you are currently coaching Jamie Murray.
(02:39):
He is ranked #48 in the world indouble s.
One of the biggest reasons that I wanted to get you on here was
with my background in, in college tennis, double s is
extremely important. If if you have a good team, it
means for the most part you you play very good double s.
(03:03):
And I wanted to get you on here to, to really talk about your
experience with Jamie, but also coaching double s at the highest
level on the professional tour. So just to start off, Maca Ali
Mac, the first, the first question I have for you is it's
(03:23):
in regards to training. It's in regards to practice,
right? Say you are at home and you have
two weeks off and there's no travel.
What does the training look likefor a double S player?
What are you doing? If you can be as specific as you
possibly can, Obviously there's no, there's not really any
singles going on here. What What does your coaching and
(03:45):
what does a training look like for one of the best double S
players in the world? Yeah.
OK. So I mean, let's be specific to
Jamie 1st and then maybe can take a few sort of more general
points out of that. But for for Jamie, usually going
to train when he's when he's noton the road, he's going to train
(04:07):
probably an hour and a half to 21/2 hours a day.
Tennis physical side will be on top of that.
He'll do one or two sessions, usually try and do 1 longer
sessions, like an hour and a half to two hour session and
just get it all done in in one go.
And he's been playing double s for a long time now and he's
(04:29):
been, he's kind of got his routines and and his ways of
doing things. So he'll always have certain
things he wants to get done thathe needs to feel like this is
the stuff that is happening the most often in matches.
That is the most important to tome to perform well.
(04:50):
So that'll be a lot of his base around his his net stuff.
So it's kind of his volley skills, not just in a kind of
wall position where he's he's kind of getting rhythm with his
volleys, but attack neutral defence, which is a huge part of
the kind of system that Louis Calle has coached from way back.
(05:14):
As kind of drilled into him as that you're not just kind of
training to be doing kind of general skills.
There's specifics around like phase of play, attack, neutral
defence that that you need to need to cover.
So you'll be doing a lot of stuff close to the net ball can
be fast, fast hands, keeping hishand out in front, deflecting
(05:35):
the ball. But then also defensive skills
could be being attacked from a midcourt ball when he's the net
player or being attacked by the by the net on the other side.
There's so many different situation that you can you can
be in attack mutual defence on the court and and that's again,
a big part of Louise influence is making sure that like you
(05:58):
can't specifically go OK, you don't have time to go.
You know, you're serving bowlingand you hit first volley and
they attack you poaching or we'll set up another situation
where your receiver partner and this and that you can get into
like 200 three 100,000 differentsituations where where you're
(06:20):
trying to think of everything that's possibly happen.
It's more about developing thoseskills for Jamie that that he
needs. So like the same hand in front
to to deal with the pace. If he's got more time to be more
offensive, he's going to use more body more more arm a lot
based trying to the gelaty at the net.
So obviously, if it we're talking about a sort of typical
(06:45):
session, he would start at the baseline and warm up and do
some, some ground strokes and cross boards again, move into
once he'd warmed up physically and warmed up his his shots,
he'll do a bit of attack neutraldefence.
So he could be, you know, movingon to the ball and and trying to
use his body to attack it. He could be getting a a tough
(07:06):
skidding volley that he has to get under it and use his hands
more to spin it. He could be, you know, being
attacked from the baseliner, could be being attached to the
net player, could be, you know, attacking with power, with
precision, lots of different areas that he needs to be, needs
to be sharpened. And then once he moves into his
volleys, he'll do his kind of general volleys from the wall
(07:29):
position, kind of more neutral. And then he'll do some stuff
where he's finishing the point being more offensive and also
being more defensive and also his first volley.
So this is where it kind of, I mean, I think everything I said
so far could be transferred to almost anyone and would be
(07:51):
useful for double s. But now we're talking about a
world where if you're atomic first volley, then there's some
amazing double S players out there who don't really have a
first volley because they don't they don't serve in volley.
So it's kind of an art that is not necessary for everyone
anymore. Whereas 30 years ago if you said
(08:11):
I don't practice my first volleythen and I'm a double spare,
then you'd get kind of laughed at time.
So it's and for like thinking toyou actually like you probably
served volley 100% first and second like when you were from
1516 up. And.
Actually, when you've got good volleys, like it's not the
(08:33):
absolute strongest part of your game, but if I was coaching you
now, I would 100% not be having you serve volume 100%.
Interesting because because the the sort of British double
system that Louis has introducedand some pioneers here because
huge part of it is tactical unpredictability.
Sorry to interrupt you Maca. Can you just explain to everyone
(08:56):
who you are referring to with Louis please?
OK, so Louis Caye, he's he's originally from Montreal and
Canada and he so he wasn't a high, high level pro tennis
player. He's a more of a sort of
recreational club player, but very smart guy, university
(09:19):
background, moved into coaching and just really sees things from
a sort of fresh perspective. And so he moved up through sort
of doing very well in clubs in Canada, got moved into
federation. He was Davis Cup captain.
He developed a bunch of Canadiansingles at and double S players.
(09:40):
So like the idea that just the double S coach had actually kind
of not always the case, like he was involved in Greg Roseski's
development, Daniel Nester he was very involved with, he was a
very good singles player as well, etcetera, etcetera.
And then around sort of 2000, hebasically he started to spend a
(10:04):
lot of time in London and then live in London to his
relationship with his now wife. And when Judy Murray was looking
for the right person to really develop Jamie and give him the
skills he needed to go as far aspossible in the game, she
basically researched who would be the best person and
(10:25):
discovered that Louis was that person, but also that he was in
Britain. And so he was employed privately
initially by by Judy and Jamie and also worked for Colin
Fleming, initially another Scottish player.
And then the LTA realized how good he was and started to bring
him in more formally. And now he's been there for, you
(10:47):
know, 20 years doing not just doubled, but coach development,
working with singles players, a lot of different stuff.
He's, he's like a baseless supercoach And he's, he's kind
of he's, I've had the chance luckily to spend a lot of time
with him last kind of 10 years working with Jamie, which has
(11:09):
been great for me. So going back to what you said,
by the way, Ali Mack is college coaches that are listening to
this are going, I can't tell youhow much this will help them
right? But the how specific you are
being when it comes to warming up volleys.
(11:31):
You know, you bring up attack neutral defence.
What exactly does that look like?
Is it a different footwork? Is it a different positioning
with your hands? What?
How long are you doing that for And and what does it look like?
It's usually, well, the the sortof mutual.
Part. Is usually more like rally kind
of situation. So Jamie would always do that
(11:55):
part or not always, but he he tries to do it with the
baseliner in the corner. And even better if there's 2A
baseliner and a net player against him and he'll play in
the cross court position and thedownline position and move
between them quite often. So he's still being physical and
(12:15):
kind of feel like he's moving and and kind of having a match
kind of intensity, but he's justlooking to get a realistic kind
of situation where the ball's getting hit properly at him.
He's heading to the right targets, which means, I mean,
one thing that I think actually is really useful for any double
(12:40):
S coach, which I've fallen prey to and kind of try and avoid it
is when you, especially if you've only got two people
training is and you're doing this kind of drill is the
volleys feeding the baseliner. You know, like they stand in the
corner and everybody goes back to them and it's been volleying
and it's accurate, but it's not training your patterns of like
(13:02):
if you're playing against someone at the baseline, you're
over there, obviously often havea partner, but you can isolate
them by moving them as well. So you're not going to just play
into their back end corner and then just keep following it
through them. Then you can play through the
middle and then if it comes backto you angle off the core and
you create these patterns. So you kind of, you'll be
falling neutral, like purely neutral only for a little bit,
(13:26):
like up the middle almost. You might just do that to just
get timing and then you'll put me or whoever's hitting with
them in the corner and start to work them around a little bit
and, and just make sure they've got the right trajectory.
That's that's another huge, I mean, that's maybe the most
important part of Jamie's volleying aside from having the
(13:47):
right physicality, the right athleticism, being low and
keeping his hand in front hands.The ball is like makes your
trajectory of his shots is, is good.
Because if you're always fallinglow over the net and finding
that trajectory where you're notlike popping the ball up, then
it's going to be consistent. Also, it's going to be hard to
to attack. So even if you're bowling with
(14:08):
less speed, if it's low over thenet then you've still got a good
chance to to do something with it.
How long is he doing drills likethat for?
He'll do his volley stuff probably like you like to keep
it, like to move on to differentthings fairly often.
So there's not kind of getting too seamy and like to keep it
(14:29):
fresh. I mean, as I said, you've been a
double S player on tour for likealmost 20 years now.
So that's where the training canbe not boring, but to be a bit
repetitive. So like you'll probably do that
for like 10-15 minutes and then maybe do some smashing and then
move on to serve. Just serve for 5-10 minutes for
(14:52):
trying to after we've warmed up,trying to make it realistic
served a spot goes his first folly.
So he's got his momentum becauseagain, that's something that I
and he's fallen full of a coupleof times, like when he's looking
to develop his serve and like feeling like he serves a real
(15:14):
priority for him that you can get a bit easy to just stand in
line and hit, you know, 100 serves in a row and feel great
with it. But you're not like certain
volley movement. So like, and then you go and
play some points and you're likerushing it or falling into it or
tossing it too much more in front or whatever it is.
And so like trying to keep that realism is is huge and it makes
(15:37):
it more, more fun as well. I think as long as you've got
that. Again, I have AI have an agenda
sometimes for these calls and I completely go off it because
genuinely what you're saying is,is so interesting to me anyway.
And if we've lost you because you don't like double s, sorry,
this is what this is going to beabout is this is going to be
(15:57):
about relentless double s. So here's a question though.
