Rod Ray is in his 25th year as the head men’s tennis coach at Wofford College, where he also served as the head women’s coach from 2000-2008. In 2024, he published his book “Hard Comes First”, which condenses 24 years of college coaching into essential lessons for fellow coaches.

In this podcast, rod and dave discuss the ideas and concepts from rod’s book, including how he gets his athletes to embrace discomfort, his philosophy on coaches having an unwavering belief in others, and how he motivates athletes to pursue greatness. He also shares why he thinks difficulty is so good for people, how coaches can get out of their own comfort zones and much more.

In today’s episode, Abi sits down with Columbia men’s tennis junior, Michael Zheng, who was recently crowned the NCAA Division I Men's Singles Champion. Coming into Columbia as one of the top ranked junior players in the country, Zheng has impressed since day one at the college ranks achieving many program firsts over his first two and a half years in New York. Now a two-time NCAA Singles Finalist, Zheng was the first Columbia player to achieve ITA All-American status during both his freshman and sophomore seasons.

Over the next hour, Michael and Abi will discuss many different aspects of being a college tennis player, including, why he chose to attend Columbia, how he has handled the success he has achieved, and how he balances being a top tennis player at one of the top educational institutions in the country. We hope you enjoy this inside look into college tennis, and be on the lookout for new episodes every month.

In this podcast, Dave and Paul discuss his tactical system, the Wardlaw Directionals, Paul’s transition and immediate success from DIII to DI, how Paul learned to be an effective college coach early on in his career, and so much more.