EP 15: 2026: New Year, New Goals in Tennis

Gerard (00:11): Welcome back to Spin the Racket, the recreational tennis pod covering everything from the pro tour to the everyday league player. I'm your boy G.

Spin The Racket (00:20): And I'm Lou.

Gerard (00:21): Happy New Year, everybody. It's officially 2026, new year, new opportunity. So we're talking about goals ahead for the year, what's coming up in tennis, all the good stuff that's lined up for the year. Lou, how you feeling? It's officially January 4th.

Spin The Racket (00:39): It's been a long two weeks. I'll say that. ⁓ You know, you and I share the similarity where we're at the age where we're always tell everyone, yeah, I'm at the age where I drive to families. So it's been a lot of driving, been a lot of back and forth, been a lot of good company quality time. ⁓ But I'll tell you, I've spent a little bit of downtime during the holidays, just doing a lot of goal planning, reviewing the year.

Gerard (01:06): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (01:07): And I'm excited for 2026. So I'm very much looking forward to, you know, getting started. We're recording this on January 4th. So tomorrow is like the real start of the year. ⁓ and I'm ready to hit the ground running. How about yourself?

Gerard (01:18): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (01:50): Well, I was just thinking about this this morning. If you think about it, we're already four days in and the holidays start typically like before Christmas. So we are already 300, about 350 days away from the next like break. Like it's not, it's no longer next year or in 365 days is already 350. It's already counting down. So this year, if you blink too slowly,

Gerard (01:56): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (02:19): It's going to go by as well. Right. So it's like, what are you going to do over the next 350 days to make sure that you look back and when you're going on break, you're like, I, you can pat yourself in the back and the shoulder. I did what I, what I had to do. Right. How can you be proud of that? So I've, I felt like that in 2025 and it's so it's like, yeah, but you know, the moment you like achieve something, at least to me is like, you got to race the bar. It's like, no dog.

Gerard (02:20): Right.

Spin The Racket (02:48): You gotta, you gotta go higher. You gotta go better. You gotta go sharper. If you, if you did it before, why couldn't you do like double? And so that's just my mentality. It's, ⁓ it can be unhealthy at times. So,

Gerard (02:50): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (03:01): the way that I'd like to think about it is with your feet on the ground, whether your head on the clouds, right? And that doesn't sound so good. came up with that one.

Gerard (03:24): Hmm. OK. All right. Yeah, these are.

Spin The Racket (03:46): Yeah, I don't know. I don't know about that. We talked about this,

Gerard (04:00): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (04:40): Yeah. And I mean, it's,

Gerard (04:57): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (05:09): create hard people, it's all a cycle. And I think right now we're in that cycle where like, soft people created hard times that might've been like the early 1900s, right? And then those hard times created hard people that then created good times. And those good times are not creating soft people. Not to get like overly like, you know, into it. And this is a tennis podcast, but that's kind of like where we're living right now, where we have all these comforts.

Gerard (05:12): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (05:38): And so we can be a little bit detached from like what heart really is.

Gerard (05:45): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's deep blue. Yeah, that's for our other podcast that we're spinning off into. Yeah, exactly. This little teaser for everybody. I feel like this time of year, I get so much excitement because, I you know me, I like to tinker with routines and schedules and like I geek out on like all the apps and new technology I can use. So.

Spin The Racket (05:51): Beyond the racket. Yeah.

Gerard (06:08): I'm just using this time just to be like, OK, like how can I optimize this schedule and like, you know, let me join the 5 a.m. club and let me do this and that. so like I'm trying to figure out like what is realistic, trying to bring it back to the basics, you know, like the whole like the smart goals, know, being specific and measured and all that. So I'm trying to reframe that in my mind and make sure, hey, like let's let's make the list of maybe three or four concrete things that you can kind of hold on to versus like this long list of 10 things you want to change. But

Spin The Racket (06:46): That's good. No, it's optimizing. This is the time, right? I always tell people like use the use those breaks, those holidays to grab a little bit of time for yourself and be productive with it. It doesn't have to be the whole, the entire thing. But also if you just hang out for like two weeks, then you'll, you'll have what happened to me last year where I, that was the first time I took off from like the 19th of December to like the third or the fourth of January. And

Gerard (07:02): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (07:16): When I came into that first week of January, I hadn't really planned anything. So I feel like I face planted like January started so strong. was like, I was emotionally ready to hit the year, you know, but it's like the year was already ready to punch back and I wasn't fully prepared. And so this time I took about a couple of days where I just got really introspective, ⁓ set some goals. Just really thought about everything. Like I I'm still not done.

