Celebrating 151 Year of Tennis with Fernando Segal

Season #25 Episode#:18 Shaun Boyce & Bobby Schindler

Guest: Fernando Segal

Hosts: Shaun Boyce & Bobby Schindler

Runtime: ~54 minutes

Episode Theme: Reimagining tennis through coaching, systems, and innovation — with a look back at its 151-year history!

🎾 What This Episode Is Really About

What does tennis need more of — better athletes or better systems?

Fernando Segal has a clear answer: SYSTEMS! Not just for developing elite players, but for building up coaches, programs, and a sport that’s struggling to keep up with modern attention spans, new competition (tennis, pickleball), and outdated thinking.

This isn’t a surface-level conversation. It’s a sweeping, honest, and highly practical look at the sport — from its 1870s origins to where it’s headed next. Whether you're a coach, parent, player, or tennis decision-maker, this episode lays out a compelling case for rethinking how we grow the game.

Fernando has spent 45 years building tennis programs across five countries, leading national tennis development efforts, and founding the World Tennis Conference — an annual event dedicated to educating and empowering high-performance coaches. In this episode, he shares what works, what’s broken, and how we can rebuild tennis from the ground up.

📌 Key Themes and Ideas We Explore

The True State of Tennis Today

Tennis might have global reach, but it’s not winning the cultural battle. While millions play, few understand how to grow the game in a sustainable way. Fernando breaks down the sport’s biggest blind spots: a lack of coaching structure, over-reliance on stars, and weak player pathways.

He argues that development is still too random, too star-driven, and too reactive — and outlines what a proactive system could look like.

Fernando’s LONG Story: From Mar del Plata to the World!

Fernando shares how his roots in Argentina — under the coach who trained Guillermo Vilas — set him on a lifelong mission to improve tennis through education. He details how coaching excellence isn’t just about technique, but leadership, imagination, and creating pathways for others to grow.

His journey spans five continents, including leadership roles in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand, where he focused on building national structures that would outlast any one player or trend.

The World Tennis Conference: A Blueprint for Global Coaching

What if coaches had the same support system players do? That’s the idea behind the World Tennis Conference, which Fernando founded to give coaches access to elite minds and cutting-edge knowledge. Now in its fifth year, the WTC features over 70 speakers — including coaches with 38 combined Grand Slam titles — and covers everything from biomechanics to human development.

Fernando breaks down how the conference is structured, why it’s online-first, and why even coaches working with beginners benefit from a high-performance mindset.

151 Years of Tennis: What the Sport Has Forgotten

Fernando walks us through the little-known (and hilarious) history of tennis — including how it was originally branded Sphairistikè before wisely rebranded to lawn tennis. But his point isn’t nostalgia. He explains how tennis was born from innovation, simplicity, and accessibility. And we’ve lost touch with that spirit.

He explains why tennis needs to reconnect with its roots, make play more accessible, and reimagine how the game is taught — especially to adults and newcomers.

🧠 Memorable Concepts & Ideas You’ll Hear

• The “Four Tennis” Model: The tennis of the head (mental skills), the feet (movement), the body and hand (technique), and the heart (emotion, purpose).
• Footwork as the Third Stroke: Why movement is as important as forehands and backhands — and how ignoring it stalls player development.
• Amateur Innovation in Japan: How a green-dot-ball league with 3 million players solved the playability problem for adult beginners.
• Coaches as the Core: Why coaches are the most influential figures in tennis — and why certification should be mandatory at all levels.
• Why Systems Beat Superstars: Federations and clubs can't wait for the next Nadal. Real success comes from building structured, repeatable development pipelines.
• The "Mirror Law": Players can only face high-pressure moments when they’ve learned to face themselves — mentally and emotionally — in training.

👀 Who Should Listen?

If you work in tennis, coach part-time, raise a young player, or just care about the future of the sport, this episode delivers. You’ll get value from it if you are-

• A coach — at any level — looking for a broader, sharper framework to guide your work
• A tennis parent seeking clarity about what your child really needs
• A recreational player curious about why tennis is so hard to learn (and how to fix that)
• A program director or decision-maker responsible for tennis growth
• A tennis nerd who loves hearing passionate, no-BS takes on the sport

🎯 Why This Conversation Matters

Tennis is 151 years old. But it won’t last another century if it doesn’t evolve. Fernando Segal makes the case that we don’t need to reinvent the game — we just need to remember what made it great in the first place: accessibility, creativity, purpose, and structure.

This episode pushes past tradition, calls out what isn’t working, and brings practical, powerful ideas to the table — not from a distance, but from someone who’s spent his life doing the work.

After all, it’s not just a history lesson. It’s a roadmap.

🎧 Listen now and join the movement to rethink, rebuild, and reenergize the game of tennis — from the court to the culture.

Learn more about Fernando: