Cole Hassler "Club Tennis"
I'm Jack Broudy,
Broudy: Your host and this is living at the 45. And today my guest is Cole Hassler who's junior over at Auburn and he's studying civil engineering. But he plays a great game of tennis and he's playing on the club team at Auburn and he's also a Broudy certified instructor. So I think he's the youngest one I got. So what are you? 20 years old?
Cole Hassler: I just turned 21 in February
Broudy: 21. So you are, you're the youngest pro of everybody. So that's uh, that's something feather in your hat there. Yeah. Anyway, so how's life over in Auburn today are in Alabama today?
Cole Hassler: It's pretty good being able to play some pretty good tennis the past few days and get to work up at the club. I'm in Birmingham right now visiting from modern for my spring break. So.
Broudy: Right, right. Tell me a little bit. I'm curious you played club tennis now, you know, I played college tennis myself and I know there was club tennis back in the day and, but I just didn't know much about it. Um, there was, they pretty much did away with junior varsity back then and it was just varsity tennis and I'm sure Auburn must have a really tough team.
Cole Hassler: Yeah, we actually won the National Championship in 2016 for club, um, this team this year. We have a pretty solid team. So uh, we just went to our regional's um, we didn't get a bid for the national tournament. But there's a lot of really tough teams like Duke north Carolina Georgia tech's got a really good team Georgia. It's got a really good team Teams like that that show up to these. And in 2016 we actually beat U. n. c. in the final for the National Championship.
Broudy: Well I played for U N. C. Chapel Hill. So I know what a tough team we had, I could barely get on the starting squad you know? And it was I would just snuck in there I think at number eight. And um you know, very tough tennis
Cole Hassler: now
Broudy: tell me on club tennis it sounds pretty rigorous. Do you guys have a full schedule? And do you play as you have like a division like the A. C. C. Right Carolinas and the A. C. C. And Duke and all those teams you mentioned, do you guys stick to like a like I said to a division like A CC.
Cole Hassler: Now it's more like tournaments so it just depends on what tournaments you sign up for and we got as many tournaments as we can as much as like funding will allow us to but we don't have like conferences. We just travel to different places and do different tournaments. Um So like for example we hosted a tournament and well like send out an email blast and invite as many teams in the area as we can think of and then those teams will bring or those colleges will bring however many teams they want to to that tournament and then they'll just play it out and you know and all of that. So it's not like actual season, it's more just like tournaments,
Broudy: what's the structure do you play? Like like in varsity we would play six singles and three doubles. What's the structure of of club club tennis, it's
Cole Hassler: actually pretty interesting. So you have um you have six lines, so there's a singles line for guys a singles line for girls because the teams are girl there coeds that they're growing guy. So there's singles guys singles girls guys doubles, girls doubles and mixed doubles, that's five lines. And
Broudy: so that's five matches total.
Cole Hassler: Yeah five not just total. Um and so typically when we travel we bring two teams but one player can only play two lines. So if I play singles and then also play doubles then that's one line for me or that's the only two I can play. Um But we typically bring four guys and four girls for each team so that each person gets to play one line. Now there's this really strange rule that you can sub in and out. So like if one of the guys on my team is playing singles and he starts to get beat bad, I can sub in for him and then now I can start playing like
Broudy: like tag team wrestling.
Cole Hassler: Exactly. It's very it's very interesting. So yeah you'll you'll start playing and then you know you start beating someone and they sub them they sub their best player in and it's very interesting because they can sub in in the middle of the game. It doesn't even have to be on changeovers or anything like that.
Broudy: That's incredible. Who makes the rules for this club?
Cole Hassler: I mean I don't know I was whenever I first joined I was like are you serious? Those are really the rules. And they're like yeah I mean obviously you can't sub in like a girl for a guy like if it's mixed like it's gotta stay that way. But but yeah they if you have one player, one really good player it goes a long way because they can play two different lines and it's based off of total games not just matches.
Broudy: I understand. Okay so every game counts.