You are coaching one guy, you'recoaching 1 double S player,
right? Put yourself as a college tennis
coach in the US and you've got 9.
You've got nine guys or, or ninemen or nine women on your team.
(16:18):
What's the best way to do that? Is it, is it 6 on a court and
you're feeding? Is it one-on-one for 10 minutes?
Then all together is it coaches?Take those.
How How would you how would you set that up if you were coaching
double s for a college tennis team?
That's a brilliant, brilliant question.
(16:40):
I mean, I think first of all, I think I'm sure like the Polish
coaches are really switched on to have this anyway.
But like this idea of having your system, whether that's like
what Louis does or what you've come up with yourself or you've
learned to someone else, having our system is super important
(17:02):
that you can teach to your players and that they buy into.
And then, you know, if you imagine you've got your nine
players, you can take this one player here and he or she can
play with any of the other eightplayers and they all know
exactly what they're trying to do on the court, what the system
(17:23):
is, where the positions are, what your philosophy is going to
be. Then after that, you can start
to tailor it more to the individuals because a huge part
of it is playing to your strengths.
So like, let's say you and I play together, like you might
want to, might want to have you being at the baseline and me at
(17:44):
the net more often, you know, solike, it's not like, oh, we both
have to play exactly the same way and both serving volley all
the time or do this or do that. Like some guys are better
served, some guys want to stay back, some guys want to come in.
So within the system, there's lots of scope for playing to
your own strengths. And that's that's a huge part of
(18:06):
it. So I think in terms of the
training there, what you can take from what Jamie does is
let's get because more than singles probably double s is is
there's things repeat quite often, like the first force off
the rally. That is a lot of situations that
(18:27):
repeat and let you can train forthat happen again and again.
So I think understanding based around like what your players
strengths are, like how to trainrealistically for those things
that happen the most in the match is really important.
And, and a lot of that will be like your pro score situations,
(18:48):
your down the line rally situations.
There's a lot of one-on-one backthese days that even at the the
kind of top level. So I think like finding a way to
get volume in that, but also remember that serve and return
is, is huge. So like you've got to, you've
got to take care of your serve if you're going to be a good,
(19:10):
good double s player. And then the converse of that is
the better you can do to, to kind of neutralize first serves
and get balls in play and, and find a way to win extra points
on return. Then it becomes like a really
good package. So it's those, I think those
elements how to work those into the sessions and still keep
energy and focus and and enjoyment is is really big.
(19:34):
And I think you can you can do it because like everyone,
everyone is going to get attacked at the net in a double
S match. Unless you're like there's a few
like ladies teams out there who are actually almost like winning
slams staying both back on servesometimes.
OK, so like in your past, I would I would just say, well,
(19:57):
that's ridiculous. But you know, it's just
something that they're doing theworks that OK, that's a new
thing that that works for them. Find their their plan to their
strengths. You know, if you don't want to
have one foot off the net to getteed off at, then that's
tactically smart. And like you look at you look at
(20:21):
Sarah Rani. I'm singling her out because her
serve is so slow. But like she is unbelievably
good at everything else. Like she's such a good tennis
player and she's got this one weaker area, but she's managing
it like she they she and Vavasori won U.S.
Open Mets that against all thosesingles players.
(20:41):
Like you'd think, you know, her serve against Taylor Fritz or
whatever is going to get absolutely munched, but you
know, they make it work. And she's winning a ton of
women's double slams as well. So it's, it's just, I think it's
quite good that to have this always have this concept that
you're for double s like you, you just, you're training to
(21:05):
your strengths. You're trying to you're trying
to learn the positioning and theterritories that you need to
know to, to be in the right place to, to force your
opponents to play low percentageshots, which is a huge part of
Louise kind of philosophy is like you're not really out there
(21:26):
to beat them playing lights out tennis.
You're just making them feed themselves by squeezing their
spaces and making them feel so much pressure from your
positioning and your choice of shot and also by being
tactically unpredictable, havingtactical variations.
(21:46):
So that that's what I was sort of mentioned about if I was
coaching you, not because you didn't volley decent, but
because you need to be tactically.
It's better to be tactically unpredictable.
Like you, if you come in on serving volley on every second
serve, then eventually you just start to have to pick everything
(22:07):
up off your shoelaces and it's too much pressure, it's too much
stress. Whereas if you're like 40% stay
back and 60% serving volley, then there's a bit of
uncertainty about well, what's is he coming in?
Is he not in the head in deep? Am I hitting short?
Am I taking place off it to dropit to his feet or but then he
stayed back and he's crunched the next shot.
(22:29):
You know, and also understandinghow to use eye formation,
understanding when to switch between first serve, second
serve. It's really interesting the the
tactical considerations of like,what are we actually trying to
do with first serve and second serve?
Where am I trying to put the ball?
(22:50):
Where am I trying to put my partner at the net?
