Dueyblog

TOPS is the on-court instruction provider for our Sunaskeo program.  Click the video link below to watch as I talk about our revolutionary interdisciplinary fulltime program designed to create the next generation of world class tennis champions. Over the next several weeks, I will also be posting video interviews with other members of the Sunaskeo team here.

Duey Evans Explains Sunaskeo

Purposeful intent is spirit which drives an individual to summon all means necessary to accomplish even the loftiest of goals.  When I undertook the design of our Sunaskeo program (www.sunaskeo.com), one of the most significant questions on the table was, “What would success look like?”  It was at this point I began thinking about two great tennis parents, Richard Williams & Ernie Peterson.

Richard Williams is well known to the world as the father of Venus & Serena.  Stories abound about how he saw a tennis player receive a check on television for $20,000 and immediately told his wife they were going to have a child and develop a tennis champion.  Whether this is true or not will be debated forever.  However, I witnessed this bravado and self confidence first hand when I met Mr. Williams for the first time at the SGMA Super Show in 1993 in Atlanta.

Ernie Peterson has been tossing balls to kids at Burdette Tennis Center in College Park, GA since 1976.  His success in developing young tennis players earned him the US Olympic Committee Developmental Coach of the Year honors in 2003.  But this tale is about his role as parent to Jewel, a four year All American at University of Southern California and top 200 WTA player.  Ernie has served as mentor, surrogate father figure and inspiration to me since 1992.

As it so happens, Richard and Ernie are friends.  Both are large in stature that can, and often does intimidate most, but possess nurturing spirits.  Jewel is just several weeks older than Serena and the girls trained together upon occasion during their teenage years.  Venus and Serena have also supported Coach Peterson’s program with clinic appearances over the years. 

My meeting of Mr. Williams was quite by chance.  I had heard of Venus & Serena and was quite interested when I saw their father conducting a television interview inside the Reebok both at The Super Show.  I was standing as part of the crowd of onlookers when, out of nowhere, I found a microphone in front of my face and Mr. Williams is asking me, “What do you think of my girls?”  Afterwards, he pulled me aside, apologizes and asks me what I really think of his girls.  My response was, “I think they are great, but we have a little girl right here in Atlanta who will give them a run for their money.”  He asked me who I am speaking of.  When I say “Jewel Peterson”, his eyes got bright and in an animated tone he asked, “Do you know Ernie?  Is Ernie here?”

In 1993, Jewel Peterson was an 11 year old tennis prodigy.  I remember seeing her hit indoors at Sportsmen’s Tennis Club in Boston a year earlier and being awed by the sound of the ball being hit by a 10 year old.  Now, a year later, I was getting ready to move to Atlanta and the Peterson’s were the only people I knew.  There was no doubt in my mind that Jewel would be a staple on the pro tour in the next decade. 

As I had other chances to talk with Richard Williams over the next several years and received numerous 5:30 a.m. phone calls from Ernie Peterson saying, “You can’t make any money in the bed.  Get up boy!”– I began to distinguish very different messages coming from the two men.  As I contrast the two today, it is apparent the destiny of their daughters’ was shaped by the message they heard.

Mr. Williams talked about junior tennis being detrimental to developing champions.  He said it is impossible for a top junior to totally focus on performance rather than outcome.  He agreed competition was a key component to development, but argued rankings were the root of evil.  Ultimately, he said his girls were learning to play the pro game and would begin playing tournaments only when they could successfully compete on the game’s biggest stages.

Hang around Burdette Tennis Center and you can’t help but understand with crystal clarity the philosophy of Coach Peterson.  I remember quite clearly being chastised one day after a talk I gave to a group of young players that included Jamea Jackson, Natalie Frazier, Jermaine & Jarmere Jenkins on setting your goals high.  Coach Peterson pulled me aside (I guess he did actually respect me) and told me, “Stop talking all that crap about pro tennis.  That is not what we do here.  We get kids Division 1 college scholarships!”  To this day, I have never heard him deviate from that message. 

