Evan Gaudreau is a former D1 college player and coach who has developed a fresh way of looking at tennis. He has been on the podcast before, but now we talk about Coach Evan’s book Shell Game.
Coach Evan’s Book (Shell Game)
Coach Evan has written multiple of analysis pieces for Tennisnerd and has been on the Tennisnerd podcast several times. I have always enjoyed his unorthodox style of writing about tennis and ultimately analyzing the sport and I think there is a lot to learn from it. His book Shell Game is as different of a book as you can imagine. Firstly, it is handwritten! You can see an example of it below.
We talk about why he chose to do the book this way, his approach to watching the player instead of watching the player, why he writes messages of advice to pro players, what club players and tennis nerds can get out of the book, and much more.
You can check out Shell Game on Amazon.
Listen to the podcast
You can listen on pretty much all relevant podcast platforms like Spotify, iTunes, in the embedded player above or on my YouTube channel.
Time stamps
00:00 Intro
01:39 Why did you (hand)write the book?
02:38 Explaining the title
06:39 How can you build these patterns into your game?
10:56 Evan picks on Daniel Collins and Stefanos Tsitsipas
15:15 Fighting for something bigger on the court
17:45 Writing is therapy
20:31 Evan listens to a LOT of music
24:23 Let’s talk about recent pro-level tennis
26:07 Are Babolat racquets the best for drop shots?
27:13 Evan’s new racquet
30:36 Kids are spoiled these days
35:54 Escaping social media and the creative process
44:06 Back to the book and ad-side serving
50:01 Emotional thinking on the court
54:24 How far strategy can take you on the WTA tour
57:01 How the GOATs work with coaches
1:01:14 Why should anyone read Shell Game
1:04:35 Tiafoe vs Fritz, who is the better thinker?
1:07:33 Can you change who you are on the tennis court?