Where do I want to move to to give us the best chance to start
the point Point well? I think the biggest thing I'm
hearing for coaches out there inthe US is don't try and make
your players someone they're not.
If they're really good at something, then coach that and
put them with the appropriate partner to allow them to do that
(23:13):
really well. Yeah, that's such a good point.
Yeah. And I, I mean, I love Clayman
with guys who got big serves andcan smash it around to the
baseline, you know, like the, because like, I love being up at
the net. So that's a good combination.
Like the only issue with that isif there's not a certain level
of like competence on the net, stuff like I've got a pretty bad
(23:37):
start. So there's more likely they'll
have to deal with tougher balls when I'm serving.
But it's just all these considerations when you're
looking at putting team teams together and some sometimes like
2 like pure double s players together or both serving the
volley, both coming in, both trying to be at the net.
It doesn't work as well as, you know, a combination like there's
(24:00):
there's teams out there and the men's at the moment, like it's
kind of changing. The style of doubled is is
almost evolving again, because there's guys who aren't like
traditionally amazing volleyers,like if they don't have a first
volley, but they they're good atservice partner because they get
like that close to the net and just knock things off and
(24:23):
they're comfortable and they're brave and they don't mind the
ball coming faster than and their partners served big and
maybe even stays back. And so if the ball goes over
their head, then the partner's buying them to give a crunch and
off you go. So I think just going back to
Louis for one second, like that's where he was really great
(24:44):
is that he didn't kind of maybe because he didn't play like
super high level, but he didn't like just go along with what was
sort of normal or this is conventional.
Like he he's kind of tried to tried to see, you know, what
maybe could be improved. And also he actually looked at
(25:06):
what top players were doing, which should not coaches.
They don't always do, which that's a big lesson for me is,
is sort of like Louise got videos of players from the like
1930s, like hitting open stands,forehands, like quite modern
looking shots. But then the same player,
whoever it was that Fred Perry or someone doing a coaching
(25:27):
clinic and teaching like side onand hands to target and all that
sort of stuff. And like there there's a guy who
was doing something quite modern, but the convention of
coaching is totally different. So like the the the other story
I need to mention actually that I saw yesterday randomly was
Jimmy Arias, you know, the USX player and now commentator who
(25:51):
was like one of the first like guys with a modern forehand,
like sort of the grip, the rotation, the open stance, all
that stuff. And he said that he when he was
like junior, he got a lesson from the guy who was an ex pro
who kind of told him all this sort of stand side on hand to
target hold the finish like this.
(26:14):
And his dad, who was a mathematician but not a tennis
player. After lesson, he, he came off to
court and his dad was like, that's the biggest load of
nonsense I've ever had in my life.
Like if you stop your racket here, then how can you be
accelerating when you're hittingthe ball?
You know, and like you've got touse more rotation and you've got
to use your left arm to, to turnyour body and got your racket up
(26:36):
to then have momentum when you hit.
And like he he wasn't kind of constrained by convention of
what gone before. He was just like, right, this is
what you need to do. And then he's about to stand
into a top player by with this shot that everyone stopped
dropping. Like Paul, Terry used it as the
as the blueprint for what for what he would do with his his
(26:59):
players at the Academy. Very interesting stuff.
Just remember, Macca has two young kids, but he has time.
So if you ever need some double s for your team, don't be afraid
to give him a call. I'm.
I'm on permission. I will.
I will pass on his number. All right, here's a question for
(27:21):
you. The number one double s player
in the world right now is Lloyd Glasgow.
He's playing with Julian Cash, right?
Yeah, if they played against Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal
in their primes 10 times in double s, yeah, who wins?
(27:41):
Wins out 10 times. I mean, that's a, that's a fun
question. I think it depends a little bit
on the situation. Are we, are we saying that Novak
and Rafa are they're fully into it like Davis Cup style?
Yeah. Final of a master they've
(28:03):
bothered to like, yeah, all the way to final and they're,
they're going for it. They're going for it.
Yeah, I think I'm going to go. I'm going to go 64 to Novak and
Rafa. Interesting, like the two of
the. 3 or 4 best players of all time and the Rafa won a lot of
(28:24):
double s Double S. Titles.
Got it. Got it.
And why? It's just got that competitive,
Yeah, fire, doesn't he? So you go back to the partners
you're talking about putting yourself in the right partners.
Why are these guys the best double S players in the world?
What what do they have? Is it the partnership?
Is it the relationship? Is it their first serve?
Is it, is it just Alan? What I guess my question is, is
(28:47):
there a perfect partnership thatyou that you want to put
together? Yeah.
So I think in that specific case, they, they've what they've
got to their advantage, not to get anything away from them, but
they, they've come into this kind of British double s
(29:07):
environment where they've got these role models who've already
done it, like people that they know that like it's, it makes a
big difference. Like, as you probably know from
what your junior days as well, Like if someone that you know
starts to do well and you know, hang on, I'm not, I'm not like
way worse than them or no, I cancompete with them, but I, I
(29:28):
didn't think I could compete with that guy who I thought was
on a pedestal. But you just kind of get this
belief that you can do it. And, and I mean, I keep going on
about it, but like Louis brilliant at that is giving
people belief that they can do something.