Gerard (07:29): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (07:45): Uh, one of the things I'm trying to do is figure out which, which AI platform am I going to pay for is I've got 20, I've got 20 bucks here that I am willing to pay per month, right up to $25. you buy, if you pay monthly and it's like, which one do I go for? We use notion. So it's like, do you use notion? I do use chai tpt. Do you go to Gemini? Like what's going to integrate with everything better? And so, you know, that conversation is already happening and

Gerard (07:55): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (08:13): ⁓ funny enough, I was talking to Chad GPT, they're doing like a, like a 2025 wrapped sort of thing where it tells you like how many times you talk to Chad and all that stuff. And it said something about like, I wish I could pull, I mean, I could pull it up right now, but it, talked about 2026 is the year of doing less. And that's kind of the trend for that. would say for me is.

Gerard (08:22): school.

Spin The Racket (08:38): 2025, I tried a lot of different things. said a lot of different goals, but if I go back and look at 25 versus 26, 26 is about doing less things, but doing those things really well. And so sometimes I think we get, we get into, we want to do more and we want to do more. And we think that more is better, but you know, I don't know again where I heard it, but better is better, right? So sometimes less is more.

Gerard (08:47): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (09:08): Yeah.

Gerard (09:20): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (09:43): I know you've been doing that, yeah.

Gerard (10:02): of duty or responsibility to say yes. So that's top of mind for me too this year.

Spin The Racket (10:09): Yeah, no, it's I was ranting about it because I go on monologues sometimes when I'm in the car and we're driving to see family and like, you know, just kind of doing a little bit of catharsis with my wife and then just we don't even like listening to music. We just talk in the car and just go through all these things and concepts and ideas and life. I was like, yeah, honestly, if it if I'm not enjoying it, if it's not making me money, if it's not making me better, if I'm not learning something like I don't really want to do it.

Gerard (10:47): Yeah. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (10:53): Yeah.

Gerard (11:17): very, very nervous about how I'm going to be out there. mean, the good news is I did get my rackets restrung. So we got fresh strings that ALU, you know, power. I have it ready to go. The blades are ready to ready for war. But they are. They are. But am I ready? We'll see. You know, I had had some electrolytes, had some eggs this morning, a little bit you know, a bread, you know, hopefully just flowing. You know, I did work out yesterday. So I got like the juices flowing. I do feel a little sore, but

Spin The Racket (11:31): The blades are ready to chop wood.

Gerard (11:47): Hopefully my tennis game, hopefully I remember how to hit it forehand. Yeah, exactly. Refresh.

Spin The Racket (11:48): But the legs are peppy. Yeah, that's

Gerard (12:11): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (12:18): No, I think you'll be, you'll be fine. I

Gerard (12:31): Hmm

Spin The Racket (12:47): This weekend is wash. I'm looking forward to playing makes though. It's a it's going to be fun. I'm back competing and you know, love hate relationship doubles, but is what it is.

Gerard (13:00): Yeah, I think it would be a good

Spin The Racket (13:05): Mm-hmm.

Gerard (13:11): I don't know. I feel like with men's, it's like you got to prove something in a way. like, you know, you're kind of out there. Everyone's like ripping balls like, oh, I can hit a better shot than you. I can do it. It's just. Yeah. Yeah. For me, it's just like, well, like, you know, I'm going to have our strategy like the men typically are kind of dominating on the court and like, leading a little bit more. But it's just like more fun. I don't know. It's just a little bit more chill vibe. Like the team atmosphere is a little bit more relaxed. Like the snacks are great because, you know, the women help.

Spin The Racket (13:20): Lots of testosterone out there. Yeah.

Gerard (13:41): We can provide tablecloths and silverware and stuff like that. So it's a cool vibe.

Spin The Racket (13:41): Yeah, honestly.

Gerard (14:08): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (14:16): ⁓ And she was like way better than I was so I just yeah, it's kind of like the roles are reversed and it's like wait what like so it's You know Trenton you waters

Gerard (14:19): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (14:46): Bro, you're like, yeah, I mean, it's a ton of pressure too. Yeah. You're like, mess up. Don't be, don't be a scrub.

Gerard (14:53): Right. Exactly. So I don't like puff much as like, I'll take it. And it's like, no, like, clearly your back end is better than mine. So you go on that side. You take that ball. So yeah. Yeah, really. So, it's like it's like that kind of struggle. And it's funny, like growing up in the South, too, I feel like there was under there's always this kind of hospitality and like, you know, you're you're trying to be like courteous and just like very gracious to to women, obviously. And you should. But there's also like on the court.