Cole Hassler: Yeah and like even if you're like a ton of games behind the last matches, always mixed doubles you can go into what's called over time and you can keep winning consecutive games and then once you tie the overall head to head you go to a super tiebreaker like sudden death and whoever wins that tiebreaker wins the match. Yeah it's very interesting. And like we do changeovers every four games instead of like on the odd numbers. It's very interesting. Uh
Broudy: huh. So you would play so you must be number one or number two on your club team right? Because
Cole Hassler: no
Broudy: no
Cole Hassler: now our our our guys a team could A few of them could play like D. one somewhere like there's actually some really good competition like over 10 U. Tr players that are playing on these club teams. So I typically play on the B. Team. Um but yeah like our best guys like an 11 over an 11 you tr and then
Broudy: all
Cole Hassler: yeah so a lot of them are like up at that level And a lot of the other like the Georgia Tech guys that we play our are up at that level to like 1112 sometimes. So it's pretty it's pretty competitive. Um it's a lot better competition than I ever played in high school.
Broudy: Oh yeah I mean. No no questions. So let's see. So if you're playing on the B team
Cole Hassler: they play
Broudy: two men singles.
Cole Hassler: Just one man single
Broudy: Just one men's singles and one woman singles and then they play a doubles and then the mixed doubles.
Cole Hassler: Yeah so it's mixed guys girls and then singles for guys and girls.
Broudy: So like you said earlier that the girls would never play against guys unless it's the mixed doubles.
Cole Hassler: Unless it's mixed.
Broudy: Okay and how many of these tournaments do you play in this season? When's your season start? When does it? I mean I know nothing about it. It's great
Cole Hassler: it's all year long so it's mostly in the spring semester but we played a tournament in Nashville in mobile and the fall semester. Um But I just saw the schedule coming up for this spring semester, we've played in also in a tournament Auburn, we hosted it and then we had a tournament in Athens Georgia. We're going to Rome Georgia, that was in Rome Georgia and then we're going to Athens Georgia and then we're going to Chattanooga. Um and then and then we're going to Oxford Mississippi. So we already had two tournaments and was like five or 6 tournaments and semester.
Broudy: Very, very, no, that's really interesting. I know all those places to Rome and Athens, I've been to them all when I lived in the south and play tennis down there. Yeah. So I know all those towns. Yeah, they're big into tennis. I know that
Cole Hassler: they were
Broudy: Big into tennis back in the in the 70s when I was there, those two little towns were big into tennis back then.
Cole Hassler: Yeah, Rome Georgia. Their tennis complexes. Like the amount of course they have is insane. It's like they have indoor outdoor clay, like it's a massive complex and there was like that's that was the I believe this, it's called Southern's like the Southern Championships or whatever And there was over 100 teams in that tournament. So
Broudy: this is incredible. I I never knew this. I mean obviously you can't get scholarships for club, right? I mean now there's
Cole Hassler: certain rules like about like having varsity players. Like my
Broudy: next question. Yeah,
Cole Hassler: one varsity former varsity player on your team. So we had a guy to go, well we have two guys that played um college tennis. One of them doesn't really play tournaments with us. I used to but another guy, so there's only 11 former varsity player allowed on each team because there's a possibility that we had another, another one come on and play for us. But it didn't work out. But yeah, so you can't just because a lot of times like I remember we played Arkansas and their girls were like crazy good because Arkansas is like tennis coach of women's tennis coach is like a new coach come in, came in and she like cut a bunch of the walk on players. And so they started playing club tennis instead. And so their girls were like crazy. They basically used to play for Arkansas's team
Broudy: Sure because of title nine, they give the scholarships now and they don't want to waste those scholars, you know, they don't want walk ons coming on I
Cole Hassler: guess
Broudy: wow. Now that's really man, that is interesting. Things have changed quite a bit.
Cole Hassler: Yeah.
Broudy: Rome was a tiny tiny little town back in 78 or nine. It must be a lot bigger today to have a complex like that.
Cole Hassler: I think it's still small but I don't know why they have such a large tennis complex there. But yeah, they have a lot of courts there. But yeah, it's still small. It's just yeah, they had that huge conflicts.
Broudy: Yeah, I was working for a place in Atlanta Georgia called the peach Tree World of tennis. It was owned by Lamar Hunt who was a big guy in tennis. He did all the WTT stuff and when it was around world team tennis but now there's a different team tennis. But yeah and they sent us to Athens and Rome to do these big clinics and I remember that even though they were tiny towns back then, tennis was a big deal in those little towns. It's funny it brings me back. Atlanta of course is a big city and huge huge tennis town.
Cole Hassler: There's a lot of D. Three schools in Atlanta that are huge for tennis. Like memory is like one of the best D. Three schools.
