Season #24 Episode#:78

Welcome to the Atlanta Tennis Podcast, where every conversation begins with tennis and ventures into stories of innovation, passion, and growth. In this episode, Shaun and Bobby are joined by Haitham Eletrabi, the brilliant inventor of Tennibot. Tennibot is not just a gadget—it’s a game-changing innovation that redefines tennis practice and court management.

About Today’s Guest

Haitham Eletrabi is the co-founder and CEO of Tennibot, a company that’s transforming the tennis world one court at a time. Originally from Egypt, Haitham moved to the United States in 2009 to pursue a PhD in Civil Engineering. Along the way, his passion for tennis inspired him to combine his technical expertise with his love for the sport.

Driven by the frustration of losing valuable practice time to picking up tennis balls, Haitham invented Tennibot—a robotic assistant that not only collects balls but also sweeps clay courts, analyzes matches, and calls lines. Tennibot is now recognized globally, with users ranging from recreational players to tennis clubs and academies in Canada, Japan, Australia, and Europe.

About Tennibot

Tennibot is a groundbreaking robotic assistant designed for tennis enthusiasts of all levels. Headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, Tennibot is the product of over 15 patented technologies and years of engineering expertise.

It’s a solution for players, clubs, and academies who value efficiency, precision, and innovation. Tennibot collects balls, sweeps clay courts, makes line calls, and records matches, all while staying updated with cutting-edge features.

Since its launch, Tennibot has gained international acclaim, transforming the way tennis is played in major markets like Canada, Japan, Europe, and Australia.

What You’ll Get to Know

• The Birth of Tennibot: The personal frustration that led Haitham to invent a robot that collects tennis balls, sweeps clay courts, and more.
• Tennibot in Action: How it works, its key features, and its role in making tennis training more efficient.
• Who’s Using Tennibot: Insights into its adoption by individual players, tennis clubs, and academies worldwide.
• The Future of Tennis Tech: Expanding Tennibot’s capabilities to pickleball and enhancing features like line calling and match analysis.
• Haitham’s Vision for Tennis Growth: The importance of accessible coaching, beginner-friendly programs, and innovative tools to attract new players.

Key Highlights from the Episode

• Haitham’s Journey: From Egypt to the U.S., merging engineering and tennis to create a world-class product.
• The Tennibot Advantage: How this revolutionary robot saves time, enhances practice, and eliminates common frustrations on the court.
• Tennibot’s Versatility: It’s not just for tennis! Learn about its evolving capabilities for other sports like pickleball.
• Vision for the Future: Why Haitham believes fostering beginner-friendly tennis programs and introducing innovative tools will grow the sport.

Want to Share Your Voice?

We are waiting! Please share anything tennis related that you found interesting with us. Visit our page Your Tennis Story and submit your story with us. Hopefully one of our upcoming podcasts will share that with the GoTennis community too!

Stay tuned and stay awesome!

YouTube Full Video: https://youtu.be/bFuw5J-lMbI

Order Yours Today: https://store.tennibot.com?sca_ref=7112769.eAhvKHLGnB

Be sure to use code ATLTENNIS for a $100 discount!

Shaun Boyce USPTA: shaun@tennisforchildren.com

https://tennisforchildren.com/ 🎾

Bobby Schindler USPTA: schindlerb@comcast.net

https://windermerecommunity.net/ 🎾

Geovanna Boyce: geovy@regeovinate.com

https://regeovinate.com/ 💪🏼🏋️

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(upbeat music)

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 wanna have a conversation as long as it starts with tennis.

(upbeat music)

(sighs)

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

powered by GoTennis.

Check out our calendar of Metro Atlanta Tennis events

at LetsGoTennis.com

and be sure to register for the Go Tennis Fall Festival

on November 9th held at James Creek Tennis Center.

It's gonna be awesome.

And now let's get into our recent conversation

with Haitham Eletrabi, who is the inventor of the Tennibot,

which is a magic robot that picks up tennis balls,

makes line calls, can sweep a clay court, and more.

But more than that,

Haitham will be at our Fall Festival on November 9th

so you can see it for yourself.

Have a listen and let us know what you think.