Spin The Racket (14:59): Just, yeah, just... Just ma'am.

Gerard (15:22): I felt like growing up, you when I was hitting harder, I would never hit at the woman at net. Cause I was just like, I always just felt that it was like rude or just, I don't know, just like, you know, I'm trying to rip a ball at her and I don't know. It's like a weird mental thing of just like, I don't want to hurt someone. And I said like, not like that.

Spin The Racket (15:37): Yeah, but is that is that

Gerard (15:43): Yeah, and that's the thing.

Spin The Racket (16:31): ⁓ okay. Well, that's a little

Gerard (16:47): I it's true, yeah.

Spin The Racket (17:12): You get hit with a tennis ball unless you get hit on like the eye, dead center in the eye, where it's like a soft membrane. Like you're going to be OK.

Gerard (17:21): That makes me feel better. Then maybe I can be more brave too when poaching from that standpoint. Just keep my eyes down. That's true. So don't be afraid.

Spin The Racket (17:27): Yeah, mean, tennis balls are, they're pretty harmless. So, and

Gerard (17:37): And then you stay low so that it's not hitting the low part of your body for the men. you know, it's all important. ⁓ So yeah, that's a point.

Spin The Racket (17:45): They get too low it pushes out. ⁓

Gerard (17:49): And I think, yeah, it is funny though, but it's just like, those are the things that definitely have crossed my mind. I'm sure there's other guys who have had that same thought. I'd be curious to hear from our listeners. And again, just for me, I'm definitely equal opportunity on the court. I'm gonna hit it anywhere now these days, but that was definitely something that I did struggle with just growing up and kind of thinking about. So it's just kind of funny how that translates to tennis.

Spin The Racket (18:14): No, it, think it depends on the person too. Like I'm sure like some women might get offended. Some women might find the, like find it advantageous and kind of promote it. So it just depends. It's goes to tell like there's what over 8 billion people in the world. And so you're going to find so many different makes perspectives, but I am curious as well without inciting any sort of, ⁓ hate or debate what people's opinion are on, you know, whether you should hit.

Gerard (18:30): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (18:44): you harder to, to the guy versus the woman, or if it's just equal opportunity, like, you know, they stopped up and stepped onto the court. So they're willing to, they're basically signing on to playing against a guy and a girl too, you know.

Gerard (18:58): this, right,

Spin The Racket (19:03): Yeah, that's fun.

Gerard (19:25): But like, yeah, where have you been?

Spin The Racket (19:49): And then I got at it and I was like, I can't do it. So I already kind of deflected one slot, which I don't know how our captain and co-captain feel about that. You know how it is, right? you made yourself available, but now you're saying no, like, you know, the week off or whatever. And it's like, dang it, I'm sorry. I mean, I'm typically known for being the available guy, but I've just.

Gerard (20:06): Right.

Spin The Racket (20:13): In this period of saying no to things, I've had to kind of prioritize and the weekends got really busy with like trips and family and all that.

Gerard (20:13): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (20:27): ⁓ no, think we just, I don't, I don't know. I think we need to, we need to talk that one out. I don't think it was

Gerard (20:45): Perfect. Two

Spin The Racket (20:50): really? Dang. Did

Gerard (20:55): You guys see a...

Spin The Racket (21:00): The first match next weekend?

Gerard (21:04): Yeah, except they don't

Spin The Racket (21:15): Yeah, during the winter time.

Gerard (21:37): job. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (21:49): ⁓ if anything, you play some high advantage cause someone else is going to start, ⁓ panting or freaking out and, you know, before I will, but yeah, it's just, it's, it's tough, man. These Sunday, like evening matches when you're like getting like the Sunday scaries and all that. Yeah.

Gerard (22:06): Right, no, they're very real. Have

Spin The Racket (22:23): I think I did a pretty good job in 2025, especially managing a wrist injury where I couldn't, I had to throttle how much I was playing per week. ⁓ if I played too much, actually would like my, my wrist would start hurting. I'd say two times a week is like optimal, you know, and during season that means, you know, we would hit once a week and then we play a match, ⁓ on Saturdays, right? So, or Saturday or Sunday.

Gerard (22:33): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (22:53): So that I think is like a good balance. I have done over the past few months now that my wrist is better. I've done up to four or five times in a week. So I'm not opposed to that. It's just, yeah, it's just, again, it starts to take time away from other things. So I would say two to three times. Two to three times a week would probably be ideal. ⁓

Gerard (23:03): Okay, that's really good. That's a lot.

Spin The Racket (23:19): I'll just keep doing the same. That's the thing about 2025. A lot of things worked, so I don't have to really reinvent the wheel when it comes to that. What about you?