Like you'll have either stats showing this is where you need
(29:50):
to be or this is what you have done so far.
But you also then can like do these very, very good coach,
obviously, like he can then bridge the gap between where you
are and where you need to get to.
And he can really tell you that he's got a vision of where you
can get to. And you kind of even if you
don't never quite had that belief or vision, like he can
(30:11):
take you, take you there. And those guys like their
strengths as a team, like they're an unbelievable serving
team. They've both got great serves
and they're both really good close to the net and they also
good athletes getting back to the smash.
So it's like horrible, horrible sort of pressure stress playing
(30:35):
against them when you know they're rolling through their
service games, you're hitting OKreturn, but they're just
knocking off point over. You know, they're hitting their
spots, you're not getting chances and then suddenly you
know they're not. Neither of them are like world
class consistent returners, but Julian's kind of getting a lot
of balls in play with his lob and he can get have a cut to his
(30:56):
forehand and and hurt you there.And Lloyd's can be a bit
streaky, but he can really like he's got a very good backhand
and he's kind of he's got a goodforehand.
Lob can RIP his forehand sometimes.
Like they when you're playing guys who aren't necessarily
amazing returners, but they've got that serving side just
locked up the pressure just build builds, builds.
(31:18):
And when they went on that amazing run in the summer, like
they were just initially they were just kind of rolling
through matches like serving really well, holding, you know,
92 plus percent or whatever, andthen just finding a way to break
because you play when you're holding all the time, you play
with confidence on return. And then they started to when
(31:43):
Lloyd got to number one, they won like so many tie breaks
because I think off the back of that, it's just there's so much
confidence there and belief thatyou're going to get it done.
And I think we all know that that kind of feeling at whatever
level we're at of when you're winning, it reads more winning.
But there there there's lots of different ways of kind of
putting together that kind of team that you're talking about
(32:05):
that that works together. But I think in the men's, in the
men's side, like, for example, Pavich and Arevalo are a bit
different. Like Arevalo's a bit more
limited as a volleyer than Lloydor Julian, but he can be close
to the net and put it away and perhaps got a good good lefty
Sir are well, a great competitorlike good from the baseline
(32:28):
athletic big serve, you know, like the different ways of
making that. That's a perfect team.
But I think most of the teams that in the men's who really do
well like the serve is the is the key factor like different
ways of taking care of your server that's having a cannon or
being amazing first volley or having a great service partner.
(32:50):
But you you have to get your kind of 90% plus holds to to
really do well. So for college coaches out there
that are that are looking at British tennis players, I think
it's pretty common that a lot ofa lot of Brits are very good at
double S coming into college because there's a lot of events
(33:13):
and tournaments in the UK that are involving double s.
Like for example, County Cup, County Week, you know, playing
on wet Astro on a Tuesday night for your club, like double S is
a massive part of of British tennis.
So I have a question for you, Maka, in regards to are you able
to share? I vaguely remember this, but are
(33:36):
you able to share what Louis Calle does with the rope on a
double floor and how he shows people angles of trajectory
based on the rope? Yeah, well, I'll, I'll describe
it a little bit, but you can definitely find it on YouTube as
well if anyone is interested. You can certainly tell you
(33:59):
double s and loads of stuff comes up and there's definitely
some rope action in there. But essentially, again, this is
how Louis kind of sold his theories to top players.
You know, like he's not a playerand he's trying to tell Daniel
Nestor like where to stand on the court.
(34:20):
He to do that, you need more than just the sort of authority
of, oh, I used to be a great probecause he didn't have that.
He needed proper facts. And he went through the same
process with the British players, which is basically, I
wish I had a whiteboard or something.
But basically you, he's got a rope.
(34:42):
It's basically 2 ropes that havea point here that they're
connected and you can create angles on the court.
So if, if I let's say I'm hitting from what's down here
like this, is the ad side hitting that way?
OK, so ad side hitting from the corner.
Here's the here's the tram line.I connect cross core that way or
(35:05):
down the line. And then obviously the the ropes
show the sort of extent to whichthe ball can travel and then the
territory that you need to coveras the player.
And actually when when you do it, you'll see it if you watch
Louise, much better version thanI just did.
The place you moved to again arelike, they're not very sort of
(35:26):
intuitive. So you like, for example, when
you're poaching on a wide serve,you don't need to cross the
centre service line, which because we hear the word
crossing, then we always feel like we have to move further.
So it just it gives you confidence.
Again, it's another thing to give you confidence that that
(35:46):
you know, you're doing the rightthing and that you're you're
you're making quite small as possible for your opponent by
getting to the right place. And it's really interesting
because I think he had a lot of pushback from some of the
players initially in Britain of kind of like, you have to be
kidding that I need to stand there.