(upbeat music)

Who are you and why do we care?

- Thanks, principal, Shaun, Bobby, thanks for having me.

So yeah, my name is Haitham Eletrabi.

I'm here from Egypt, came to the US back in 2009

to get my PhD in Civil Engineering.

And along the way, I got my MBA from Auburn University

just 90 minutes south of Atlanta.

So not a typical tennis guest, I guess.

But my folks grow up watching tennis and loving tennis

and they wanted my sister, my younger sister

to be the next stripping grad.

Spoiler alert, they work out.

I just love playing tennis,

but she didn't like the back and forth

and they're running back and forth.

For some reasons, they didn't see me as a tennis player,

but I was her hitting partner.

I will hit to the front and after her lesson.

And then I remember, so this was my first interaction

with citizens as a kid.

And then as I was finishing up my patchalers,

I was able to get a little bit of a great degree.

And Egypt, I started playing a little getting back to tennis

and falling in love with it all over again.

So when I got accepted in Auburn University

to come pursue my PhD program, I was very excited

because I accepted here in another school in Canada.

But in Auburn, I remember checking out the weather

and the tennis courts.

And I remember Google Maps, zooming in,

seeing all the Yarpook, the center,

the Bogglet tennis court.

There's so many tennis courts around here.

I love it.

Obviously Auburn had a great engineering school as well.

But tennis definitely was a factor.

So after coming here, whenever I wasn't working

my research or studying, I was always out on the court,

playing tennis and volunteering for tennis events,

helping bring new folks into the sport,

I sit on the local tennis court.

So I was doing all things tennis.

And any time I'm not working or studying.

So tennis became a big part of my life.

I was one big and knowing part of this tennis journey

was always picking up balls.

With that I'm taking a tennis listen,

and I have to wake up with balls.

And instead of talking with the coach or hitting more balls.

Serves my weakest shot.

And instead of practicing, sir, I didn't want to practice, sir,

because every time I practice, sir,

if I have to find a friend to come and help me practice,

then it's going to be a big up the balls.

And when I'm hitting a rent, a board machine,

I waste 15, 20 minutes to board machine time,

picking up balls.

And instead of actually practicing tennis.

So big up balls have been always frustrating parts for me.

I think one time I just couldn't take it anymore.

I said, okay, I'm not doing this anymore.

I need to buy something.

Went out, did a lot of research,

couldn't find anything remotely closed.

I wanted something to pick up balls while I'm playing.

Not I go stop.

Pick up balls using a manual or a picker or something.

So this is how any boat was born.

And what fast forward to magic.

I guess a little bit of background about any of what any of what

is autonomous tennis assistant think of it as Roomba for tennis.

So it runs around the court because of balls so that you can actually focus

on hitting them instead of baking up balls.

It runs so it can be on the other side of the court.

You are laying tennis with your practicing with a board machine or practicing

serve or the tennis coach standing inside the no man's land feeding your balls

or the net and your practicing and it's baking up balls on the other side.

So when you're done playing one or two things up to you.

You can either keep playing or take a hydration break or take a towel off while

it's continued to wake up also.

It's ready for you to keep playing.

And yeah, so I want I couldn't find any solution out there.

This is when I started think cutting around with the tennis ball.

As a solution from myself, I wasn't even considered and get as a business.

I was building something with out of a half RC car and with the flight of

wake up ball around the same time.

A professor of mine who also is a tennis player.

It introduced me to my co-founder Lincoln.

He was finishing up his masters in robotics and control systems in

Oregon University and we hit it off whenever we weren't out working on the

tennis ball to we are playing tennis, table tennis hanging out.

So yeah, this is how we start working on it.

But it's definitely is funny because when we start working on it as a passion project

every time we take it out testing or whatever, this is when people come over

and say, "Oh, it's amazing where do you buy this from?"

No, no, this is something we're building.

And then we applied for the sports show to test the water.

Are we being lazy or this is a problem for other people too?

So who went to the sports show and we were working by the booths and every time someone said,

"Oh, goodness. I picked up so many rules in my life.

They started doing the math of balls and I said, "Can I buy this?"