Gerard (23:24): Good.

Spin The Racket (23:44): Definitely can't do Wednesdays.

Gerard (23:52): the weekends are sometimes just really difficult. If you already have an altamatch, like I can't play again on Sunday or probably shouldn't. So it's just like, when else do you play during the week? I don't know, it gets a little bit challenging. mean, but I do, I have set the goal in my mind of two to three times a week as well. And I want to plan that out a week or two in advance and like know who I'm hitting with and what time I'm going to do it just so can hold myself accountable. Because I mean, my game does feel much better.

Spin The Racket (24:19): Right, ⁓

Gerard (24:42): Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (25:02): people think is the ideal amount of tennis to be played per week for the average, let's just say nine to five or right that, know, maybe, maybe, ⁓ yeah, as a nine to five, maybe another thing going on, maybe, ⁓ they have a significant other or they already have kids and you know, what, what's, what's ideal. Cause I know for me doing too much also record like takes a toll on

Gerard (25:36): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (26:09): Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dang, you're

Gerard (26:23): Tournament's a strong word for that, but yeah.

Spin The Racket (26:34): a total of like four times or four times. think four times is accurate. So I mean, it's fun, man. I mainly did it to get my, ⁓ my wife, my cousin in law, and then my father in law, like all involved. I took my, I took my sister, two sisters in law, my wife and my cousin in law and just kind of played. And actually it's been five times now that I think about it.

Gerard (26:36): Cheers!

Spin The Racket (27:03): Yeah. One day we just went and my cousin in law has so much fun. He was able to pick it up right away. And so we, we played a good bit. Then we go back and then like, we tell my father in law and he's like, I want to play. So I was like, all right, well, we're going to go tomorrow, 9 a.m. sharp. And we got, we've got a little court indoor, which is nice. And, ⁓ it was my, my wife, my father in law and myself and my cousin in law. So four of us.

Gerard (27:39): awesome.

Spin The Racket (27:59): They

Gerard (28:12): Love a good chicken tendee. That's really cool.

Spin The Racket (28:29): Yeah. Yeah. So, so

Gerard (28:39): For sure.

Spin The Racket (28:58): Right. It's ability to really captivate a very large audience and introduce, let's just say the average person to the world of racket sports, because it could be seen as a gateway. And I see it as a gateway where I tried pickleball and I want to try, I don't know, squash or racquetball or tennis. And I think Padel, right? Yeah. Padel is another one. And so it's like, you get exposed to these things and it's not like,

Gerard (29:09): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (29:25): I don't think we're living in a world where you have to play one or the other. can kind of play here and there. realized, you know, for the longest time I was afraid of Pickle kind of hurting my, my, my feel with tennis, but I played those, those two days I played in Augusta came back. I hit for an hour at lifetime and I, I hit well, I hit really well. And you know, the funny thing is I realized when I

Gerard (30:03): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (30:22): raw moment that I hadn't experienced, just kind of going pickle antennas back to back like that. And it felt nice.

Gerard (30:27): Yeah.

Spin The Racket (30:49): No.

Gerard (31:14): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (31:21): One of the guys came over, one of the guys that was working there. ⁓ and he's like, Hey, you should go, you should go challenge that couple. That guy has already been playing a few times and then she's just, it's like her third time playing. And so was like, all right, so that kind of, kind of the same. So, ⁓ we go and they were busy. So we challenged another couple. I didn't realize they had courts label like beginner, intermediate and advanced. We happened to challenge a couple that was in the advanced.

Gerard (31:51): wow.

Spin The Racket (32:08): I don't know, fired at, you know, it just felt like a firing line. Like I was just like, I'm just standing there, you know? ⁓ so that was, that was tough. it was very humbling and, ⁓ but then we had a really good time with a couple that was kind of our same level of whatever. So, ⁓ I was told that that play, it was, it was not busy at the time. It was only a few people, but I was told that that place gets so packed. ⁓ I'm sure on a Friday night on open play, but.

Gerard (32:10): Yeah. Wow.

Spin The Racket (32:38): No, definitely a positive experience and yeah, it's still humbling. Like I didn't realize people could be that good at the, at the sport. So yeah, it's just another thing to maybe get better at if, you know, if I get a paddle and all that, if and when.

Gerard (32:44): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (33:17): Mm-hmm.

