CoachLife ft. Guy Fritz

welcome to season 13 of the parenting Aces podcast a proud member of the Tennis Channel podcast Network I'm your host Lisa Stone and this week we have with us guy Fritz the father of Taylor Fritz who hopefully you all know who that is guy and I have known each other for a while now he is actually one of the first people I met when I started parenting Aces and I recently ran into him during the Indian Wells tour tournament and have been trying to get him on the podcast ever since so really excited we were able to make that happen but it's interesting to talk to a guy not only about his own tennis development and Tennis life but also Raising a Son and being the father and the coach and having the mother be a former pro player as well and having that voice inputting into their son who has wound up being a tremendous professional player um our top American player actually out on the ATP Tour so guy is just full of great information he is now also part of Coach life so you can go on coachlife outcom through the link in our show notes and please use that link because we have a discount for you guys and I want you to be sure and take advantage of that so go to the show notes go to Coach life via our link use the discount code for guy Fritz and you're going to have access to all the wonderful content that guy has recorded for coachlife decom super excited for y'all to hear from him and super grateful that he was able to take time to chat with us here at parenting Aces now sit back relax and enjoy my conversation with the dad of Taylor Fritz Mr guy parenting Aces is providing this podcast as a public service referen to any specific product service or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by parenting Aces Lisa stone or fit for two Inc the views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on this program is not and does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent always do your own due diligence before purchasing hiring or using any product service or provider well guy it's taken us about a month to get this coordinated but we finally got it coordinated where you're in the states I'm in the states we're recording I'm super excited to chat with you today glad to be here yeah so we ran into each other at Easter bowl that was the most recent time and you were working with some of the players there which was super cool I didn't realize that you were working you know with some of the area Juniors and we're going to jump into that in a minute but because I haven't had you on here since we first met back in late 2012 I think um I want to just give you the opportunity to share with our audience a little bit of your tennis Story how did you get started playing tennis well my story is nothing uh that great I was doing every sport you could do and I was in the eighth grade at a junior high school and one of the coaches said hey you're a good athlete you've been doing this doing that I need another player for the tennis team so I'd seen these guys at lunchtime hit the ball around I thought that looks like fun so I said okay uh I'll come out for the team and uh every lunch hour I would go out and hit a maybe a half hour and uh so I started just with a little PE coach encouraging me to get out there and play on the team we played five or six matches that year and uh we played three out of five games that constituted a set two out of three sets and then I put the racket down again and you know got back into basketball and the other sports so that was it that's how I started so no formal instruction at the beginning not at all except for my father saying you have to hit Top Spin did you know what that meant yes I did I did the what so you there's a racket on the ground you just picked it up and I went over to the wall and I would try to hit that Top Spin now the wall I was hitting on was about 20 feet high it was the band room wall and believe it or not I could hit that ball up on that band room and I'd have to climb a dangerous fence than just to get my ball so I got to where I hated that so I started controlling the ball a little better that's amazing and at what point did you start to get formal instruction uh probably about the time I was uh already the Las Vegas city Champion uh I'd really never had a lesson I developed this really good Western forehand which nobody used in those days and I had a good serve oh I did get some instruction a year or so later to there was a college kid who was a very good player he came into Vegas and he gambled and lost of his money so he was teaching out at a club and he had a clinic so I went out there and he showed me how to hold that racket for the serve how to get that Continental grip so that was my pretty much my first lesson right there so I developed a good serve good forand and went from there and did you become a good Junior player excuse me not really I finished uh second in the state of Nevada in singles in high school I never ever played a Junior tournament in California like a lot of the kids do they drive down from Vegas and play no I was a late late starter and how far did you go with your tennis as as a young athlete well I never had a sponsor I would go and play and run out of money and I'd come back and go to work for Pono seura he really helped me with my game and there's always good players around lacasta I got up to uh close to 200 in the world I 203 I think it was and doubles was a little higher uh I could have done better but at the end of the year I had to have some money in that bank account I didn't want to go back and teach so I had to be careful with where I went to play tournament and stuff and what finally was kind of the the thing that