I said, "No, it's the only one I have."

They said, "It's okay, I'll buy it. I can't give it to you.

I just want you to have."

They said, "How much?"

After back and forth, come to mind with both about this way.

It seemed we are not just being lazy,

other we would hate making our balls too.

So this is how this is formed into a business and fast forward cover years later.

We have over 15 patents and trade marks.

So we have sold US overseas, all the major tennis hubs, Canada, Australia,

Japan, Europe, obviously, and then a lot of other growing tennis countries.

We have a long backlog of orders, we continue to deliver, hopefully,

the end of the summer.

We are done with the backlog and we can start shipping in almost real time.

Right now, I have a wait of five, six weeks until we can get your unit out for any new orders.

So yeah, things have been going well.

We grow the team. We're based in Auburn, Alabama.

Like I said, just like 90 minutes from Atlanta Airport.

So when you guys reach out, I was very excited.

We talk to someone who is basically local.

In Atlanta, we figure that too.

It's an hour and a half. We don't have to leave the city.

I dropped some time inside.

I've left an hour and a half just to go out.

Not that bad.

So your PhD in engineering is in masters and robotics and control systems.

Well, okay. Yeah. There's a match.

So this talk about the tennis coach usually comes out because we're the ones.

I say, we Bobby and I are coaches, but and we have all these experiences.

And we talk to all the players and we call the complaints and those are tennis coach out there going,

I'm going to go make a robot pick up tennis ball qualified to do the thing.

No, it needs to be done.

It has to come down to an engineering and robotics PhD.

I mean, that's just where it happened.

And in that case, I really appreciate two things about it.

And I think Bobby would agree with me on this.

One is that you guys are qualified to build this thing.

You know, mine would be built at a duct tape.

It would work, but it would.

And the second one being that you're doing it for yourself.

You did it for yourself and founding sponsor of RMC,

and you guys are my court. He had that similar story where he just wanted to do something that was his own problem for himself.

He wasn't going out and trying to save the world.

And grand at first fix it for you.

Do what you need to do and find out.

I love that story where you say everybody says, oh my gosh, where can I get one?

And then if you're going into business because it's a market research.

That's right. Yeah. And I totally agree with everything. I said, I wouldn't even consider it initially as a business.

I was going in a totally different career. I've reached the engineering masters from all over.

I'm not thinking about tennis robots at this point, but tennis is such a big passion of wine.

And it was perfect because people keep asking for it.

I said, okay, we can combine my passion for robots and tennis and get to do something that's extremely cool.

And I'm not going to lie. It's extremely fun every time you are going out testing or traveling somewhere.

I was like, oh my god, do you mind if I think I'm going to take a picture?

It's such a fun career choice and fun projects to be working on because I can definitely think of a lot of other things that could have been done that not as exciting as working on a tennis bot.

Yeah, that fits in well with the hobby as well. Bobby, I'm sure you Bobby spends a lot more time on court still than I do.

So you got a thousand on court questions, Bobby.

First of all, just Auburn have them. Yeah, so we actually have been very fortunate that the outbreak obviously, if I'm not mistaken, it's half funded by the city, half funded by the university.

We also, like the team is members there. So we get unlimited access to the courts there for testing.

So we more than happy we give them a unit because we're excited for their hospitality and for having us.

And every time we have a new generation, we update the ones they have and we get obviously orders from a lot of other schools and stuff but all we have a special place for us just because of the fact this is we got we got our start.

I wanted to make another comment. Sorry before to interrupt your mentioning tennis coaches and experience.

We told you is numerous tennis coaches when we first started working on this because again, we are only have the ankle at the time when we're sat working on this anyway.

But we wanted to make sure we get the input from tennis coaches. So I remember not only talking with the tennis coaches in the Auburn area.

I remember we used to travel to Birmingham, Montego Marie, Atlanta talking with coaches, showing them the initial sketches and stuff.

And it's funny. A lot of coaches need to get it right away once I show them a sketch is not even a video at that point.

And they say, oh, is this a robot that takes up all.

Take me. I wanted to build one as funny how many times we have like I wanted to go in for so many times because it seemed like a common problem for a lot of folks because he hear it all the time from students are kids and then obviously themself picking on balls with the students.

