Second Serve Tennis

USTA Coaching - Part 2

• Second Serve with Carolyn Roach & Erin Conigliaro • Episode 299

Share episode

Think coaching is only for pros? USTA’s new pathway empowers parents, teachers, and league players with clear tiers, drills, and real benefits. Ready to grow the game and your skills starting today? Listen now and tell us your first step!

Carolyn and Erin were thrilled to interview Megan Rose and Nancy Abrams about USTA Coaching and growing the game.

Megan Rose is the Managing Director, Head of Business Development & Operations of USTA Coaching. She was a 5-time NCAA All-American at University of Miami and competed on the WTA Tour. She previously was the Head Coach of Women's Tennis at Princeton University and the Senior Manager of Member Relations at the Women's Tennis Association. 

Nancy Abram's tennis journey began at the Fabulous Forum in Los Angeles, working for Billie Jean King and Jeannie Buss running ball kids for the summer pro events. Nancy played in college and has over two decades of experience with the United States Tennis Association Southern California. She is the architect behind the USTA SoCal’s Women & Girls Who Ace Summit, which celebrates the contributions of female sports leaders in Southern California, providing unique learning opportunities for coaches, athletes and industry professionals.

Learn more about USTA Coaching on USTACoaching.com, Instagram, or Facebook.


We would greatly appreciate a 5 star rating wherever you listen to podcasts!

Please contact us -

Website: secondservepodcast.com
Instagram: secondservepodcast
Facebook: secondservepodcast

Use our referral link to get a FREE Swing Stick ($100 value) with your first year of SwingVision Pro. The bundles are only $149.99 (previously $179.99). This is a limited time offer that you won't want to miss!

We are excited to team up with Michelle from Tennis Warehouse and her "Talk Tennis" podcast to bring you a "TW Tip of the Week!" Use the code SECONDSERVE to get $20 off clearance apparel when you spend $100 or more.

Carolyn:

Hi, this is Carolyn, and I'm here with Erin and this is part two of our episode with Megan Rose and Nancy Abrams. Megan competed on the WTA Tour, and she previously was the head coach of women's tennis at Princeton. Nancy played in college, has done numerous things through USTA to grow the game and continues to compete at senior national tournaments. In part one, they told us about the background for USTA coaching and the initiative for female coaches they are doing in 2026 and also their most memorable moments, which were really good. So if you didn't listen, we hope you go back and listen. But here is part two.

Erin:

So can you break down? I've looked at the there's a great uh USTA coaching website created, and I can see there are different levels of coaching that you can receive, and there's different benefits to those because I saw those columns of like, oh, you can be an entry-level coach if you're a parent or a league player like me. But you know, if you want to go down that pathway a little bit and explain that, I know that wasn't on our sheet, but I think that's really important for our listeners to understand that USTA has set up a very good path to different levels of coaching.

Megan:

No, it's only maybe take a look at that. And it's okay to throw me a curveball. I live in breakfast every day. So if I can't answer this question, I need to go find another job. But um, so USTA coaching, we really designed it uh with different types of coaches and different types of people in mind. So this is definitely if anyone out there listening is hearing the word coach and they're like, I'm not a coach, we want to make sure that you know that the word coach, we're using that in various definitions. So we mention um, you know, a parent, we mention if you're a league player and you know that at your local boys and girls club, maybe you want to go volunteer and teach tennis. Um, so USTA coaching, we have four uh packages that you can select from. So at the baseline, that's the baseline package, it's completely free. So if you're a parent or you're a high school or a middle school coach uh and you're the science teacher and you were just told, hey, I gotta, you gotta go teach tennis this semester, and you're like, I don't even know what a tennis racket is. Like, well, good news, like USTA coaching can help you. And so the baseline package has benefits and services for that level, and it's completely free. Um, then we have the rally package, which is $49. That requires safe play, and that's if you want to kind of go a little bit further on your journey. We have the Pro and Pro Plus package. Pro package is $149, Pro Plus is $249. This is really for that full-time, part-time teaching professional who wants liability insurance. We have telehealth at $0. That doesn't even hit your copay, that's for everyone in your house. If you need limited liability insurance for any additionally insured facility, that's for free. So we really we worked with Wilson Babylon Head. We're the first group to ever have those three major brands come together to offer discounts for our members. So some really great benefits in there. But what I will say really is that you can come in and really choose your own adventure. Our education online hub is going to be launching here in the next couple weeks. And we're really excited about that because it really is a collection of incredible modules and learning opportunities for you. So we have an introducing your child to tennis module. We have coaching high school tennis, bringing tennis into PE. We have a great module about empowering girls that we got from the Tucker Center at University of Minnesota that's really about how can you help empower girls to stay in sport. And it's really fun because as you complete these modules, you get these really cool badges on your profile. And so it really gamifies it. But it really is an exciting opportunity for people to really engage with education that fits their role and with their interest. So if you are interested in, you know, how can I be a better business person with tennis or I want to learn more about equipment, or I want to learn about how to teach a summer camp. We're really fortunate in that we've used our um our resources and our and our subject matter expertise uh, you know, with people both in tennis and outside of tennis to bring this education into one kind of easy-to-access platform.

