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Welcome to the Atlanta Tennis Podcast.

Every episode is titled "It Starts with Tennis" and goes from there.

We talk with coaches, club managers, industry business professionals,

technology experts, and anyone else we find interesting.

We want to have a conversation as long as it starts with tennis.

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Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the Atlanta Tennis Podcast,

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With that said, let's get started with 10 minutes of tennis.

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Justin Yeo, world renowned tennis pro in Puerto Rico, who is also an Aussie.

And we are going to talk today about your hands.

Why are your hands everything? The title today.

Your hands are everything. As I use my hands to talk, right?

Hands are everything. We talk racket sports. You've heard all the

benjourneys and keep your eye on the ball and keep your hands in front and

good hands. Oh, somebody hits a nice, oh, good hands at the net.

Is that what we're talking about? Are we talking a little more technical?

Where are we going with this, Justin?

Well, yeah, I mean, it's more than technical. You know, as a player gets better and better

in the top. One thing that mostly shows is their hands.

And if you, I don't know, from people that have played this

port enough, if you actually watch the players, if you watch how they hit

ball, you just try to amaze by how good their hands are.

And the, you know, majority of areas come from the hands,

you know, because the tension for the mind was saying something,

but the hands, there's got to be an automatic feeling with their hands that

can make you, you know, win or lose or play well or play poorly.

But the hands come down to, I guess what we call grip tension,

understanding, you know, palm of the hands, to give yourself more chances of

feeling or controlling the ball.

But yeah, I guess what the whole point is, there are a lot of, a lot of

players, a lot of, I guess people that hit a lot of balls every day

and they tell, well, I'm turning the shoulders, my feet are in position,

I've made a good decision. Why kind of get that ball there every single time?

Why kind of just, a lot of that comes into when the players hit a not

ball, it's their hands and connection is direct to ball,

to change direction or target.

We'll just do things that they didn't think they could do

because that ends are the ones that mean the difference.

And a crazy example, but think about Gullwig and

Curios and some of these guys with only different trick shots.

That's not something you technically, you know, you go out and say,

well, I'm going to do that. It's just they have really good hands.

And one of the other big ones for a long time, which we all don't talk about

enough anymore, which I'm very sad about, I brought you better.

I mean, better at reason why he wasn't so injured, he didn't have to rely so much

on the body and technique. They all look and I'm saying,

here for technique, what are you having? Incredible, huh?

I mean, talk about talent on the hands. Like what he accomplished,

that no one else could do, a hot, hot bowling back in and, you know,

rippling forehands and hitting shots that up up the tones or off the

ball on the rise, you're talking about hands.

So that's what I'm talking about, that hands. Okay, so that makes me think of,

that makes when you say Roger, that makes me think of why he's such a great

server with with a toss that isn't as obviously different. You got an

antibiotic, maybe not the guy with great hands, but so his served toss is

completely different on the second serve where Roger seemed to be able to do more

with a similar toss. I think of Pete Samperous being able to do the same thing,

but that just makes me wonder are the servant valliers potentially going to

have better hands? Go back to a John McEnroe, you look at him and he almost looks

awkward every other time he hits the ball because it's just all about his hands.

He didn't care how it looked on the court.

John McEnroe is a great example of hands of in for real.

You know, we had that odd forehand grip that just he still,

to this very day in his age, can still hit with some of the best

because of his hands. So hands are, I mean, I guess the emphasis

is what I'm pointing out is that when I see teachers,

a coach and teaching of this sport, we don't spend enough emphasis on your

hands have to direct the ball with your palm and you have you want to hear you want to hear

if you want to deep your hands been directed deep. You want to short it can

it's not just about technique or rolling the elbow or finishing your follow through

here. A lot of it has to do with what the hands are doing to the ball.

And that takes me back to the to the beginner almost. Okay, we are example is

a John McEnroe and Roger Federer. But when I'm working with the seven-year-old

and I say I need that racket face going forward, I'm talking about the palm of the

hand. I'm talking about directing the ball left or right or up or down.

And if they can picture the racket as an extension of the hand,

that sounds again like another bumper sticker for tennis coaches, right?

Very direct. It is the bumper sticker for not the bumper sticker. The racket is the extension

of your hands. Sorry. So that concept even from a beginner to understand the

racket face similar to the palm of the hand. 100%. I guess what I'm saying,

a lot of coaches talk about it but eventually it loses sort of traction

because we're getting technical footwork ride or whatever. But you can't let go.

Like okay, all my lessons, my first five minutes, I say to people, we don't do

that half foot stuff. Half foot to me, you're blocking and you're short gripping

and you're rolling your hands off the bracket, right? So we always start

reading that isn't that a good thing? Sorry to interrupt.

Isn't that a good thing? Because that's all I use in the short court when I hit

as a warm up for myself is just feeling the ball on the hand.

Because I don't have a full swing. The racket's just in front.

No, because what do you want to do with your hand? You want to lengthen your hands?

I want to lengthen the swing but not my hand, right?

But when you lengthen the swing, what are you doing with your hands?

The same thing I'm doing at the net, which is a nice easy

up the back of the ball stroke or underneath the ball.

Wow, well, we're moving on for the next 10 minutes. It's been like, thank you.

With a play, it's the ball, he's not doing that. He's doing that.

Is that why I'm bad at tennis? Is that what you're pointing out?

I did not say that on my TV, in his podcast. He did not say it.

I know you didn't say it, but it's what I heard.

Well, you know, your hands are so important that you can't let go of that.

I spend the first five minutes of most lessons making people understand

the first thing you want to do is get those hands hitting up and through the ball

and lengthening the swing, not shortening the swing, and trying to be elastic and loose.

Because that's it, if you watch the plays in their first five minutes of their match,

then they've already warmed up before they've hit the court.

But as they get to the court, they're learning to see the ball, get the preparation,

get everything right for the section wise and reading.

They're equated up the other end by getting their hands and the eyes and the

hips, like getting it all set. Then the legs get involved. Then the weight trend, then everything

builds up from there. But their hands are just so critical.

So aside from the fact that we figured out, I'm bad at tennis today, how are you going to advise me?

Or why I'm bad at tennis? Well, there's it. So here you go. Justin, yo, fix me.

So let's say I'm doing this wrong. I'm doing that short court. You're going to suggest not to.

Let's say it's my pre-warm-up routine. Maybe I don't have a coach right now.

Or even if I go to my coach and they're doing this, don't pick a fight with your coach, of course.

But ask the question, say Justin, what are you going to tell me to think about,

even if I'm not doing that from my coach personally? What's the one thing you're going to tell me

about my hands that I can practice to get back? Well, one way is to practice against a hitting wall.

Because that's lengthening and hitting you straight forward. I want a hitting wall in my back yard.

I want a hitting wall in my front yard. I want a hitting wall everywhere in the world. I think they're

fantastic. So that's one way to help it. And then the other way is just warm up from the back of the court

first thing. Because if you're backing off the ball, the ball's going to go short and you can't

rally with your opponent. You can warm up properly. So, you know, your first instance,

to be able to get that length, is you're going to have to eventually get your hands

directly pulled all the way. It just won't happen. It'll be fun to knock it.

Hear that Atlanta. Get rid of the short court warm-up. Go back to the baseline. Tell everybody,

you know what Justin Yo says? There's a better way to do this. We're doing it this way from now on.

Everybody, we just changed the tennis warm-up for 100,000 people right here. I like it.

Yeah. Justin Yeo, 10 minutes of tennis. Thank you so much. We'll see you next week. I appreciate it,

buddy. 10. You have to stay elastic. You have to stay moving.

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