I need to stand there. And then he had to get the ropes
(36:08):
out to show, you know, the the sort of angle to geometry
doesn't, doesn't lie. And then obviously the players
buy into that and then they start to win more matches and
then they're fully sold. And then eventually for him, you
know, like he doesn't really have to prove that much to
people anymore when he's tellinghis players like do this or do
(36:31):
that because they're not going to go, Oh, you need to prove
that to me because they know that he's he's got the answer,
which again, as a coach is something to aspire to, isn't
it? If you can kind of get the trust
of your players like that, then it's really good.
But but I definitely recommend just getting on YouTube because
there's quite I noticed that recently there's quite a few
clips of Louis doing conferencesor he had a video, double S
(36:54):
video that he put out in Canada originally, which has all the
rope stuff in it. It's really, it's really good.
You coached Jamie Murray to number one in the world.
Well, you were definitely coaching him at that time.
You've coached him for a long time.
When he's playing his best or when he gets at a level of #1 in
(37:16):
the world, What? What's he doing very well on the
corner? Yeah, so he he's like as as sure
anyone who knows has seen him play.
I know he's not like a power player.
So like his his weapons are a bit different from like the
ability to blast through people.And I think the big thing that I
(37:39):
mentioned before that is within that kind of British double
system that that he really embraced.
It took, maybe it took him a while to embrace it, but is the
playing for strengths. I like not thinking that he had
to hit a hard forehand or a big forehand, but that he could use
his block and his slice, his chip and his lob more to create
(38:01):
that tactical uncertainty in theopponents.
That's going to create stress, pressure, unpredictability.
So if he's not, if he's predictable, then he's kind of
dead because he's not just goingthrough you, he has to go around
you and. Unpredictable.
Unpredictable. Yeah.
I think I mean, it's true up to almost, you know, any level,
(38:25):
like maybe there's some guys whocan serve well enough and big
enough that it doesn't really matter what they do after the
server. They never never call a poach or
never change what they're doing.Then they can get away with it.
But for everyone else, it's really it's really massive and
that counts in serve and return.So like as I talked about there
(38:47):
with the return, like he he'll use his, he'll use his chip lob
or he'll, you know, lock it low with his back end.
He'll do different things with this forehand where you'll you
can sort of short inside out angle or lob it or put a bit
more patient at turning it down the line and just getting loads
of balls in play and just keeping that constant pressure
(39:10):
on the opponent. And then whether it's serve,
it's the same thing. Not obviously serving as a
lefty, you can get quite predictable, but you need to
just get the balance right whereyou know, everyone hates
returning lefties. So use that strength, but also
you've got different spots you can hit and different plays
you're going to do. So that's huge for him.
(39:32):
When he's playing well, he's unpredictable and he's he's
really kind of the big folks didnot so much technical or sort of
intellectual. It's it's more like the passion
when he's really playing well, like he can, he's done all the
work in the practice court and then he just goes out and
(39:52):
competes and plays the performer, A competitor.
And I think that's another thingthat that is really, really
important for for players to to understand is like I'm coaches,
I guess is, is that once you getout in the court, like that's
that's the most important part. You can't.
(40:13):
It's like trying to play golf and trying to fix your technique
mid round. You know, sort of work.
Does it You? You got to.
What you go on the court with this, what you've got, but then
you've got to bring the energy and focus the passion and and go
into it. Just so everyone knows Jamie
Murray's UTR, he has a 14.48 double S rating right now.
(40:34):
Thought that was quite interesting, right?
I wonder. What?
What do you want to check? Do you want to check Lloyd?
Lloyd. Because like the top top guy,
the singles are like 16, right? Roughly.
I think Jamie's been close to that in Double S.
Actually, I don't want to check right now just in case it messes
anything up. Not the most ticket, yeah, but
I'll definitely let you know, right?
There seems to be a lot of noiseout there, singles versus double
(40:58):
s players. And you know the Here we go.
Here we go. Yeah, the exhibition at the US
Open and double S players not getting the attention they
deserve. And I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll stop.
I'll stop there. I'll let you do the talking.
Yeah. Tell us.
Tell us what's going on out there on the on the ATP tier.
(41:21):
Yeah, So I mean, I obviously I'ma bit biased on this, but what
first of all, I think like it isit's always going to be like
singles. It's always going to have more
attention, more money, more everything, you know, and like
rightly so, they're the ones whobring in more attention.
(41:43):
And you know, there's some unbelievable players out there
right now still, even after, youknow, fed the Dal retired and
Djokovic is probably not going to be around for that much
longer as this next generation coming.
And I think the, the sort of double side of things, it's
(42:05):
amazing to have the singles players involved in the top
singles players. So like they're always trying to
find that balance where where they can get top singles guys
involved in double s because that, that's like the ideal
because you get really interesting classes of styles
and great matches. And also the, the tournaments
they do, they do essentially need double s.
