Advertise on podcast: Outside the Lines

Who is the Most Important Person on the court? The standard answer is: I am. We explore the often neglected ability to dissect an opponent.

Tournament results, Osaka, Gauff, Sabalenka, Sinner and Djokovic. Also a new metric for analyzing your own game: "conversions" and "steals."

Food has Texture; shots have Feel. We talk about this significant but often overlooked part of playing good tennis.

Playing with Freedom. We systematically deconstruct the rewards to playing either Scared or Confidently under the umbrella of a player's role as Underdog or Favorite. It ends up that playing Scared is ok if Winning is the only thing that matters to you. However, if you'd like to improve your game or have the chance of defeating better players, playing with Confidence is the only way to go.

We dissect several of the most notable matches with a focus on adaptability. Surprisingly, the top players frequently don't display this quality. The match-fixing scandal revealed in the Washington Post on 9/7 is also discussed.

The summer season has concluded for most players unless they are heading to Sectionals or Nationals. There is a 6–8-week window without competitive pressure. This is an ideal time to make either a technical change or add a new tactic to your game. The pros have a similar window in November/December. Both Andre Agassi and Noval Djokovic have made excellent use of this break to be well-prepared for the Australian Open.

We review some key matches in this year's Wimbledon devoting a lot of attention to the Alcaraz-Djokovic men's final. Other players highlighted include: Hurkacz, Svitolina, Swiatek, Eubanks, and Medvedev.

Chestnut Ridge is proud to host their Pro Shootout from 7/21-7/23. Featuring both singles and doubles competition in a standard tournament format, many top college players and local pros are taking part. The event is also being live-streamed. For a link go to www.chestnutridgetennis.com.

Outside the Lines takes a fun look at some of the thoughts that can be detrimental to performance. We conclude with the biggest thought/question of all: Why am I here?

We go Outside the Lines to comment on this year's Slam. Topics include Djokovic, Karolina Muchova, and Swiatek. We broaden the discussion to talk about other top players who are "treading water", i.e. they have not made any changes in the last 1-2 years. Tennis demands change.

Our subjects and discussions are usually generated by the two of us. Here, we have a conversation with Lisa Lubart, a 3.5 player and address some of her concerns when playing a match.

What are the Top 5 concepts which link tennis together. Bob and Scott, independently, came up with their list: 1) Balance; 2) Split step; 3) Relaxing (staying loose); 4) Make a plan (use targets); 5) See the blur (match up to the racquet)