I respect Coach Pete as much as I do anyone.  He fulfills his stated mission year after year as well as anyone in the U.S.  But I wonder what would have happened if he had espoused a message where the bar had been set at the Grand Slam level? Would Jewel or Natalie have been top 10 in the world instead of in the NCAA? Might Jermaine have been on the Davis Cup team rather than the Clemson squad?

Sunaskeo is designed to follow the path set forth by Richard Williams.  The ranking scale we use currently has Rafael Nadal and Dinara Safina sitting at number one with the players we work with being somewhere in the thousands.  One of the tournaments we covet has two young ladies named Williams contesting the women’s final today. 

We don’t talk about National Opens, Designated events or even junior national championships.  Our goal, which we will begin going about with intentional purpose this fall, is to create multiple Grand Slam champions.  Not everyone will reach this level, but it won’t be because we didn’t set our sights high enough.

Let me start by stating up front that “I Am a Christian!” I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me. More germane to this conversation, I believe I have been called by God to impact the lives of youth through coaching and performance architecture. Consequently, it comes as no surprise that I am under attack by those who I believe are less concerned with impacting lives than impacting their bottom line.
I’ve stated in an earlier blogs, some of the reasons I started and continue on this journey. It has not led to great financial riches. In fact, only after two decades, and three children of my own, have I reached the point where my entire focus is not devoted to non-profit ways of delivering the messages I feel are important.
The path of my journey is littered with programs seeded by my tossing balls for free on a daily basis to those who could not afford instruction. Along the way I ran across some with incredible talent, both capable and incapable of affording my services. Spending my mom’s life savings, left to me on her passing 12 years ago, has enabled me to journey with some amazing young people down paths that allowed them to examine the depths of their character through the great sport of tennis.
Today, my depth of experience and track record of success has me positioned to again plow unfurrowed ground. I am deploying my Tournament Optimal Performance System™ in the Dallas market as the first step in developing a national program that impacts young lives through the pursuit of excellence in sport and music. Yes, you read it here first, Duey Evans is embarking on creating a National Program that both includes and is not bounded by tennis.
I will not be so crass as to insinuate that my trumpeting the value of the life lessons learned in my programs will ever have the value of the proselytizing done by Jesus and his Apostles. However, you will continually hear me refer to myself as Apostle to the Community. I said to a parent this week, “People don’t realize that this is about so much than tennis.” She responded, “Some of us do.”
One of the major junior tennis programs and clubs in the MetroPlex has taken exception to mailings and emails that have been circulated telling people about me and my program. Its owner has gone so far as to inform me that he will pursue legal action if I send anything to HIS players. Last I knew, children “belonged” to parents (my three are Halie, Rhiannon and Carole Evans) not coaches or programs. He said that my “solicitations” (his word but maybe true) may be legal but they are unethical.
This self righteous gentleman had the audacity to tell me that the right way to build a program would be to find a bunch of young kids who have never played tennis and start with them. He suggested that if I would choose this tact, I may be accepted into the Old Boy network of MetroPlex tennis. I respond:
Dear Sir,
Been there, done that. I will continue to grow the game by both introducing new kids to the sport and keep existing players and their families involved by enlightening them to the ancillary life benefits of pursuing excellence.
You point to how you have grown your program over the past 11 years. Over the past 17 years, I have provided over $1M in free tennis lessons and program scholarships. I have personally put shoes on kids feet, clothes on their back, food in their mouths and roofs over their heads. I have established 501(c)(3) programs that exist to this day. I suspect I have had years when my contribution to growing the game exceeds your contribution over your entire lifetime. “Kiss My Grits”
One of the first things I did when I arrived in the MetroPlex was offer my services to the Dallas Tennis Association. Apparently, my services are not needed for them to accomplish their mission. They never responded to my emails nor returned my phone calls.
Even before that, I offered my services to you. I guess you decided you didn’t need them either. Now you view me as “the competition” (again, your words). Fortunately, for many reasons, I don’t view you the same way. But you chose not to help me pay my bills and I will pursue any legal strategy I see fit in my pursuit to do so.
~Duey Evans
I am in business to Shepherd young people through the quagmire of potential perils that exist along their journey to adulthood. At the same time, I hope to one day be able to provide three girls named Evans a legacy at least equal to the one left me by my mother.
Sometimes being PC gets old. I like saying Merry Christmas! It’s even better when someone replies, “Happy Hanuka”, “Happy Kwanzaa” or any other way that they mark this remarkable time of year.