Broudy: I know. Well I sent a kid to emery. Yeah
Cole Hassler: and then there's a few other smaller ones. Like we have we have a kid going there um Like Oglethorpe I think is in Atlanta and other places like that.
Broudy: So I'm curious again about the varsity players. Um So when you say we have x varsity players, Guys that played on the team or girls that played on the team, is it your team Auburn or did they plan other teams and then transfer to your school and then decide oh I want to play some tennis but I don't want to play varsity.
Cole Hassler: All right so one of them or two of them transferred and one of them because they're not it doesn't have to be a D. One school that they played varsity for it could be like a community college but one of the guys played for Marion military. Um I believe. I'm not sure what division that is. I think that's probably division three. Um
Broudy: I don't know them.
Cole Hassler: Yeah it's very small school. It's a little military school. But anyway so he played varsity. So I think that's D. Three. But the guy that was was potentially going to play for us play it was a former auburn player and he decided to not play this year. So there was like a possibility he could play but he wasn't really interested in it.
Broudy: I wonder if guys that are red. I'm sure they still do red shirting. Right? I mean if you transfer from one college to another and you're playing college tennis at the first school, I don't think they let you play immediately. It's called red shirting. I don't think they let you play immediately. I can't imagine they do today. I think you have to sit out a whole year at least one season.
Cole Hassler: Um
Broudy: Is that do you get players that are being red shirted that year to come play club
Cole Hassler: because that would make
Broudy: sense to me
Cole Hassler: now. I'm not sure if they're because they're technically currently on the varsity. I don't think they could play varsity and club at the same time. I'm not sure about the rules there though.
Broudy: Well if they have to sit out a year I would imagine they could play
Cole Hassler: club
Broudy: and not get dinged for it. And then yeah then
Cole Hassler: we never never had a situation like that. I know this is my first year that I'm still learning all this stuff to, this is my first year at Auburn. So this is like my first club experience so but now I'm not sure I would I would have to ask someone about
Broudy: that. Where did you come from? You spent two years at a smaller school. I take it
Cole Hassler: yeah I went to community college, Jeff state which is right down the road from Inverness Country Club which is where um I learned the system and all of that. So when Covid hit I went online for my entire second year and so I did all my courses online and pretty much as a full time tennis pro at the country club
Broudy: right where I met you.
Cole Hassler: Yes.
Broudy: Um Well it's interesting and now you go to a big school Auburn's rara. I mean it's totally rah rah school. I mean you must be loving the football and the basketball and all the big time. You know jock sports and I'm guessing you go to some of the tennis man. Well you will be going to some of the tennis matches this
Cole Hassler: year. Yeah I've been to, we had our first sec, the sec opener, we played L. S. U. But I went to the beach or that was on friday and I had class during then so I didn't go see that but I've watched them play A few smaller schools but they just started getting into sec play. So we got a pretty good team, were ranked number 23 um a week or two ago. I'm not sure we're
Broudy: in the country, in the country sec you know, it's got strong tennis too in the south. You got the A. C. C. The sec. You got some spontaneous. Yeah.
Cole Hassler: Did you? You recognize the name of tim puts big doubles player?
Broudy: Can't say I do this. Does he play for your school?
Cole Hassler: Well he's like he's won a couple of grand slams in doubles and he used to play at Auburn back in back in the days of german guy named tim puts like P. U E E.
Broudy: I'll look him up, I'll look him up.
Cole Hassler: Yeah he played he played at Auburn but uh yeah we were getting some really good players to come to Auburn. Our coaches bobby um bobby Reynolds and he played Djokovic at
Broudy: Wimbledon. I know that name, I know that name for sure. Oh that's your coach?
Cole Hassler: Yeah. Yeah so so he's getting some I think he's been there for a little while now but they got some really good recruits to come in. Um So they're looking pretty good. Um And we have like a really good doubles we had there like N. C. A runner up doubles champions or something like that. They play second place. Like one of our teams I think you can go
Broudy: they got to the finals of the N. C. Double A. S. D. One that's pretty strong.
Cole Hassler: Yeah so
Broudy: so you get to see something you're going to get to see some great tennis is
Cole Hassler: spring. Yeah our our number one is something else. He's like he's like five ft seven inches like real small stocky guy and he has a lot of fun to watch.
Broudy: He must have great groundies.