Gerard (33:25): love it. Like it's different. It's fun. like I want to. There we go. Yeah. Yeah. I want to I want to try it. I feel like it'd be it'll be fun. I'm like a bit wary of like adding something new to the list. I talked about this is the year of less. This is like focusing on what you're what you're good at. But it's still going to try new things. You have new experiences. So like, you know, I'll give it a shot. I think I'll like really jump in and just be like, all right, I'm going to like

Spin The Racket (33:27): Let's do it. Let's do a spin the racket, day in the life.

Gerard (33:54): buy all this gear and like get absorbed with it. But there's always that risk with me. I can go a little bit overboard, you know.

Spin The Racket (34:00): Okay, no, so

Gerard (34:30): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (34:56): That's way that I see it. And so for me, it's more like a, it's more of a recreational social ⁓ sort of activity where I can bring the wife. I can bring friends that have never played tennis. I wouldn't do that with anyone, you know, like, but tennis is kind of closed off. We have our tennis people and then like, I would only play with you, Jody, and a couple other people. And that's kind of it. Like, I don't really want to ⁓ play with other folks and it's kind of closed off. So with Pickable, I'm like,

Gerard (35:29): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (36:11): Yeah.

Gerard (36:32): Yeah, yeah, no, it's been fun. Obviously the time difference is brutal. So like you have to just wreck your sleep schedule if you want to watch this live. And so it's, yeah, it was very tempting. I mean, I have to get back to, yeah, I got get back to my schedule here pretty quickly. But yeah, I know.

Spin The Racket (36:40): which you do. I probably might, I don't know, we'll see.

Gerard (36:52): The US is playing, like you said, Fritz and then got Coco in it, all different countries, Switzerland, Italy, so forth. So yeah, it is fun to see a lot of good players. And know Stan Wawrinka, it's his last year and he's been playing some really good matches. He won one against Renderknecht ⁓ from France and then lost a tough three-sided to Kaboli just a few hours ago. But yeah, it's kind of cool to see where players forms are early in the year and kind of get too excited about making predictions for the.

Spin The Racket (36:59): I love that cup. It's nice.

Gerard (37:22): Ozzy open too.

Spin The Racket (37:24): Yeah, exactly. It's a good way to start where it's like, is it, it's not an ATP sanctioned event, right? It's just kind of like its own thing. The United cut. They do? ⁓

Gerard (37:33): They do get ranking points. ⁓ Yeah,

Spin The Racket (37:43): A little bit more enticing. Yeah,

Gerard (37:52): Hmm.

Spin The Racket (38:11): eight for the year, they don't go to the, ⁓ the ATP finals. So everyone just kind of puts their head down and starts working, come November. And, ⁓ you have like these like two months where they just grind it out in the off season, which is a pretty small off season for, ⁓ when it comes to sport. Right. And so, yeah, you see these two, two months worth of work and now it's like, yeah, January comes around and you want to see where they are.

Gerard (38:19): Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Spin The Racket (38:42): how they're performing.

Gerard (38:43): And there's so few opportunities for these pro players to be in a team setting too. I mean, you have it with like the labor cup obviously is like special for that reason. yeah, to have it like, know, coed format, that team setting, you have a coach or captain rather, and you get to also kind of just probably trade a little bit of secrets with other players. ⁓ like you do that for your, you know, warmup. I may try this or I don't know what they talk about obviously, but yeah, I'd imagine they have like much more camaraderie that way. And it makes it, makes it fun to watch for sure.

Spin The Racket (38:48): Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Gerard (39:29): Yeah, I'd love that.

Spin The Racket (39:39): We've seen more of that in the recent years with the labor cup, with the United cup, now with intense tennis as well. So I'm a big fan. It's just nice. The camaraderie is there and you get more exposure to doubles. And for someone that didn't grow up watching doubles whatsoever and kind of

Gerard (39:45): Mm-hmm.

Spin The Racket (40:03): I think growing up in tennis is realizing that doubles is like super goaded and it's just kind of a hidden jewel in tennis and doesn't get as much viewership. Embracing the fact that in the team setting, you're going to have singles and doubles. And sometimes you may watch guys that you never get to watch playing doubles now playing in a double setting. It's, I think it's exciting because it's like, it's new and it's in front of you because you, they have to play the doubles match.

Gerard (40:18): Mm-hmm

Spin The Racket (40:32): It's not like you're, it's in a different court or whatever. No, it's part of the main stage.

Gerard (40:38): Right, exactly, exactly. I'm pumped for the down under the swing here, Aussie summer as they call it. And yeah, I think in a couple of weeks we'll probably have a little preview for the Australian Open draw on both sides, some predictions and our thoughts on that. So gotta get ready for that.

Spin The Racket (40:57): Yes, sir.

Gerard (41:13): And I'm G. See you next time.