I came away from an experience this weekend deeply concerned. Having watched several of the players I coach have sub-par performances, it seemed like the end of the world. This has caused those around me to steer a wide path for a couple of days.

Pride and ego are stumbling blocks to long term success. Fear of failure and humility are far superior emotions. I have often spoken the phrase, “Humble yourself and you shall be exalted. Exalt yourself and you shall be humbled.”

As I write this, I can’t help thinking back to two things I read in a book by Bill Russell. First, he talked about throwing up before every game because of nerves. One day he was not into it like usual and went straight from his locker to the floor of the Boston Garden for warm-up. His coach, Red Auerbach, called him aside and said, “Russell, get back in the locker room and throw up”. While that seems like a funny anecdote, it really speaks to the fact that champions never take the outcome for granted.

The second is a story he tells about a talk he gave the Boston Celtics circa 2002. He went in to the locker room filled with highly paid All Stars on a team that rarely made the playoffs. He proceeded to tell them that he had an ego that was at least equal to any of theirs. He said the difference was that their egos were tied to their statistics and he always tied his to the team’s performance. I have always tied mine to performance of those under my tutelage.

Recently, I feel like I have been missing the chip on my shoulder that always motivated me to do more. I have found myself uttering the words, “No one I currently coach will do more than those I have coached in the past”. What kind of attitude is that – other than one that says I need to eat some humble pie? It can’t be about anyone who came before but rather figuring out how to use that experience to get this current group to go further than they would with me lending it to them.
Today I got a wakeup call. A close friend of mine from High School, he was also an Usher in my 1986 wedding, died this morning of Pancreatic Cancer. He was a high flyer. An Assistant District Attorney who was given all the high profile criminal cases, he later went into private practice and was a leader in his field. I’m not sure any of that matters today to his wife, daughters and others who will miss him dearly. At the same time, it was his drive, pragmatic spirit and unwillingness to do things half way that drew all of us to him.

I’m still working on my dash (Duane Edward Evans February 15, 1962 - ?). To think that what I have done to this point comprises that whole period would be very sad. I am here in Texas because my children are here and they appreciate seeing me regularly almost as much as I love being able to regularly attend their school functions and sporting events. But I still have a lot of unfinished business on the professional front. My body may not be able to do what it once could but that is more than compensated for by my knowledge and experience.

Watch out - I found the chip! Thank you, Jim Takacs. I love you man.

That is how the parent of a client once described me.  He said that I am one of the brightest people he has ever met (coming from a personal injury lawyer, I’m not sure how much to read into that) but I frustrate people by constantly changing.  There is probably some truth to his statement and I wear it as a badge of honor.

Continual change is one of the cornerstones of greatness.  Whether we are talking about an athlete or a company, being intransigent is the surest route to extinction or mediocrity.  Many a company that was founded on the premise of being the innovative leader lost its edge when the “we have arrived” mentality set in.  Certainly the fields of friendly strife are littered with players who were the best on their block or even on their collegiate team who never realized success on a bigger stage required scrapping some of their former “go to” moves.