Sorry for the introduction.

Oh, no worries. I want to think I see the big problem with the lessons that I like.

I would love the robot. The lessons that I'm not thrilled about. I don't I want to pick up balls and I want to pick up balls for a while.

So, you know, the mind pick up balls.

Right. It might give of an instructor secrets away a little bit. So that's the only thing that I'm afraid of with the robot.

Robots not working today.

I forgot to charge it.

I forgot to charge it. I can do that.

That's not really fear there. So where's the success pin as far as who's buying it?

So we obviously brought up and seeing a lot of orders coming from B2V and B2V's clubs, I can't even use words and B2C in the videos.

Initially, we are focused on individuals just because of the fact that the individuals allow us to get this feedback right away.

I send it to an individual. I know they're using it. I know they apply it. I know they're going to tell me they like this.

This is their favorite part. This is their least favorite part of the product. The problem with clubs and academies is the person doing the buying is not necessarily the person doing the using.

So I wouldn't get the instant feedback. So initially we used to say like send it both equally.

But then I will keep hunting down the director or the person in charge of the state. So who's using the robot? Yeah, it's one of the coaches.

Which one of the could we talk with other coaches?

I want to see what they like. What's their favorite part? What's their least favorite part to continue to improve the product? Especially at such an early stage of a product as complex as a tenium.

So we focus our attention. Try to get this feedback from individuals. Individuals will love them. They get it. They use it within two days.

And they're out of the court. They're telling us all this part is confusing. This part is easy. This part is great. This part I didn't get it right away. And we continue to improve it.

A lot of times not even hardware. You are improving things in the user manual. You are improving things on the onboarding video. You are improving things on the app itself to make it more intuitive and easy for the user to get it.

Now the proper 10s process they don't write the checks.

Exactly. The 10s director does a facility.

So we have been seeing some coaches now. It's funny because I tried to talk with as many as possible of people who listen or they say whatever I tend to coach, listen or they're chatting with them and doing so what they say one or two things to say, okay, I'm tired of making a block or like I don't have been down big of both or the other options.

Like one of my students send it to me or a couple of my students send it to me and told me coach, bye for us.

I don't think every resort should have this. This is just a differentiator. You're coming down to drills, you're three hour drills, going to truly be three hours. If we stop it's because you need water. We're not going to stop to pick up balls.

So that's got to be a great market. Again, the bureaucracy in those clubs is going to be frustrating. But I think that's going to be a good place for you to land.

And we see it both use it for two different value proposition. As are like you said, differentiate or value add for their member or we have clubs see that they rented out the same way they rent out the board machine and it become a revenue stream for that.

Oh, that's a good that's a good way to do it. Yeah.

That makes sense. I like the multiple ways it can be utilized. I looked down and realized, oh my gosh, it'll sweep the clay courts. Of course it will like.

I ran around. It'll also sweep the clay. And I thought, okay, what else can this magic robot do?

What I'm also seeing here, I see two different things I didn't expect. I see line judging and I see match analysis.

So that's a great question. So first before we jump into this, the sweeping part is funny. The sweeping part when you look at the video, it's a very simple attachment, nothing technical or electronic about the rover. Obviously that technical part is in the back end of the software where it actually need to move uniformly across the court for a sweeping motion.

But the attachment itself is fairly simple. We introduced it initially as a way to play for our own clay courts in the air. And then one of the coaches so it's a honesty if it's a court, even if it doesn't make a ball that white for the sweeping alone.

And then we started hearing this over and over people will say, I even if there's people playing with three balls on the court, which is you wouldn't need it anymore.

I will still need a sweeper so you can sweep between them. Otherwise, we have to have some of the people helping us in a club. And instead of doing something useful, step out of the job and go sweep the court.

Or obviously asking members to do it. And then the members are always grumbling and and buggy about and don't do it.

So this was for the sweeper. Now for the baking part, that was actually something that we came across, not as an initially blame, the whole analytics.

So we wanted the rover initially to move autonomously on the court, pick up balls. We tried different things, different technologies.