(42:27):
You know, like if U.S. Open didn't have double S then
they wouldn't have anything to put on their actually courts And
from like the second Monday probably or even the Sunday.
So like they have to kind of coexist together the the next
the next double that the US Open.
I think it basically, it did piss people off a bit the double
(42:50):
S players because not because I mean, I personally think it's a
really good idea. I thought they could I thought
they could be just as successfuland they could still have the
normal mix in the tournament in the in the normal two weeks of
the tournament. But I think their idea is that
they want to keep developing it and make it like properly
(43:12):
prestigious. Like this is the mixed double S
like they want to have that prestige.
So fine, that's their call. But the I think rightly, the
problem that the double S guys had was apart from Vavasori and
Irani and maybe one or two of the women who play double S and
single to a high level, there's no access.
(43:33):
Like there's no, like there's noway to get into that club, you
know, and to call that a Grand Slam championship just seemed a
bit, especially when it's with the fast 4 and you know, there's
a few matches on the first day where, you know, I don't think
that certain players were reallyin in it to win it for the the
(43:54):
long haul. They were there to make the
event better. And, you know, responsibility
to, to kind of, you know, I mean, basically appearance fees.
Like, you know, they came and did their did their stuff.
So I think whatever that looks like like to give, they should
be giving access to more double S players to to get involved in
(44:17):
that. Because I 100% guarantee that
having sat at this side of courts watching matches, double
matches in America, especially America, Britain, maybe the most
of anywhere, like the punters will love double s and the
punters are playing double s. If they're tennis players,
they're that's what they're playing in their clubs.
(44:38):
And we want, you know, as spectators, we want to see these
clash of the styles and these great matches and be more likely
to get that with Taylor French playing like, you know, Matty
Pavich and Gabby Zabrovsky. Then you are, if you have Fritz
(44:59):
and Andreva playing Opelka and another singles singles player
is, is it's that clash of style that that makes it for me.
And I think the, the just the, the fact that it was kind of
almost a closed shop was a bit of an issue.
And I think I think they're probably aware of that.
(45:19):
And that especially could the one genuine double S team
actually won it. I think they might kind of look
at finding ways to to make that a bit different next time,
because it's definitely here to stay that event.
It was a huge success. I just think it could be, it
could be even better. And I think like the you quite
(45:42):
often hear, you know, like the single players are way better
tennis players and double s players.
And on occasion there's a lot oftruth to that.
But it's a very different sport.You know, it's not like the old
days when all the singles players were serving in
volleying in their singles matches and then they all played
double s as well. And you know, it's it's a
(46:03):
similar discipline. It's much more split now, like
single players, the best single players probably genuinely have
great serve, great returns. So automatically you're decent
at double s, but you can still get exposed by the kind of full
timers. So I think yeah, there's a,
(46:24):
there's a lot of kind of yeah issues around just where the,
where the balance point is on, on the, on the 33 singles.
But I, I think it'd be a huge shame if if it just kind of got
scrapped completely, which I think some great Expos and
current pros kind of talking about in those in those terms.
(46:45):
I'll be honest, I used to watch so much tennis purely.
Well, it all started obviously because of Andy.
I remember exactly where I was when he won Wimbledon the first
time and then I remember exactlywhere I what where I was when he
won Wimbledon the second time. And obviously huge role model
hero. But now I don't, I don't really
(47:07):
watch tennis that much, but I'llsay this.
If there was a court level camera of double s, I would
watch that. I, I would, I would really enjoy
seeing how they're actually playing.
And that's that's. The thing though, like the
talking about the spectators loving it, like it makes a big
(47:27):
difference to be at the courtside, seeing the speed and
the reactions of the players. Because I mean like, I'm not
going to pretend that double S doesn't have a few issues
because like I don't really unless I've got a real interest
in the players involved or you know, I'm doing it for scouting
(47:49):
purposes or something. I don't really like watching
men's double S that much unless it's particular like type of
style where there's more balls going into play and some guys
are staying back, some guys are coming in.
You get a few matches where it'ssort of serve, miss, return,
serve, miss, return, serve, return, volley, put away, like
(48:10):
quick points and the time in between the points needs to be
part of it as well. I think.
Well, there's a few things they can do, but I don't think
anyone's really, really driving that kind of stuff in the, in
the sort of HP or ITF to like like really change and do
(48:30):
something with double S that will that will kind of make it
even even better for the fans. Well, I've taken a lot of your
time Maka, but a couple more things for you first.
First thing is a story going back to 2000 and I can't
remember somewhere in the 15 sixteens maybe.
Anyway, we are on day three for East of Scotland, Day three or
(48:52):
day 4 E of Scotland County Week,Division Three I believe, and
we're playing the north of Scotland.
Macca and I are the east of Scotland, we're playing the
north and we walk into the clubhouse and sitting down
having a wee scone and a cup of tea was Murray.