When I began coaching 18 years ago, I was very clear as to why I chose this career.  It was solely to help young people navigate through adolescence.  Over time (four or five years) I realized that the biggest greatest value lay squarely in helping people see that becoming great was actually a test of time or longevity.  Showing them that those who are on the cutting edge today create the average standard of tomorrow was the ultimate prize.

Shepherding athletes through the minefield of frustration as they constantly reinvent themselves for the sake of attaining a level of success that will leave them believing they maximized their potential has remained my dominant mantra.  It is an experience that will guide them as they morph from student to independent wage earner and ultimately to caretaker of the next generation.  However, no matter how many times I make the journey, I realize each journey has markers that remain the same, but like a desert, the sands are always shifting (change). 

 While I have certainly enjoyed more than my share of success, I remain committed to attaining the greatness I referred to earlier.  This requires me doing the exact same thing I coach others to do – constantly reinvent.  I do this by keeping the things that have always worked (like focusing on fundamentals and beginning with a clear picture of where I want to end up), scrapping those which are outdated or not pertinent to my current clientele and innovating where possible to move beyond anything I have done in the past.

As a parent of three girls, ages 11, 7 & about to be 6, I understand the desire for parents to have consistency and routine.  That makes the process of childrearing manageable and easier.  If you have not heard it before let me tell you now, “there is nothing easy about raising high performing human beings.”  The two are largely diametrically opposed. 

Today I reside in Frisco, Texas.  I am here because it allows me to spend time with my children almost daily.  That will never change.  Nor will my beliefs that continual forward progression requires constant evolution (change).  Those who have allowed me to shepherd them have consistently out-performed their peers (I once had a program where all the fulltime participants went three years without ever losing to anyone they had previously beaten), while those who couldn’t handle the ride have usually stagnated.

Maybe my greatest value is unmasking the pretenders!

It never ceases to amaze me how the overwhelming majority of developmental tennis coaches in the US fail to recognize the operative word in their job description is “developmental”.  Coaches all over spend their time trumpeting their involvement with the best 10, 12 and 14 year olds in their area.  I ask those in the know, “WHO CARES?” 

Winning in the 12s most often begets losing in the 18s and never having any more involvement in professional tennis than buying a ticket or supporting the advertisers by watching it on television.  Oh ya, I forgot, being a top 14 and under will get you the chance to be a ball kid at your local/regional professional event (usually a minor league futures or challenger event).  However, when it comes to ever playing at that level, look for the kids a little back in the pack that is over-hitting and keeping him/herself and the opponent in the match simultaneously.

I have often been accused of not teaching defense.  WRONG.  Ask any player I have coached and they will tell you I preach “shot tolerance” and “hitting quality shots to big targets”.  But I do not promote topspin for the sake of topspin and throwing up “moon balls” every time your opponent makes you move more than your rehearsed three step footwork pattern.

One of the first things that I do when I get a new student is ask them to hit a ball to the fence from the opposite baseline.  When I find an 8, 9, 10 or 11 year old who can do it with ease, my eyes light up and I begin to look further.  If they can’t, I look to see how quickly we can clean up their technique so they can. 

Tennis is a running sport.  No matter how proficient a player becomes at hitting aggressive shots, they still have to be able to do it on the run.  At the professional level, great shots come back as greater shots.  Topspin sitters come back as winners by the opponent. 

Early in my coaching career I was fortunate to be adopted by a group of national level boy tennis players.  They thought I was a cool, young coach who could relate to them.  One of them became my ward for a time and now is more like a younger brother.  He was fast beyond belief.  At one point we clocked him running a 4.26 second forty yard dash.  While practicing at IMG Academies, I saw him run down a good drop volley by a top 10 ITF boy and hit a winner. , It made two coaches in the towers simultaneously take off their sunglasses in disbelief.  But when he began playing satellites (they still existed back then) he came to me and said that even he couldn’t run down the forehands at that level when he hit a ball short that didn’t penetrate the court.