All of it either was super expensive or not very practical. So we ended up going with this station that goes into the net post sits on top of the net post and try to the rover.

And then every time we go to a demo, we would say, are those cameras? Yes, they say can it seem. Yeah, but it's designed for the rover. So they say, but can it seem you see use an easy way to take things over as a hard part.

So every time we do a demo, here's this. So this was very influenced by the customers and early beta tester. So it's okay. Yeah, we can make it seem that's easy.

I spent a couple of weeks got it to see them and everyone's saying, okay, so how does the rover know where it is on the court with the text of white lines on the court.

And then we did takes a rover and with the text of balls. So I can be able to go and move it. And I said, okay, so it's either online.

Can it see if the ball in and out. Yeah, it's a bit more complicated, but sure you already see the ball. You already see the line. We can put the two together. And then we kept asking asking for the switcher over and over.

So we started implementing it. And now we're working on improving accuracy to get it to the point that says factory for obviously amateur level or not going to be competing with Hulk, I thousands of dollars system.

It's a much more simpler system, but for amateur players, club players, you're playing a tournament, USDA, I don't know, three, five or four, oh, that should be more than enough to take out all the small discrepancies and conflicts between the player with the ball is in or out.

So it does line calls. Yes, yes, it does line calls. Yes. So how do I know is it, is it going to give me a beep with a red mark? We're in great question. We consider a couple of things.

Initially, we were thinking of the audio, but we didn't like it because what if you are playing a cohort next to you? And I know there's a lot of systems out there that makes this beep noise.

But I feel if I'm playing in the court next to tinny book and I don't have a station to be just annoying me every time. So we switched it.

I'm just like that out. That was it.

Yeah. That's a good point, but a lot of times you would point out without even making a noise. But we sort of having it on your Apple watch, which you can do. But again, not everyone have an Apple watch.

So we decided to add an LED ring around it that green means in red means out and stay for a few seconds. So once you're a ball hit, if you're not sure when you look at the station, you'll be able to deliver the ball in or out.

You can come back later on on the app and find out which shot was which calls every shot.

Obviously, the court is not blocked by a player or something. OK, that means that doubles match and that board seemed to be coincidentally aligned by the player. It wouldn't be able to see them. It would have flashed because no one gave you wrong information.

OK. So this is way beyond what I'd even considered because I'm cool with a robot sweeping the court after I'm done.

I get to just play my match and leave or taking a lesson. How great. We all just walk away the little robots.

The fifth element I'm thinking is what I'm picturing with Gary oldman. He's got the little room.

Everything just comes out cleans up and we just won't need.

It's a pro Bobby. I don't have to go out and clean the courts anymore. It also trash and stick it in the dumps. Not serious. We didn't get to that point here.

But one thing we like about the robot and we can't that inspired from electric cars from his ability to do over air updates.

This means basically you buy the product but it continues to improve.

As long as you connect it to Wi-Fi, whether the court or your home will continue to improve one example is lying calling. We continuously updating, doing machine learning AI to improve the quality of the court.

And so from 88 going to 90 from 90 going to 91 to 92. How high can we get this? Obviously a lot of elements, the lighting, the lines, the quality of the court stuff like that.

And being able to continuously improve the product we feel we are getting value out for those players out there. And some feature we didn't even have initially when we started drawing out that anyone like match recording and then we have it now that we can actually record themselves and we continue to try to improve the experience of every player who have one.

I love it. That's fantastic. I love the downloadable say hey look your robot upload you know download it an update you know it's weird.

I don't have to go buy a new one when this one correct correct.

3.2 is out and I got to go.

$3,000 robot. I just read it.

Update my test love like you can update my 10 a box. Exactly. Exactly.

And obviously every time we talk with technology system and somebody like hyphen it's really fun because we look and go wait it can do that.

I know I'm stealing one of Bobby's questions is from a cost point of view. Are you getting anybody that's kind of blocking it at this level of expense because I know in Atlanta and a lot of people don't know but you might be because you're close enough Atlanta.

3.10 is here so park is unlikely to pick one up my neighbor. You they won't even put up wind screens for me so.