told you okay it's time to move away from trying to earn a living at this I need to do something else I I really never wanted to move away from it if I thought I could still go out right now and play tennis and make money I'd still be doing it uh it was I played uh in the seniors I couldn't get enough of it uh every money tournament that came around I remember I won the Colorado circuit when I was 35 I beat all the college kids but I realized I can't quite get to that net like I could I can't had jump up for that overhead and uh so I I gave it up around that time and was the next step to move into coaching uh actually I didn't know what to do I I was looking for something that would fulfill that excitement and the traveling around the world and I just couldn't find that adrenaline and I actually got into sports betting in Las Vegas wow wow well our audience may know you as the father of one of our top players from this country Taylor Fritz and we see you travel with Taylor now and again you coached him coming up can you talk a little bit about how you kind of recognize that Taylor had a gift for tennis um like you Taylor's a tall lanky guy uh very athletic and what made you say uh huh this kid could be really good at this tennis thing well I started him out at two years old and he loved it he would uh play in the morning and hit a 100 Balls and then you know go through stuff go have lunch have his nap and then he wanted to play again and uh so I got him started early but then he quit for several years he got you know watching TV and videos and all all you parents out there keep the kids away from the phones and the videos and the computer games it's just not conducive to good tennis but it was about 13 when I saw his will to win when I thought hey this guy might be a good player he might be able to do something with this game and I mean Taylor's got good jeans not only does he have you as his dad but his mom is a former professional player on the WTA and a phenomenal athlete in her own right so you know he came into the world with some gifts but having gifts and learning how to maximize those gifts are two very different things are there things that as you look back that you can identify that you did as parents to help him Foster the gifts that he was born with well we were very lucky in the fact that we had you know both parents that knew the game and could hit with him and uh give each other a break so if he got mad at her I'd hit and vice versa but uh I let him play all the sports and uh if he would have picked you know baseball he was a really good baseball player I would have said fine I would have went out and got the best best baseball uh expertise I could but we were lucky very lucky we living in Southern California we had a court in our backyard so Tator really had all the advantages he really did was there a time where he said I'm done with this or I'm done with you Mom and Dad coaching me um take your pick well uh I remember my wife was out HED with him one day it was a hot day and uh I don't know what happened but she came in and says uh that's it I'm not going to hit with him anymore and he was about 12 years old and I said well welcome to my world it's it's not always is going to be easy there's days when he's not going to want to play and so forth and uh it was it was just a little bit of a tug and pull but I didn't I didn't push him very much I just tried to get him to play a little on a consistent basis but there was a time I think when he was 13 or 14 he said H I'm not going to play anymore Dad I'm done with tennis and of course that bothered me but I just said okay Taylor if that's what you want to do that's up to you I don't want to but of course inside I'm going oh my gosh all this work we put in and he's getting good and but uh he uh he came around and so I think it was good that I just said okay whatever you want to do that's fine with me even though it wasn't fine with me I didn't let him know that yeah I think that's very important um to let the kids drive the process right yes yes yeah absolutely and I when they're out on the court they have to do the way they got to do all that running they got to have that desire you know I don't care how much as a parent you you try to instill that ISM it has to come from them and so at what point did you realize that Taylor needed additional coaching to what you and Kathy could provide him well to this day I never believed he did anything else I felt that uh I felt that he was a painting that I never really got to finish but he uh he's very independent and when he turned 18 he signed his own contract with Nike which wasn't really that great a contract he had a better deal with Fela but he was 18 dad I could do what I want and uh he his best friends were on the US Tommy Paul and Riley opelo great guys and he said to me uh when we're about to go to the US op he said Dad I want to go with the US ta team I said okay if that's what you want no problem and then a couple of days later he said well Dad you got to go back and you're doing the you're doing the contracts with the Asians so you have to go back I said no I don't have to go back he said I want you to come back so I I did go back but that's about the time when he got independent and he started working out at the US trading center in Carson which was really more than I could give him because San Diego we didn't have the Sam queries and the Stevie Johnson's and and a nice and a good Traer a good physio so it was a good move for him to to make that uh transition to Carson and at what point did you then move on to start teaching other Junior players well a lot of people don't know this but before Taylor came along I I was cooko