Cole Hassler: Oh yeah he he's like an absolute backboard. He's a very all around game. I mean he hits the ground trucks very well. Pretty good surfer being 57. I mean he doesn't hit it massive because he's 57 but but now he I've seen him get into some some battles and it's it's fun
Broudy: You know it's funny because there was something on Facebook the other day about Oh does you have to have, this comes up every five or 10 years since I was a kid, do you have to have height to be a great tennis player does it? And and you
Cole Hassler: know my
Broudy: answer to somebody there was well you know some of the best ball strikers are shorter because they're when they're little they're really little right when they're young they're really little and they have to really learn intuitively that figure eight that hip rotation we talked about, that's the only way to get the racket around and, and hit the ball, you know, and, and they have to be more perfect. The taller guys could muscle the ball and not look nearly as pretty like Rios was five ft seven. He still probably has one of the prettiest games and I'm putting them right up there with Fed and everybody else. He's got to have one of the prettiest games in tennis. If you didn't have such a bad personality, he would have gotten a lot better airtime. But I don't think he was well liked. So that was a big problem for the Chilean, but then you got Schwartzman great game Ferrer. Always he was in the top five forever I guess. He wasn't, he wasn't tall, but he wasn't as short. I think he was about 5:11. But no, that's really interesting. So you've got a great five ft seven guy. Yeah, they're fun to watch because they do play a beautiful game.
Cole Hassler: Yeah, I, he just always get some of these three set battles and I don't know, he just always finds a way to win and he's like extremely consistent. You heal. It doesn't matter how many balls he has to do it, he'll do it. And
Broudy: have you seen him, have you seen him recently in the last couple of months?
Cole Hassler: Uh yeah, I saw him maybe a couple of weeks ago play, but the who I saw them play, they weren't very good.
Broudy: Let me let me ask you, you know, since you have Such a good specimen, you know, a good poster boy, would he be a poster boy for our system? Do you think he, can you see him line up the 45? Can you see him using his body? Do you see everything that we do in this guy?
Cole Hassler: Yeah. For the most part, he He's probably like when I compare him to all the other players, he's he's definitely like the best fundamentally. Like he stays at the 45, the best he stays behind it, the best and the service. I've I've actually a lot of video of his served and have multiple videos of his groundstrokes. Uh The only thing I would say on the back and is he kind of straightens his arms instead of just instead of just keeping it in front and just slipping the hips back, He kind of has this video secrecy where he kind of like straightens his
Broudy: arm. He might he
Cole Hassler: might be like erotic
Broudy: Yeah, or kind of like Lleyton, Hewitt. He might have picked that up watching another shorter player like Hewitt always.
Cole Hassler: But he kind of gets a he gets he still has a good backhand like he can go down the line and cross court but it kind of there's a kind of like interesting noise that comes off of it and I just don't think it's as good, it's very small like change but like I think it's just it's not as good as like his forehand and his serve and stuff like
Broudy: that.
Cole Hassler: But yeah
Broudy: you know it's funny a lot of times the shorter players come to net a lot they're very quick and they've got good hands. Does this guy come to net?
Cole Hassler: Yeah I know he's not afraid to come to the net. Uh He doesn't he doesn't just run in there but no he's he comes into the net.
Broudy: Huh? And he does pretty something he does some damage up there.
Cole Hassler: Yeah. I don't think I've actually ever seen him lose like in person like me watching him and I've probably seen five or six matches from him. I watched him play at Alabama like a 3.5 hour match
Broudy: grinder
Cole Hassler: absolute grinder. Anyone that matches freezing. But yeah I've seen him get into some other battles. Yeah he's a fun guy to
Broudy: watch him so he's mentally tough.
Cole Hassler: I mean
Broudy: you've got to be to hang in there for that long of a
Cole Hassler: match. He
Broudy: doesn't go away wow that's that's great. That's really interesting. Especially the club tennis I guess. Uh Where are the guys from on your on your varsity team are they mostly from America and the south are they mostly from you know like in U. C. L. A. Or you go to USC they're all foreigners. What's it like down there in auburn.
Cole Hassler: We recruit a lot of people from England but we have the guy I'm talking about string Georgia and then we we have a guy from Birmingham actually trained at an academy in Birmingham and then we have another guy that transferred. Um and he's from Georgia. I can't remember where he's from but so three of them are from Georgia and then one of them is from texas. Actually have a lot of americans compared to other teams
Broudy: I guess. You do. I'm thinking to myself well that's not what I'm used to hearing and then Minister and that's good to hear. I'm I'm I'm actually proud of your coach for doing that. I think it's great we need to recruit more americans that american schools you know.