Robot to hang out at the clubhouse so targeting the people that I would yes great question yeah definitely because of the price point of the product and value added provide is a specific customer second for it like let's put this way.

If you play the free public tennis park and I love that I love this part about Auburn and Alabama and I mean the whole South East region having abundance of available free tennis course because this is how we bring people in the sport you want to minimize that friction of getting you be one to the sport but realistically if you are buying your record I don't know for more or 25 bucks or 30 bucks or 50 bucks you are not going to be a typical

Tenebock does not if you are getting the you play once a week or you don't take lessons or you're not competing in this I don't know you stay at our events a week and really try to take down your

never says Tenebock not going to be a great fit for you if you never hit with a board machine or you never break several or you don't even have access to a board

machine you don't have to have to own one at least use one then they Tenebock use case will not be there so I think the obviously income level play a big role and then they use

to use this is how often you play tennis how much do you care about recording itself we see a lot like a big a lot of common factors among our customers is obviously income level is high and then they are really getting

the other strength improve the taking lessons in practice the machine the records themselves and then the third element is we see a lot of people up and coming so I just switched start like tennis I really want to be good and since they go to their

league they get won't they come back to I will be better and they keep this drive and that drive means they can better get better gear as robot records themselves take lessons try to improve and we love this because those

are folks are like us very passionate about tennis but a lot of times even for folks who wouldn't might not be there yet a lot of times we talk with them they say I'll keep my Tenebock is or like getting a Tenebock is my birthday gift to myself or I told my friends when they get me a gift they can

bootle together and get a Tenebock so we love the fact that it's on people's wish list and hopefully over time as we miss produces a price can go down to have more people

using the product but initially just like electric cars like a lot of those new technologies and those early adopters we will give you feedback who care about the value and we love the customers we are trying to give them white glove service this

and each product and we want to make sure they're happy don't anyone have a Tenebock they don't love it we don't love it I'm that we have a backlog of orders and we'll do what they

by takes to make sure you love it not just you use it want to make sure you love it you know the way to do business probably got anything else for my magic robot I was in from the beginning I have the one

question just to keep in our our theme can it pick up pick up balls we are funny enough we did this almost on a weekly basis even at first I was a resistant not because

it's a hate towards pick up ball just because of the fact that courts is much smaller now I'm selling them right a court much smaller when you just pick up the ball because I'm coming from tennis background so going to pick a ball

it's so small and like I can walk everywhere within a few seconds but then we keep getting bush back from folks say okay but I still buy machines that throw balls I have a ton of

pick up balls I still need it and then we have folks say okay do you want to get your permission if I take it and modify the wall okay if everyone

keep pushing for and will modify it ourselves and have a version for pick your balls so we're hoping was the end of the year we have a prototype

out there and we have a thing up already for the prototype so they buy a better version tested and give us feedback so we will be

doing anything for the big of all day because I just I've seen pick up all ball machines so that's when somebody would use it you don't want to pick up the balls and waste your time when you're in the ball

machine so not the robot going at the same time that's right that's right I'm convinced I'll take two that's what we're going to do is going to try to help get people the

ten of us as often as they can and I'm going to pronounce with a with a leading question say you've got a deal for our

audience you got a special deal with the code and what do you what do you got for us I think sure so yeah when when like I said when we're

first connected we usually don't offer discounts with because like again it's a startup and we are trying to get this folks are

really interested in it and we have backlog of orders but when again Atlanta tennis broadcast is just too many reasons to offer a discount for the

listeners so we are offering $300 of the teni but for the next 30 days after the broadcast live for the listeners you just enter the Atlanta tennis

broadcast and the checkout to enter buying the product and they will get a $300 of their device that is fantastic I appreciate that

but all that I know to make sure everybody can see it whether you're watching on YouTube or listening in your favorite

podcast app so yeah $300 off a tenet bot I want to see a whole bunch of these in Atlanta because the fact that it will sweep a

clay court it's great for clubs it's now got line calls that's great for just making people happier it just makes a better world

because we're not fighting over line calls accuracy I don't even care just tell me your club I mean arguing with the other

guy we both agree that the robot is right and that's fantastic so I've got one more question we always end with this