vand way I started her when she was 9 years old I didn't know that yeah I know very few people know that I was her coach she'll tell you she said it on many on the air many times and she was phenomenal we just had a a problem with her mother her mother got in the way and that hurt her career believe me it hurt it but she was uh I'd coached Roger nap out of USC I took him from 385 in the world down to 100 so I'd already had some success uh as a touring coach and coaching local Juniors and uh when things didn't work out with Coco which was about 15 and a half it actually turned out the timing was great because I put all my energies in the Tater if you were talking to the parent of a rising Junior player let's say 12 13 14 year old Junior where the parent has the coaching experience and knowledge to work with their own child what is some advice that you would give a parent coach that's looking to take their child to the level that Taylor's achieving well if they have the expertise uh that I would say don't don't let these Fly by Night coaches uh come by and tell you that you could do this they could do that there's always two or three hanging out at every Junior toury you go to and they're to me they're poachers they just try to they see a good kid and they go tell the parent hey I could if if I was coaching I could do this and I could do that I'd say stay away from those guys if you if you believe in your coaching just uh stay with that if you need some uh like there was the the boy that I was coaching to the ITF out at Indian Wells Rudy Quan he came to me just for the serving his dad had done a great job with his ground strokes he'd already won the Eddie her so I'm not going to take any credit for him but I did help him uh his serve and he served better than that T that he ever has and he won it he won the ITF he's uh he'll be at UCLA next year so you know if there's there's certain part of the game that you might not understand I've noticed that a lot of parents coaches they don't really understand the serve that's the main one interesting and what about the parent child relationship how do you protect that in this whole crazy process boy that's that's a tough one right there that is really tough uh I know my relationship was strained with my son because of that uh it's it's tough you just try to try to be the best parent you can be but then you also have to be honest and uh tell tell your son or daughter whoever it may be what's really going on what's the real truth why are you winning or losing and it's it gets in the way but it could be done I mean T's uh Tat's good kid and uh uh I wish I was doing it full time now cuz I'm retired but uh we still get together he still listens to me and uh we text all the time we talk about his matches uh he loves to call you and talk to you when he beats a good player he likes to give you all the details and I love that you know do you have a working relationship with his current coach Mike Russell or how how do you fit into that whole team now well all the other coaches uh when when n and they brought in anacon uh they always invited me on the court always invited me uh to you know they always asked my opinion and and I asked theirs and we would throw some things around but he's he's a little bit more uh protective uh and doesn't really uh come to me for any advice uh I wish you would because I've seen him make some mistakes I've seen him give Taylor the wrong uh strategy in a couple of matches but uh I'm sure he has his reasons and uh if Taylor's happy with him then uh you know we stay with him yeah that's the important thing right is that your son is in a good coaching environment has a good team around him and is continuing to grow as a player yeah he's got a great physio Wolf Gang is uh is very good he's part of the team and uh uh his new girlfriend seems to be great she uh uh doesn't distract from his tennis so everything is is going in a good direction I think it you know he's still learning I think he's still getting better and that's the main thing you got to keep it proving it's very different now isn't it that you know Taylor in his mid-20s now that used to be you know middle AG for a tennis professional um now that's still really young on the pro tour he still got a lot of years ahead of him yeah if you take care of yourself uh he's had some injuries he has a few problems that pop up with his feet and uh but if he takes care of himself and uh I think he's going to have quite a few years left I hope so yeah yeah for sure we all hope so he's doing great out there and fun to watch I enjoy watching yeah I'm sure if a parent were to come to you and say hey guy I'm I'm looking for a coach for my junior um you know my kids really interested in learning how to play this game maybe playing college tennis maybe going on to play professionally we need to find the right coach what are some tips that you would offer up well I I have people come to me all the time about coaching their kids the first thing I look for is the parents if if they've got it screw loose I just say uh I'm sorry I'm busy find somebody else that's I mean I don't need the money so if but if I get some kids that really like to learn really want to listen and the parents understand hey let's let's uh go for a really good scholarship at a top school first and if if he goes out the Summers and does well uh then it could turn pro uh there's just a lot of parents that are out there uh kind of playing because they want to do it you know they're pushing those kids and you'll see it's pretty much it's easy to pick those kids out because they're the ones that are cheating the parents that are putting all the pressure on the kids they're the