Cole Hassler: Yeah and then we have one from Canada and then I think the rest are from like England. Like three or 4 of our players are from England. Uh And then we got another guy coming in from Alabama which is just rare to have any player from Alabama. Um But he's like a blue chip. I don't know if you're familiar with like the recruiting he's
Broudy: he's a blue chip
Cole Hassler: and then um we have another guy coming in from Tennessee so and there are like two really really good players like definitely both before the best players in their state for their class. Yeah I say pretty pretty uh up to date with the tennis team. I really enjoy watching them play and not a lot of people go out there and support them. So we have a few of the club guys that know a few of them. So we kind of like to go out there and support them and stuff like that.
Broudy: Is that right? So you don't get a big crowd for the matches at all? Not
Cole Hassler: at all.
Broudy: I'm surprised because I know how you are with football. You're
Cole Hassler: nuts. Oh yeah. And basketball is crazy too. Especially right now.
Broudy: I know I saw the videos on that you posted on instagram and here and there and I was like, wow, this place is rocking,
Cole Hassler: You know, it's crazy. Yeah, it's like our stadium holds like 9000 people but they let in like there's standing room so you can stand and they went in like Way more people than 9000. And so it's like basically a ton of people in a small place and it's absolutely crazy. I've even been to a few gymnastics meets because we have steadily that the gold medalist lives gymnastics so well like they'll sell out the entire stadium for her and I will be like, I'll be like right on like level with what she's
Broudy: like on
Cole Hassler: the same level. And so it's, it's really cool. So I go to a lot of sporting events.
Broudy: I'm surprised with tennis. So it's not bigger because I lived in Chapel Hill and I lived in florida a little bit when I was young and Atlanta Georgia
Cole Hassler: and it it
Broudy: was so big. Tennis is so big in the south, especially in those towns like you know Atlanta Miami? Um Do you have a nice facility? Is that part of it? I mean are there places to sit and and you know like bleachers to watch the matches?
Cole Hassler: Yeah we have we have indoor courts and there's bleachers. Um And then we have outdoor courts and there's kind of like bleachers built into the hillside like kind of like a terrorist. But Maybe the biggest crime seems like 100 people. But now I don't know why not. A lot of people show up um for the tennis matches, but maybe since we're since we're ranked and maybe if we get better and more people will come. But no, a lot of us club guys go
Broudy: maybe you should bring you know bring your boards out there and your Cobra and give a clinic and then maybe that will get the town folk out there or the players
Cole Hassler: uh
Broudy: do the club players ever mingle with the varsity players? I mean you ever see those guys or chit chat or even hit with them?
Cole Hassler: I hit with a a former tennis player before a couple of times and he actually went to U. A. B. And transferred to Auburn U. A. B. S. In Birmingham and then transferred to Auburn. Um So I just kind of like randomly met him and hit with him a few times And then um we have one of the guys that guy was talking about 557. He uh he hits with another one of our good tennis players every once uh every once in a while. So
Broudy: Your number one guy will play with some of the club guys.
Cole Hassler: Well no he's not a number one guy but just it just hit with one of the one of the guys. But.
Broudy: Huh? Yeah that is amazing. Now do you have regular practices? Do they block off some courts? So the club team can practice?
Cole Hassler: Yeah so we actually so our varsity team plays off campus at a tennis center and they have super nice courts there with our logo and all that stuff in there and then we have on campus courts that are like rec rec courts so our team doesn't play there and we get like reserves six quarts on Mondays and Thursdays for two hours. So we have practice twice a week
Broudy: twice a week for a couple of hours. So it's funny the club players stay on campus and play and the varsity goes off campus to play.
Cole Hassler: Yeah I was surprised, I didn't know. I don't know I think there's some type of mutual deal between the the club and them and the tennis team is good for the club because it brings people in and stuff like that. Um
Broudy: But
Cole Hassler: yeah I was surprised because it's a big field and and they built uh they built 12 cords out there and they probably could even build more, there's more space behind there. Um But no yeah they don't they didn't I'm surprised they didn't build like on campus courts for them.
Broudy: So you've got 12 courts on campus?
Cole Hassler: Yeah about 12.
Broudy: Uh huh. And and any indoors on campus or is that why the varsity goes away? They go away to play indoors?