and I'm interested from your point of view if you were the king of tennis whether it's Justin Alabama or the southeast or the whole

world whether it's profession or it's technology anything having to do with tennis is there anything you would personally do or change

okay I have two answers here one is a fun answer and the other is his answer such as a fun answer fun answer is funny I was talking with

the some of the folks on the team here about this question particular and one person played me that great suggestion he said you know

in ATP tournaments and those professional tournaments they said players should have their own walk on song like boxing so imagine

that they're stepping on the court and play his own song or or document you getting the court and they get to choose their own

song not only it will get to hype the audience it will add a very fun element to the sport as well because suddenly we were

on a tune in before they even start to see what something gonna choose as they were looking on the court even

even just for fun yeah that makes me think it was a chipper Jones Bobby that had the was it

easy train Aussie you yes baseball fan well I think you're an Alabama and you don't have a

big chip or challenge had that they did that in baseball that walk on that funny I didn't know that yeah

well it's you know the Yankees I'm a big Yankee fan big baseball fan and they have the greatest reliever in the history

baseball general in Mariana Rivera well they played the San Diego Padres back in the world series in the 90s

who also had a great reliever and he entered to ACDCs a hells bells so the Yankees actively sought a song for this

you know for Mariana to come in and they chose Metallica's enter Sandman and because he became the greatest

reliever of all time the day he retired Metallica was at Yankee Stadium to play enter Sandman and taking that song

go watch Virginia Tech because you are an Auburn so you don't watch Virginia Tech enter the stadium to Metallica

and enter Sandman and the registers they get on the size of the graph and the noise of the stadium bouncing so that

is by far one of the best ideas I've heard of everybody who I love that thank you thank you thank you

that is tennis so needs that and that would make tennis school yeah I love that thank you thank you thank you

I thought you were going to say tennis box for everybody I thought that's where I thought you were going but that was even better

thank you thank you sir and yeah and for the serious answer I would say I think

compared like a lot of people keep talking about how badel and pick up what is picking up I believe big part of it is

that the learning curve is very very small compared to tennis where you have to get this high hand coordination

to get you standing on the course and get your foot to work and then you get to hit the shot

it might be a while before you actually start enjoying the shots and like oh my goodness that was amazing

I need that trash feeling again I can't wait to get back to the tennis court but to get to that point

there's a lot of friction you might lose a lot of being I think it starts with coaching

starts with having availability for anybody new or maybe even new who start playing tennis but still not that good

having every community having some money set aside who's there from members there from you is the air

or whatever being able to this is going towards lessons it doesn't have to be in the video lesson can be group lessons

as long as the group is small for new people getting into the sport

if every player gets I don't know three lessons spread out and you get to sign him up in a beginner league

I feel you starting a significant adoption for the sport and then obviously the lesson make sure it is netty

it's fun and maybe some people like music you have a robot making a ball maybe it's not making a ball

there is recording of you playing tennis so it can get shared with you so maybe you forget our tennis for a week

but then you get an email from the coach about the video of you playing tennis

I think it's one decent shot that I'm maybe more excited to go back and take the second lesson

and the third lesson and I think by basically minimizing the friction of getting new people on tennis

once you are in you are in you're not going anywhere but I think the idea is to bring them into the sport

I think that would be a big difference in adoption and a sport we obviously all love

and Bobby I appreciate it he came with a solution not just saying he wants new players to play more and be able to have

well I think he listens to the podcast too because I again I love the answer because we're big fan

we say the same thing pay the coaches to give so the first few lessons to get people hooked

but I think we're going to invite you to our breast cancer awareness events in October

you'll have the music playing loud you'll have 140 ladies we need a robot on one of the courts making a balls

these ladies will flip out so it'll be the best marketing tool we can provide and that's coming up in October

so we'll make sure you're here only 90 miles away you'll be here

looking forward to it I'll definitely be there thank you for having us and again thanks for the fun podcast

I really enjoyed it and hopefully excited to meet you in person in October

well there you have it we want to thank reGeovinate.com for use of the studio

and be sure to hit that follow button for more tennis related content you can go to Atlanta

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and with that we're out see you next time

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