ones that are making the bad calls interesting interesting what are some things that you want parents to better understand in terms of what it takes to achieve a high level in this sport because I feel like there's a disconnect you know yes you're right I want them to understand about the consistency in your sleeping in your eating in your practice and that you get get to do everything you can to get your son or daughter ready to play a match but sometimes they're not going to play well there was many times in the Juniors when Taylor went out there and just did not play well and then I would realize well he's in a growth spurt now you can't all these parents think that when they see their kids play at a certain high level that they could do that every time they go out they can't do that you got to just let it go and and don't be talking to them and giving them all advice after they lose a tough match leave them alone give them at least 24 hours of insanity I think that's very good advice so recently you've become involved with Coach life which is a new online platform it's a subscription service where people can get coaching advice from some of the best in the business you included why did you decide to join that platform and what is it that you're hoping people will take away from the videos that you're sharing on coachlife decom well the reason I I signed up for it was the guy that's runed it Pete is a former pro player very intelligent understands the game and he selected Pros that started kids from scrap like I did not not people that have already uh picked up a player once they're a pro so I thought that was a really novel idea that hey we could we've got something to offer because we we started these kids we taught them the grips we taught them the mechanics and uh that's what hooked me and I think it's going to be a really good uh platform yeah I we've had a couple coaches on already on the podcast that are from coach life and I you know so far the conversations have been incredibly enlightening and I do think there is a lot of value from learning from a coach who has taken players from day one all the way through the process because like you said it's it's one thing to teach all of those fundamentals and then transition into the next phase and the next phase and the next phase and help the the player be successful it's quite a different story to take somebody that's already fully developed and you're just playing psychologist for them as they go out and compete right so well that's that's true that's very good point and and also I think one of the aims of Coach life which I thought was super interesting was the fact that all of you coaches that are there are coming together and helping each other become better coaches this isn't just a platform for tennis players or parents of tennis players it's also a platform for coaches who want to learn yes he's got uh he's got it set up where every facets of the game are covered and uh we're even going to expand on it with uh uh the the lessons that I put out there right now I would I'm going to come out with another one that's going to be geared for the the higher level the college kid the the satellite players the Futures players because I I I think I learned a lot from uh Pono sugura and guys like that that and for being out there and coaching that a lot of the other coaches aren't aren't uh aren't showing how important as a coach is it to have mentors as you develop your skills in the coaching Arena I think it's uh somewhat important that that uh there's somebody there to for them to talk to for them to somebody that could give them that feedback of why they lost that match what they want to what they need to work on to me as ter was developing we'd see see little parts of his game they need to get better and uh and we just go work on those but you never uh Billy Jean gave a speech just the other day and she said you never get away from your best shots so you keep developing those best shots and make them great and but you also work on on the ones you need to but I really like what she said about the great shots don't don't just uh you know like tinder's got a great serve and a great forehead but you don't neglect any any anything else and get away from that you still are working on your on what what got you there yeah I love that too there's been a lot of talk over the last 15 years or so about you know American tennis is you know declining we're not producing Champions you look at the college teams we don't have you know we have international players filling up the college rosters we have a problem here in the states we we don't have good players we don't have good coaches what's your feeling about all of that when you hear people talking about the current state and and you know really what they mean is the demise of American tennis do you see it that way well no I do not see it that way I'm I'm I'm the other way believe me I think American tennis is very healthy uh if you look at the top 20 what do we have four players and if Riley opela wasn't injured he'd be right there he'd probably be in the top 10 uh and then you go right on down through the 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s we got players uh at every spot we've got good kids coming in Mickelson uh we've got a lot of guys that are still developing like Sebastian cter guys like that uh you look at percentage wise I mean we've got at any one time we'll have 12 guys at top 100 13 14 uh I don't I think it's healthy I think it's good now if you want to go to the college system and talk about all the foreigners that are in there that's true because you're competing now if you're an American you're trying to play