This this was 20/18/2018. 18 There we go.
(49:14):
That was your last. That was your last time, wasn't
it? Yeah, I need to need to get back
in shape. But Jamie was sitting there and
he decided to show up to play for the North against the East.
He I do believe he won a couple of matches, but I think the East
got got it done and then and then I believe the East of
Scotland played the North of Scotland at County Week this
(49:37):
year in Division One. Who, who?
How did that one go, Macca? That was a nail bites in five,
four wins for the East, which probably was a relegation
decider in the end. The North unfortunately for them
went down, but we, I mean that apart from the sort of
(49:58):
intercounty rivalry stuff like that's the the first time, last
two years, the first time there's been two Scottish teams
in the in Division One accounting week.
So that was that was great. But obviously we still have the
bragging rights after last couple of years, which is nice.
A. Lot of healthy, healthy
competition I should say. While we're on the on the topic
(50:20):
and if there are any anyone involved in college tennis
listening across the pond that it is 100% worth letting your
players play county week if they, if they ask, if they if
you did county week 20 * a year,it would be absolutely insanity.
(50:40):
But as a one week it is worth more than any futures or any
training week. It's an unbelievable place to
compete, to play different styles, to put yourself under
pressure to, to kind of just play a ton of double s, have a
great team environment and Chuck, Chuck yourself around on
(51:01):
the grass a bit. Yes, well, if you don't know
Ally Mark, he definitely does Chuck himself around or put the
grass. Last thing, back to Jamie.
Goals. Goals for the end of the year.
I'm sorry, hasn't played in a minute.
Goals, expectations. Can he still get back up to
where he was? What?
How are you? How are?
(51:21):
You, I mean, it's an interestingmoment for him because I mean,
obviously he's a lot closer to the end of his career than the
start. And it's kind of in his mind
like when, when he'll, when he'll stop.
I think his summer was tough because he got, he got sick, he
got pneumonia just after Wimbledon.
(51:44):
So he didn't really play at all until U.S.
Open and then played U.S. Open with no preparation, which
was really tough for him. And then he's not, he didn't go
to Asia just with various issueswith his health and partner
ranking, stuff like that. So he's got quite a lot of
points to defend the rest of theyear.
(52:06):
And I think it's quite a big, big moment for him, like where
whether he'll kind of, yeah, be able to defend those what what's
possible for him. Because if he finishes the year
without defending them, then hisranking will be in a tough spot.
But he's got a lot of stuff going on outside of outside of
his kind of playing career. Like he's he's tournament
(52:27):
director at Queens and he's got quite quite a few other things
going on when he's back in London.
So whatever he decides to do, I'm sure he'll if you'll land on
his feet. But it'd be lovely to think he
could kind of, yeah, have one last shot at a few of the big
tournaments that that you've kind of sell that in the in the
past without having any sort of issues around health or partners
(52:51):
ranking, stuff like that. Got it.
Well, the last thing I want to leave you with Maca, is we're
going to come to an agreement onthis call and this is what's
going to happen. If you are able to set up a golf
match with you and I versus the Murray brothers at a nice course
(53:15):
down there in East Lothian, I promise you I will get myself in
shape if selected and compete for the east of Scotland.
One more. That was I was going to I was
going to come to this like I wasgoing to say when you mentioned,
we're talking about that last time you were there, like I feel
I should feel bad for you. So you you spent all that time
(53:39):
grinding with us and there's other divisions and now we've
been in Division One for five years in a row, the Holy Grail,
the Promised land, and you've not been not been there with us.
So there's always an open invitation to get out there.
So yeah, I will. I'll do my best.
I mean, you've got a few contacts in East Lothian,
(53:59):
haven't you? You might be able to provide the
course if I can provide the opposition.
Yes, the course will be there. We will have a 36 hole
challenge. I'm not sure, I'm not sure
they'll come, I'm not sure they'll come to play against me
because I'm rubbish. But if we can find, let's find a
ringer of some sort for you to play with and I'll, I'll caddy.
Johnny, Johnny Barr will play. He'll be ready.
(54:20):
No, but he's useless as well, sohe just talks the massive game
anyway. Yeah, we'll find.
We'll find something. Sorry everyone that took so long
but hopefully that was that was beneficial to you.
It's not only good to do these podcasts and and conversations
in relation at times to, to obviously UTR, but also to catch
(54:43):
up with people and and communicate with people that I
don't see that often is is why I'm doing it.
Is, is to have real conversations and and to
genuinely have have fun when when we're talking.
So Maka, I really appreciate your time.
All the best the rest of the year with Jamie and I will see
you soon. James, thanks so much for having
(55:04):
me. I really enjoyed it, Yeah.
It's fun to talk double s and and hopefully I can make you
stick to that promise that you just made to me.
See you next year in Eastbourne.Cheers mate.
Yeah. Cheers James.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!