Cole Hassler: Yeah they we have indoor I guess they would have to build indoor courts if they were gonna be courts for the varsity. But now at the tennis center they have six indoor courts in there.
Broudy: What happens when you guys went, hang on a second, let's put this on hold for a second, this is when I'll have to edit but that's okay
Cole Hassler: so
Broudy: let me start again. Um Where were we? Oh yes. So uh so when you're playing a match uh what happens if you all get rained out? Do they provide indoor courts or you just sort of bag it that day?
Cole Hassler: Uh We usually can't play whenever whenever it rains. Um Sometimes like if there's available court time you can go ahead at the tennis center. Um But usually when it rains, I mean everyone's gonna going to go play on the indoor courts but sometimes if we know there's rain coming, that kind of schedule practice earlier in the day and kind of say like hey we're gonna be out here at 3 30 if you can come because practice isn't like required, like they don't count your independence. It's kind
Broudy: of, it still sounds fairly serious though.
Cole Hassler: Yeah, it is, it is serious like in terms of making the team, but when we go and play the tournaments, it's a little bit more laid back than I experienced in high school.
Broudy: When are their trophies? Are their rankings in club tennis?
Cole Hassler: Yes, there are there you could, you can be ranked just club sports in general. Like we have a club basketball team and I'm pretty sure they were like ranked nationally, but that tournament we just played in Southern's, I think the top eight teams get a bid to nationals and then like nationals was in cary north Carolina. Uh, there's a huge U. S. T. A. Thing like facility there and I don't know if it's there this year, but it has been there in the past and then basically you'll get a bid there and then that will be like a three day tournament. Um, and then whoever wins that is the national champion for club tennis,
Broudy: wow. So basically is everything, but scholarships.
Cole Hassler: Yeah, basically, and it's not really like rand. It's like we have officers, like a president and a vice president and treasurer like that, but, and they kind of determine what our lineup will be. So it's not like, you know,
Broudy: there's like
Cole Hassler: that. Yeah, there's no coach, I'm the unofficial coach,
Broudy: You are an unofficial coach.
Cole Hassler: Some people call me coach cole
Broudy: because you help people with their games
Cole Hassler: sometimes. Yeah. If people ask,
Broudy: do you have any of your boards at school or do you leave those back in Birmingham?
Cole Hassler: Yeah. I actually really like to warm up on the board. That's kind of how it all got started. I usually like to draw some figure eights on the board. I think it helps like loosen up my lower back and stuff like that. Um, and so I'll do those before practice and then people are like, what is that? Like, what is that? You know, all this stuff and then like, what does it help you do like here and that, you know, like all these different things. And then, so for people that ask, I usually, I usually show them a little bit of a system, like people are like, oh my, my forehand feels awful today and my service was terrible today. And so I had one person I was consistently coaching a little bit and he was, he was our best player trying to make the diversity team.
Broudy: That's why they call you coach if he was your best player.
Cole Hassler: Yeah. Yeah.
Broudy: Well, that's, that's pretty neat. Have they seen the Cobra yet? Because that one's, uh, that's a
Cole Hassler: tough one. Yeah, I, uh, I, I'll let someone use the cobra one time. Um, actually the first time that I hit with our best guy, I brought the cobra just Susan my bag I think and I let him hit a few on it. Um But other than that I don't think anyone else was hit with it. I remember but now I was he was trying to hit with it. It was like how the heck do you hit this? I said let me see it real quick and I just hit the next five in the court. And he's like how are you doing this? And I'm just like Come on man you gotta stay at that 45. He's just like how man, I'm just like you're working too hard. Like you got this mental block in your head and you can't get over that.
Broudy: Yeah it's amazing isn't it how people work so hard but if they just worked a little bit smarter. Yeah that's a
Cole Hassler: good mental tool actually. Just because like you're so bad when I like get out to contact and like try to like turn your wrist or do something with your arm.
Broudy: Yeah. No the cobra is really challenging. I've had my best players on it and even you know it takes them four or five balls just to warm up to it and get a solid hit.
Cole Hassler: Hey
Broudy: that was you know that was really interesting. I knew nothing about club tennis. I'm really glad that's where we went to on this call because I know something about it now I think a lot of people would be interested because not everyone's gonna especially if they go to like a U. C. L. A. Or a U. N. C. Chapel Hill or University of Miami they're not gonna get to play always on the varsity team. I mean it's just it's not like
Cole Hassler: a
Broudy: Soccer team where you've got 10 or 11 guys and then another backup, 11 guys tennis is you got your six guys and maybe a couple of backups. So if you want to play big time tennis it sounds like club tennis really is kind of the way to go.