in college you're competing against the world that's the way it is of the pros so they either have to say okay no team can have more than two foreigners they have to do something about that if they want to change that that's okay okay but I get calls all the time from forign players because that's the only place where there's upward Mobility is in the United States you can go to school and you can practice your tennis and it's been shown over and over again where those college guys come out and there's a lot of guys make the pros going four years to school yeah I have no problem with that yeah no I agree with you I I don't think we're ever going to see a limit on the number of international players on college teams I just don't think that's going to happen but I do feel I agree with you that you know we have a solid number of Americans on the men's and the women's side that are doing well professionally I it is true we haven't had a an American man win a slam in quite a while but we've come close and I mean when Taylor won Indian Wells a couple years ago that was huge for American tennis tomby Paul is knocking on the door uh look who's in the CMEs of the US Open last year only one year out of college I mean he's got a bright future in fact he took took Tat's place at number one for a week or two there now Tat's pass him back up but uh we've got some good players and uh it's really hard to win those grand slabs your computer gets all the players of the world uh but I think it'll happen yeah I do too is that a goal of Taylor's I mean I I shouldn't say is that a goal of course it's a goal where does it fit in in terms of the dayt day like is that something a player thinks about every time they step out on the court that oh my gosh I could be the first American man in X number of years to win a major I've never really uh talked to him in depth about about that about his goals uh he already met several of them top 10 top five uh Davis Cup all that stuff uh Masters those were all goals uh and then you have to reset them but I'm sure one of his goal is to win a major I'm I'm sure about that I just don't think that anybody really dwells on it it's there it's in the back of your mind and you're you're working towards it but can't every day be thinking about I got to win win this I got to go win a US Open I got to win a major you know yeah can you talk a little bit guy about the process when a player makes the decision to play as a professional that their development isn't over at that point it's really just starting over again right um there's a whole corre and and can you kind of walk us through through the timeline of that from let's say a 17 18 year old boy or even a 22y old who's gone four years to college what are those first couple years on the professional circuit looking like in terms of continuing to grow as a player well it's a leered curve it's getting that experience it's learning how to close out matches but when you're young you're competing against all these 26 27 28 year old men men that have had trainers that are in the weight rooms and that's a huge difference uh you've got to come out you got to be strong you gota be fit and uh terer lacked that even though he got off to a big start when he was young winning tournaments but to maintain that to keep it going is very difficult you got to be really fit you go to be strong and uh that's the biggest difference between the younger look look at somebody like alres he came out like 18 years old he's a man I he's so strong so athletic and so he could compete with anybody but talk about adjusting to life on tour as well because if when you're in junior tennis you've got parents around you and other adults that are dealing with your travel and you know all of that stuff when you're in college you've got the college coach is handling all that stuff now all of a sudden you're out there by yourself what is the learning curve to kind of figure out which tournaments to play how you're going to manage your travel how you're going to manage your diet how you're going to manage your physical health you know working out the fitness side the injury prevention all of those pieces and then on top of that the mental health challenges of being out on tour yeah one thing that that I'll mention now that I might have forgotten before that one of the biggest things between getting out of college or turning pro at 18 or 19 is that you can get away with letting your focus drop losing your concentration and the pros can't get away with that so that's one of the big things they have to learn a lot of people go out on the tour they cannot handle the travel they cannot handle playing at 12:00 at night and getting up and doing this and doing that so I see a lot Taylor travels well so that's that's in his his benefit that he could do that but that that's tough a lot of people can't do it now to talk about uh setting up your schedule your travel especially when you're younger that's difficult because of the ATP points you can only play in this level of tournament at certain times you have to be able to adjust and hopefully you can get a wild card or two once in a while the right time uh but you need somebody that's been out there and has gone through that process to help you especially those first couple years to make that adjustment because a lot of kids they don't know where to play and and they don't know when to take those days off when to take a week or two off uh those are those are tough questions yeah and what about the financial commitment that it takes Tak to be out on tour and the challenges of managing that especially at the beginning of a career Welly that that's really tough uh it's very expensive would