Craig O’Shannessy is widely recognized as a world leader in teaching and analyzing tennis strategy. He has worked with numerous professional tennis players, including Novak Djokovic, throughout his illustrious coaching career. He is very familiar with the college game; playing college tennis himself and having worked with many college coaches and their programs through the years.

In this podcast, Dave asks Craig to clear up any misconceptions about the first 4 ball concept that Craig popularized. Craig also puts himself in the shoes of a college coach and discusses what would his approach to identifying talent and what he what his practice focus would be throughout the fall season of college tennis, if he were to become a college coach tomorrow. We apologize for a bit of background noise during the early part of this podcast but stick with it, it is well worth a listen.

Tyler Thomson, the associate head coach for the UNC women’s tennis team since 2018, served as the head women’s tennis coach at the University of Minnesota for 11 seasons and the College of William & Mary for 6 seasons. In his time at UNC, he has helped the team to one NCAA title, four ITA National Indoor Championships and three ACC Conference titles.

In this podcast, Tyler shares why he made the move from being head coach after 17 seasons to an associate head coach; why building a great culture and focusing on human development trumps winning; how he keeps perspective in work and in life; his work with the ITA Women’s Hall of Fame and a whole lot more.

Welcome to the ITA Student-Athlete Podcast with your host Abi Wild, a former women’s tennis player at Hawaii Pacific University. This podcast was created by college tennis players for college tennis players to share the stories and experiences of our unique sport with the world.

In today’s episode, Abi sits down with recently graduated Texas men’s tennis player Eliot Spizzirri. As the two-time ITA National Player of the Year, Spizzirri has been one of the top college tennis players at the Division I level throughout his career. He concluded the season with a 29-6 overall record, including 21-4 in dual matches, playing on the top line in all of those. Fourteen of his 29 wins came against top-50 opponents. In the fall of 2023, Spizzirri won the singles title at the ITA All-American Championships.

While you listen, Abi and Eliot will discuss many different aspects of being a college tennis player, including, the transition from college tennis to the pro tour, why he decided to go to college after a successful junior career, and how Texas has developed him into the player and person he is today.