All too often in this country, coaches sell high dollar/long hour programs they call High Performance.  These are supposed to give players the best chance of maximizing their potential.  Because the sales pitch often centers on “how talented” the player is and comes on the heels of what the parents perceived as a substandard performance at some event that means nothing, the coach is forced to sacrifice long term success for winning now.  What a sham!

American tennis will not rebound until more people understand that junior rankings have no good bearing on a player’s potential to succeed at professional tennis.  Tournaments shouldn’t be played just because they are there (there is always a tournament somewhere you can play).   Rather they should serve as a place to take snapshots of where development (improvement) stands relative to the competition.

Next time you talk to a coach about your child, ask him/her how important winning is.  I submit it is nowhere near as important as the level they can compete at, coupled with their development of a professional style game.  If you want your kid to play at Stanford, Duke, Virginia or Illinois, you should know who ends up at those schools.  They are almost exclusively those who have their sights set on pro tennis from an early age and, for one reason or another, are still just short of the thing they have worked on all their adolescent years and more.

Even as I move beyond just my involvement in shaping young lives through tennis, I can’t help but acknowledge the journey I set out on over 15 years ago has not fundamentally changed.  Never do more than a couple of weeks pass between recollections of the evening in early 1993 when I decided I needed to leave the comfort of close proximity to my family and friends and use my considerable talents to help fill a void.  While many lives have touched me and in turn changed circumstances and direction, never do I feel more on course than today. 

It was the evening of February 6, 1993.  Earlier that day, while visiting The Super Show in Atlanta, I was unexpectedly pulled into an interview in the Reebok booth by Richard Williams.  He was discussing his very young daughters on camera when he pulled me out of the crowd, took the microphone from the interviewer and proceeded to ask me my opinion of Venus & Serena.  Afterward, he apologized for the impromptu session and asked what I really thought.  When he heard me say that I thought we had a little girl in Atlanta, Jewel Peterson, who would give his girls a run for their money, he immediately asked “is Ernie here”. 

Ernie is Coach Ernie Peterson, the 2004 US Olympic Committee Developmental Coach of the Year, whose living room I was in getting ready to watch Riddick Bowe take on Michael Dokes.  When the announcer came on and said he has some sad news to report, we all knew.  The talk at The Super Show had largely been about the fact that the great Arthur Robert Ashe was doing extremely poorly and it was now just a matter of time.  The inevitable had finally happened – Arthur had succumbed to AIDS.

February 6^th was also my dad’s birthday.  He’s the person who introduced me to tennis.  We watched the sport together on Monday evenings on PBS, visited Longwood Cricket Club to watch the Bagel Twins bring down rain and Borg battle seemingly forever with Vilas.  We hit balls together countless times and I hoped one day to be good enough that he would let me borrow his Davis Classic racquet and wear his Stan Smith adidas sneakers.  It was also my dad who helped me procure the only autograph I ever remember wanting – Arthur Ashe.

Upon hearing of his passing I said to the two people in the room with me, Coach Peterson and Oscar Wegner of www.tennisteacher.com, that it was now incumbent upon us to each try to keep one of the balls afloat Arthur had juggled as only he could.  Coach Peterson has done more than his part in developing more African American All-Americans and pros, including his daughter Jewel, Jamea Jackson and Natalie Frazier, than probably anyone in history.  Oscar has helped educate countless coaches and parents on why pro tennis looks very different from what most coaches teach.  But what about me?

I have had my share of successes coaching junior players and young professionals.  Though it may seem braggadocio, I would match my track record up against most and believe I am as good a coach as any.  However, I can’t help but believe that, just like Arthur, my interests and contributions outside tennis will be my lasting legacy.  My efforts to create online, bricks & mortar and blended educational systems are where my passions live.  Through my company, Evans Kurth Holdings LLC, I will spend the remainder of my life creating environments where people learn that greatness is a mindset, not a destination and the journey can be more exhilarating than any amusement park ride. 