you hire a private coach and next thing you know you get yourself a physical trador uh I would just say you better be ready physically your game has to be no weaknesses and uh because it is expensive it's very expensive and that's that's the bad thing about tennis uh and that's why a lot of kids I think from lower income they they're going to have a hard time making it because I I don't like the way it is I I would I personally would like to take about four or five kids that can't afford it just take them out there and uh get a sponsor from a corporation and uh give these kids a chance if I ever if I ever uh get a chance to do that that's what I'm going to do I love that I think that would be amazing because we do hear these stories of tennis losing good athletes because of the financial commitment necessary to be successful not only are we losing them we're not getting them to begin with true a lot of the athletes there's just so many things to do now uh so many distractions that uh they asked me one time at Carson somebody asked Mew what would you do if you're running things here I saidwell I wouldn't go around and steal all the these hardworking Pros best students I'd go to the bario I'd go to Watts right down the road I'd give these kids pre lunches free Rockets free shoes and I'd pick out a hundred of them and train them and see see which 20 of them really want to stay with it that's what I do you think we'll ever get to that place where our sport is doing things like that I don't know I hope so I mean you've been around the game a while you know you've seen a lot of changes over the years are we getting better I can't say that I I I would not say we're getting better I grew up playing along with my brother and a lot of other good players at mle field it was a public facility a very good public facility where there was all levels of games and and the guys that were 35 that were good players they would hit with the girls and we had a national champion come out of moley field every year for 12 to 14 years there was the redondos there was Randy Thomas uh there was Peter Herman I mean right there at the public courts because they were playing every day they had people to play with they had great weather in San Diego we had places to run that's what you need you need that competition yeah for sure how important was it to Taylor's development that he forged friendships with Tommy and Riley and um who else was in their group I I can't remember but they had a ribov ROV was there y uh Koff Koff Koff was there it was a good group of kids and that's why I took Tater down to boka was because every time he got around better players he rose to the occasion he would compete and the USA everybody's asked me well how much did the USA help you they helped they helped a lot they had they would run a tournament down there with all these guys and whoever won that tournament got a wild card into a Futures tournament right there in Florida so at that time when T was 15 years old that's exactly what he needed so that's what a lot of coaches don't understand certain developmental stages where they're 12 they might need this when they're 14 they might need that and a lot of people are not developing at the same rate or at the same you know like I didn't stop growing till I was 21 years old so there's no uh uh perfect system for doing this but that was a great thing I I let tner go down there because number one he played on clay and that was good on his body number two he saw the best competition Tommy Paul at that time was the best player he saw all the varieties the big serve of Riley opela the Lefty of riov all those things uh help you develop your game yeah for sure and to this day those relationships are still intact I mean those guys are all still buddies right they are and uh he pick some good buddies I I love those guys they're they're a lot of fun Tom's great Riley's great I I gotta see him back on the tour soon I hope oh yeah I like klof he's he's really a good guy he's a lot of fun uh yeah I was glad I got to meet and be around those guys it was great yeah so I want to get back to coach life and we're going to wind this up but if you were giving advice to a family just starting out in tennis with their child how would you advise them to use the information that's available now on Coach life on that platform well just try it out take a you know see what you think look at the look at the mechanics of what what we're teaching look at the grips the Right Grips and uh go out there and just feed your son or daughter some balls let them hit on the backboard let them hit on a ball machine make it fun it's not going to last unless they enjoy it the sad thing about tennis is that a lot of people want to play tennis it just recreationally or in high school uh and they don't get to the level where they can rally the ball and control it and that's when tennis becomes fun so you got to get to at least that level but unfortunately I'd say we lose 70 or 80% of people that try tennis before they get to that point well it is so fun to get to chat with you and always a pleasure when I run into you at the SE different events and I'm always blown away because I see you and I'm like there's guy he won't remember me let me go introduce myself but you always remember me and it makes me feel really good so I appreciate that about well you caught me on a good day but I hope we could I hope we could do this again this is great you you interview better than anybody I've ever been you ask very good questions I enjoyed it thank you very much thank you guy thanks for being part of this and to my audience thank you for tuning in and we will catch you next time on parenting Aces