Carolyn:

I love that just as a parent that I have young children. I'm gonna watch this just to see what I should be doing with my kids to get them into tennis.

Megan:

Absolutely. And even things like, you know, you'll get a weekly email that serves you up a drill. So it'll be a drill right into your inbox that you can click on and it's something new for you. Also at the rally package, you have free access to tennis drills.tv, which is over 2,000 drills. So you just go in there and you type in, you know, I'm a parent or I want to do a, I want to, you know, drills for a lesson or drills for two people. Um, and it serves you up all these great drills. So the access to the to the education, the access to the resources is super simple. I'm a mom myself. If I have to go searching for something, forget it. You know, I miss plans for my kids' school all the time because they're like, you have to go to this app or that app. I'm like, no, unless you're sending it to me directly, I am probably not gonna see it. So we wanted to kind of take that experience and really make sure that we are delivering that um and lowering any barrier that people might have in accessing this before.

Erin:

Yeah. I'm excited. I think I told this to Nancy, but we have, and I know they're all over the country, but there's a lot of tri-tennis programs, and that has a pathway of like, like I started at 40. So I didn't do the tri-tennis. I, you know, got actually got lessons um as a Christmas gift from my husband, but that was my pathway. So I got five, five lessons from him, and then I bought five more and bought five more. But the TI try-tennis programs I love because there's try tennis and there's try match, and there's, you know, that pathway, but there's a lot of um, I'll call them lower, you know, not as good of a player as Nancy and Megan. Yes. Like people like Carolyn and I can do a try tri-tennis program in our area and help, you know, get people involved in tennis that way. And I mean, that that was kind of what was exciting me because I have kids that are older than you guys now. And um, you know, they're starting to leave, and I have a little bit more free time. And for some reason, I just love to volunteer for USTA. So that was kind of what what Nancy and I first started talking about. So that's why I I love I love this topic and having you guys on.

Carolyn:

Okay, I do have one extra question, which we can add in or not. I just want to know from you guys since you guys are coaches, have played at a very high level. Do you have maybe one or two tips for recreational players that aren't very good?

Erin:

We always say we're not very good. We are very good for our level. For our level, that's good. I know. So that's better than like the average in America, but we're very mediocre .

Megan:

I think, look, I think my suggestion is always going to be like working on footwork and and just your positioning. I think I've seen some people with the uh truly atrocious strokes, like truly atrocious strokes, but the fact that they can get themselves in the right position. And even, you know, as um you're playing league matches, and you know, a lot of it is just can you get the ball back in play? Like, can you just make them hit one more ball? So I would say at that level, it's more around positioning and just making them play is probably even more of a key to success than me telling you that you should get more top spin on your forehand. And I would also just say like taking care of your body. I think a lot of times you just see people just pushing it because they love to play, but they're not actually like taking care of themselves physically, and then you start overcompensating for things and all that kind of stuff. So that would probably be like my tip. I love that.

Carolyn:

That's great. Nancy, how about you?

Nancy:

Yeah. Well, I would agree on the especially the footwork at any level, because if you start playing at 40 or whatever age, your strokes may be not so you know, personal.

Erin:

You have good strokes, terrible footwork. Okay, she has amazing footwork because Carolyn was a basketball player. I was not. I was sporty, and I am sport, and that's why I got to this level. But Carolyn has really good footwork. She actually gets in trouble for rushing the net because she just wants to like be up there and putting away volleys. I'll just sit back on the baseline all day and I'll do these like really hard forehands and backhands, but my footwork is terrible. We're great together. That's why we're a good partnership on and off the court. Yeah.

Nancy:

That that the lunge throws the lunge. I'll tell anybody who I'm walking by at my club who's lunging for a ball and not moving this. Yeah, I call them butt volleys.

Erin:

I stick my butt out and just lunge.

Nancy:

So in the infamous husband-wife thing, every now and then I'll go out and play with singles with him, and I can't stand looking at the lunge, and he knows it. So I'm always on him about do more steps to the ball. So one day I can't face the backhand, but I can get him to move to the ball. So one day he finally listened to me and he went over to the bench, he took out his wallet out of his bag, he took out a credit card, he slapped it on the bench, and he goes, Fine, I'll I'll pay you for the lesson. And he listened. So um, you know, it's the lunch, darn it.

Erin:

I hope you bought like a big diamond or something on the phone.

Nancy:

That lesson. Well, that's how he paid for no. No, it just it it just footwork. I see it everywhere around the club.

Erin:

Yes. That's a really that's actually a great tip. I'm gonna work on it today. Starting today, I'm gonna go out and yeah, work out. Okay, so to finish us off, those are great stories, but can you tell people where to get more information? Because that's gonna be key for people listening.

Megan:

Absolutely. So please visit ustaccoaching.com. We also have social channels on LinkedIn, Instagram, and we have a Facebook group also. So if you have any questions, you can find all the information you need to know there. And we hope everyone will join us.

Carolyn:

Thanks to Megan and Nancy for coming on the podcast. We greatly appreciate everything they are doing to grow the sport of tennis. We've included links to their website and their socials in our show notes. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon.