Ep. 4 - Jeff Bearup and Tim Donovan

Jeff Bearup and Tim Donovan are the guests for Episode 4 of the Tennis IQ Podcast. Jeff has received numerous accolades and awards within the tennis coaching field including USPTA Coach of the Year and induction into the USTA New England Tennis Hall of Fame. Tim is the founder of Donovan Tennis Strategies which is a college placement service for tennis players. He was also a standout player at Brown University for four years, reaching a high of #6 in the NCAA Division 1 rankings. He then played professional tennis for four years on the ATP Tour and achieved a top 300 world ranking in singles. Jeff and Tim co-founded the New England Academy of Tennis which has helped thousands of players develop their tennis skills and succeed at multiple levels of the sport. More recently, Jeff and Tim have teamed up again to form Crosscourt Consulting which is a business that assists families through the complexities of junior tennis development.

Interview highlights:

4:18 - Tim and Jeff discuss their backgrounds as multi-sport athletes before focusing on tennis.

11:25 - The importance of not always being prepared and not taking things for granted.

15:29 - The concept of tennis being 90% mental, and how it manifests at different levels of the sport.

27:59 - The importance of taking the pressure off of junior players by focusing on the development process rather than just on results.

31:39 - The trend of junior players solely training through structured activities rather than playing sets with friends and kids not playing enough match play.

38:06 - The changes in the college recruitment process because of COVID-19 and how junior and collegiate players are learning the important skill of handling adversity.

44:19 - The importance of establishing a tennis developmental plan at a young age and how the role of the parents in this process changes as the player develops.

To connect with Tim and Jeff go to CrosscourtConsulting.com or contact them at (617) 842-5901. To learn more about Donovan Tennis Strategies go to DonovanTennis.com. If you have feedback about the show or questions on the mental game of tennis, email us at TennisIQPodcast@gmail.com or on Twitter use the hashtag #tennisIQ.