I hope Arthur is proud.

As I have thought about what it takes to be a student athlete (in this case a tennis player) I have looked to find a balance.  This is what I have come up with.

Being a tennis player does not imply merely wearing the attire, having a great big bag over your shoulder and being in a drill group.  There are many more important phases to think about if you want to be a winner, not only in tennis, but life as well.  Good coaches will impress the importance of the following qualities absolutely necessary for every good athlete, no matter the sport.

1.                  Are you coachable?  Can you take coaching?  Can you take criticism without ever looking for an alibi?  Are you a “know it all?”  Will you always do your best to try to improve?

2.                  Are you possessed with the spirit of competition which fires an intense desire to win?  Do you want to win with a passion - - never taking ‘no’ for an answer when there is a job to be done - - a ball to be run down - - an extra basket of serves to be hit?

3.                  Are you willing to practice? - - not just showing up and putting in the necessary time but working every day with the same zeal, speed and determination you use during a tournament match?  Do you have two speeds - - a practice speed and a tournament speed?  Great athletes of the past were the ones who had one speed, and it was the same every day, every practice, every tournament.  If you loaf and cheat in practice, you will loaf and cheat in matches.

4.                  Are you willing to make sacrifices? Conditioning to play is not fun.  It is not easy.  It is stark punishment.  Training is exacting; the responsibility is heavy.  It is rough and includes personal denials in order to remain in tip-top condition, but has its rewards.  You thrill with an inner glow that reflects a feeling of happiness when you run down that drop shot and make your opponent play that “one more ball”.  The only way for you to remain in good shape is never to get out of it.

5.                  Do you have an ardent desire to improve?  Are you willing to practice the things you cannot do three times longer than the things you can do?  Are you willing to put in long grinding hours, concentrating on a skill until you perfect it?  Are you eager to work so diligently at the skills you lack that they eventually become your strongest assets?  Too many players only work on the things they did well while their weaknesses were often exploited.

6.                  Do you have the ability to think under fire?  Can you concentrate on the work to be accomplished at the moment?  Can you shut out from your mind a previous failure, success, bad line call or personal insult in order to give undivided attention to necessary tactics and strategies in the here and now?  Matches are not won by yesterday’s score, but by what is happening now, at this moment.  Good athletes play every point up to the hilt - - never depending on past successes to aid them.

7.                  Are you willing to be impersonal toward your opponents?  Do you shut out all personal feelings about your opponent except to punish him/her, as often and as effectively as you can, in accordance with the rules?  Experience has taught us the moment a player becomes personal he/she plays only to release individual grievances or without the necessary fire.

8.                  Are you willing to study just as hard as before you began playing tennis?  Tennis was never meant to take the place of school work.  The athletic tail must never wag the academic dog.  This involves realignment in your time schedule.  If tennis will consume two, three or even four hours of your day then you must not draw time from your scholastic pursuits.  If you must eliminate something from your schedule it cannot be study time.  First things come first, and your academic growth is of paramount importance.

9.                  Do you believe in your coaches, trainers, parents and other support staff?  Your game is as good as you make it.  Your coaches and trainers are employed by you and given the responsibility of coaching, not their tennis game, but your game.  Are you willing to work toward that spirit of oneness so that everyone possesses the feeling of belonging through their contribution?   Will you keep uppermost in mind when a coach blisters you with criticism his/her remarks are never meant to be personal affronts?  The only intent is to pressurize you to want to rectify your omissions so that success results.  Despite his/her scathing censure, he/she loves you all as if you were of the same blood.

10.              Will you strive daily to improve your muscular coordination and speed?  Tennis is a game of movement and daily drills tend to speed up your reaction time.  Speed and coordination are necessary ingredients in a winning combination.  Only through hard work can improvement be realized.  Those who lack these two physical qualities can still find a place in tennis by improving their technique and tactics.

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