In this episodeTribute to Andy Brandi1952-2024 Our condolences to Andy's wife, Nancy, and their son, Chris. Our thoughts also go out to their family members and their close friends. On the 186th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith discusses his...
On the 185th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Ivan Ozerets have a conversation with Lisa Pugliese LaCroix. To make an understatement, she has a story to tell. From hitting a backboard in her family’s garage that her father painted with Wimbledon colors to becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist to establishing a non-profit organization called Love Serving Autism.
As a junior player, she held numerous number-one rankings. As a college player, she was a member of an NCAA championship team while playing for the University of Florida. Unfortunately, her pro career was cut short by a back injury that demanded surgery.
During the conversation, Lisa discussed the opportunity and privilege she had playing for the late Andy Brandi. Andy connected Steve with Lisa because he simply loved what she was doing with young children with autism.
By listening to Lisa, one can quickly tell that Lisa has a heart of gold. She has found a way to combine her tennis background with her education and experience in the field of personal and interpersonal communication. Research more about her altruistic and heartwarming project by visiting Lisa’s website (https://loveservingautism.org/).
On the 184th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Ivan Ozerets have a conversation with Luis Perez. Their guest is a tennis teaching professional who is based in London, England.
Luis stumbled upon the free educational tennis content provided on the Internet by GBT. From there, his intellectual curiosity and thirst for knowledge compelled him to travel across the Atlantic to spend a week at the Wintergreen Resort in Wintergreen, Virginia.
Luis, who traveled with one of his students, was grateful to be treated as both a player and coach. Even though their visit was just one week, the two Londoners experienced A2Z. They were off the grid at a beautiful mountainside resort and were able to not only have their games analyzed but also study matchplay from the Aussie Open to the Les Petits to the UCLA campus. Students of the game who have an in-person experience with GBT will find that when they re-visit our content, their overall understanding will be greatly enhanced.
We are confident that Luis’s story will be inspirational to those who love the game of tennis.
In this episodeOn the 183rd episode, a young Ivan Ozerets, an old Andres Barbosa, and a real old Steve Smith are a dollar late and a day short. The threesome randomly chat three weeks after the 2024 Australian Open. New listeners may quickly agree with their comment...
University of North Carolina
2023 NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship
The Power of Suggestion
On the 182nd of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith reconnects with Sophia Patel. She shares many golden nuggets for one to add to their tennis treasure chest. To make an understatement, she possesses deep and insightful wisdom.
In this episodeOn the 181st episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith and Ivan Ozerets talk tennis. Their topic centers around Alex Michelsen, the young player from southern California. They discuss and speculate as to why and how Alex reached a top 100 ATP...
Great person, great family, great competitor.
On the 180th episode of the GreatBase Tennis, Steve Smith’s guest is Rachel Rohrabacher. She talks about her background in junior tennis and college tennis as well as her current life as a pickleball professional. During their conversation, Rachel shares golden nugget after golden nugget. Their dialogue will help parents, athletes, and coaches.
Check our GreatBase Tennis Facebook account. In the upcoming days, old videos showing her tennis development, an excerpt from ‘Journey to the Truth’ (featuring Rachel), and clips of her pickleball play will be posted. The followers of the GreatBase developmental pathway will clearly see how Rachel’s fundamental tennis foundation translates into an explosive and exciting skill set for pickleball.
In this episodeOn the 179th episode of the GreatBase Tennis podcast, Steve Smith has a conversation with John Valenti. To make an understatement, John Valenti has a story to tell. He claims to be the only person to have always made money from playing tournament tennis...
In this episodeOn the 178th episode, Steve Smith has a tennis conversation with Cris Valverde. Steve's guest is a veteran tennis teaching professional who resides with his wife and their two boys in Portland, Oregon. He has worked at the Irvington Club for the last 21...
In this episodeOn the 177th episode of the GreatBase Tennis (GBTE) podcast, Steve Smith has a conversation with Tomas Placatka. Steve's guest was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia (1972), and grew up in nearby Kladno. Tomas's primary sport was ice hockey. He played at...