Cole Hassler: Yeah. Yeah it's really competitive it's it's a lot of fun and it's even more competitive for teams like at UNC and stuff like that because. Yeah and sometimes the club teams are run differently like where you like listen there's six tournaments in the year you might only get to go to like one or two of those tournaments and they want to kind of rotate who gets to go but we usually just take our best eight. So yeah it's it's it's a lot of fun. It's really competitive and like even in terms of just hitting around like I hit with so much better competition now than I did in high school.
Broudy: Oh yeah I would imagine that it's people that were ranked you know maybe between 15 and 35 or 20 and 30 and then guys that played number one on their high school team but can't play from Auburn or can't play for a chapel hill or, or, or the bulldogs or something like that. And then all of a sudden they're like, well I want to keep playing tennis and I still want to be competitive.
Cole Hassler: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Broudy: Hmm. That's really interesting. So you're getting a decent ball these days?
Cole Hassler: Yeah. Yeah. I was taking some video of myself yesterday. I was working on a lot of service and a lot of volleys. But yeah, I'm hitting them pretty pretty well right now. I feel really good. I think my forehand was my worst stroke when I first was at the system doing the system and now probably one of my best. Um, I just have a lot of confidence with it. It was never very natural stroke for me. And yeah, it's, it's very effortless and inconsistent for me. Remember
Broudy: when, remember when we worked on that and your serve, I'm not sure how much I worked on your backhand. I can't remember, maybe I did, maybe I didn't, but I remember the serve in the forehand.
Cole Hassler: I never really had to touch the backhand too much. But I think actually the forehands surpassed the backhand as as better. I actually don't even know what my backhand looks like. I'm never taking
Broudy: video, you're gonna send me somebody, you've got to send me some video, let me see some of the video you shot.
Cole Hassler: I'll say, well I only took video of the, I sent you the video of my serve. The left, right,
Broudy: right, that was great. I couldn't believe you're hitting it. It puts my lefty to shame and I thought I was hitting a good lefty serve. Yours looks really good. Olive McEnroe. I mean your lefty serve looks good.
Cole Hassler: Yeah. And then uh yeah, I took some video of the serve and then I took some video of the backhand volley. I was, I was in a lot of backhand. I spent a lot of the backhand volleys in the net and struggling on the low ones. But I took a video of myself and I pause it like when I fully get into the coil and if my hands, the racket like pointed straight up the sky.
Broudy: So
Cole Hassler: then, so then I got the racket tip up and the elbow down and it was, it was immediate. It was a lot
Broudy: nice. Well you are, you are coach cole. That's great. Well, you know, I put
Cole Hassler: myself against almost anyone teaching the system except for you. Maybe.
Broudy: Well, you know, you got to say that it's my podcast. I agree. You have to tell you the truth. I think you got so far you got the highest score on the certification exam,
Cole Hassler: messed up one of the, I like clicked the wrong one on, on accident one time. Well
Broudy: you still got the highest so far. You got the highest score even more than higher than your old boss. So I won't even mention his name. He'll be mad at me. You
Cole Hassler: don't know who you're talking about,
Broudy: yep. Hey thanks so much. I really appreciate your time today call. It was a lot of fun as always when I talk to you, but this was really great. Yeah.
Cole Hassler: Yeah. I've really enjoyed watching all the podcasts and you're doing a great job with it. So I really enjoyed talking to you today and uh good luck with your website and good luck with all your Future podcast. Well,
Broudy: I gotta tell you, I learned a lot today. I didn't know any of this stuff, so I'm really glad and I think I can't wait to post this because I think people are gonna get a lot out of it. Yeah. Once again thanks. And uh we'll uh we'll catch you when I see those videos, New videos.
Cole Hassler: Alright.
Broudy: Alright, thanks. Okay, I'm gonna end the recording real quick. Where's the recording button? I don't even see it. Oh stop. Mhm. Yeah,
tennis, tennis forehand, tennis backhand, tennis serve, tennis volley, tennis overhead, tennis singles, tennis doubles, junior tennis, tennis lesson, tennis drill, online tennis, tennis elbow, tournament tennis, effortless tennis