The Van der Meer Legacy

I would like to open this first posting on our Blog by sharing an article I recently wrote for "TennisPro," the official PTR magazine, due on the next issue. The article reflects my observations on Dennis Van der Meer's contributions to tennis and my own professional life. I believe it's an appropriate way to "set the tone" for this publication. I hope you feel encouraged by this short piece and share with us your own views on your Principles, your Values, your sources of Inspiration, your Peak Experiences and the many ways that you use to market Tennis.

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Twenty five years ago, I took TennisUniversity with Dennis Van der Meer and became a PTR Professional. At the time, I was studying medicine in Argentina, which was under a military dictatorship. Martial law and oppression were not the best encouragement for a dreamer like me. I tried to stay focused on my studies and taught tennis on weekends. Luckily for me, Dennis and Pat spent two consecutive summers teaching at a resort in neighboring Punta del Este, Uruguay, and they invited me to join their staff. Working with them, I learned how influential tennis teachers can be when they operate with a coherent service philosophy. I felt inspired by the experience and, after much consideration, I made a monumental leap of faith and became a full time teaching pro.

Things went well for a while. My brother, Robert, and I managed several tennis schools, trained some of the best juniors, and achieved visibility in the national media. After Argentina’s return to democracy in 1983, inflation hit 300% a month. We worked like crazy, but we could hardly pay for gasoline, let alone save a dime. That was not my idea of running a sustainable enterprise. Fed up with the chaos, I called Dennis and asked him for a chance to start from scratch in the United States. He graciously invited me to join his staff, an enviable opportunity for an ambitious entrepreneur like me. Since then, my career has morphed into unexpected shapes, from working with Dr. Jim Loehr in sport psychology, to managing a charitable club in England, to Internet ventures and, more recently, as an executive coach for Swiss private bankers.

I can honestly say that I owe a big chunk of what I have and who I have become to Dennis’ confidence in me. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Consequently, I decided to take stock of the past 25 years. During my analysis, I thought about the lessons learned and how they could be shared with the rest of my PTR colleagues. As a result, I have come up with nine points that I believe summarize Dennis’ legacy to all of us.

1. Teach with Passion
• We are performers. The tennis court is our stage. We create a framework of activity and excitement in which our students can achieve their goals. Every student is a challenge, a chance to make a difference.
• Our currency is positive energy. We energize our students so they feel confident at every step of their development. We do it by using their names, giving minimal corrections and lots of encouragement.
• We are passionate motivators. We truly believe we can help any student enjoy the game, regardless of their skill level. We apply a step-by-step, biomechanical approach based on imagery, rather than words, to help their strokes hold under pressure.

2. Become a Tennis Evangelist
• We are professional because we profess the values of the game, not because we earn money teaching it. We help people enjoy their hard earned free time and learn about themselves through practice and competition.
• We are the ambassadors of the excellence of the game. Dennis said, “If you are good, tell everyone.” We represent the highest standard that many of our students will ever know. We are the guardians of their expectations and aspirations of success.
• We are agents of positive change at the individual and collective level: we want every student to bring their family and friends into tennis. “Have racquet, will travel” is our battle cry. We track demographics to find new populations to teach. “Tennis Anyone?” is our middle name. There is always a chance to make one more person smile.

3. Provide Instant Success
• The Graduated Length Method, the philosophical core of PTR, helps our students hit many balls from the first minute they’re on court. Only success breeds confidence.
• Our teaching method gives students a general knowledge of all the strokes from the very first lesson. Unlike the crusty old pro of yesteryear, who taught 100 forehand lessons followed by 100 backhand lessons before teaching the serve, we help our students cover all technical issues in the least amount of time and with the least investment.
• The student’s feeling of “I can do this” is priceless. Dennis taught us to sell the next lesson to create expectation and aspiration in our students. We need to sell programs rather than lessons. Repeat business is the only business, and our longevity in the industry can be predicted by how many of our students call themselves our friends.

4. Leverage Your Talent
• Dennis has always modeled professional success, especially in the marketing and promotions areas. Pros with leadership qualities can leverage their efforts to teach more people affordably in the same amount of time. It’s better to earn 30% from the effort of 10 pros than to make 100% from your own effort, if that allows you to grow as a company.
• Tennis pros must become tennis activists by participating in social and media events. When your face is seen in newspapers, magazines and on television, you are putting tennis up front as a social and fitness activity, right there where it belongs.
• Media exposure allows you to leverage your promotional efforts. If you want people to remember you when it’s time for them to spend their leisure money, you need to be visible. Be prolific and consistent in your message. Own the Tennis category in your region.

5. Be Memorable
• As tennis pros, we operate in an experience economy. Our goal is to create energizing memories for our students. We make tennis easy, fun, affordable and a lifetime process of personal growth. We become memorable when we show genuine care for our students’ aspirations, but we must also emphasize the entertainment side of the learning process.
• We must craft our students’ experience down to the smallest details. Dennis always used humor at every junction of a lesson: from the introduction, to the diagnostic, to the corrections and the closing. Who can forget Dennis reciting the names of 40 or more students with his back to the video projection while making precise comments on their strokes? What about his dramatizations of mistakes, the crazy stories, the wacky pictures taken all over the world, his magazine articles with celebrities, even his coaching of Billie Jean King at the Battle of the Sexes? Go beyond the court. Make the world your tennis stage.

6. Always Keep Learning
• Dennis extracted the essence of technique, tactics and strategy, and integrated them into the simplest components. Responding to the tennis boom that erupted almost three decades ago, he helped thousands of tennis pros meet the demands of the growing market. In the process, he also encouraged pros to continuously update their knowledge.
• Dennis has always kept himself informed on the latest developments in the industry and has never blocked the flow of knowledge toward his students and collaborators. He pioneered research and surrounded himself with experts. He always asked questions and probed beyond apparently sound theories, testing whatever equipment or technical tool that would give teachers and players an advantage.
• Dennis has shown tennis pros the importance of having a vision with a very ambitious time horizon. While the majority of pros would worry about what’s for dinner, he would be building indoor courts where there were none, opening satellite operations in new markets, traveling to countries where they had never seen a tennis racquet, and learning from people from all walks of life. He has shown us that we must never be satisfied with what is and that we must always be thinking about what can be.

7. Be Resilient
• No great entrepreneur has lived an unobstructed life. During the 1973 oil embargo, Dennis and Billie Jean King lost many of their investments when people stopped traveling to tennis destinations. He was able to rebuild his career and kept an eye on oceanfront development trends, which led him to establish his Hilton Head Island operations. The rest is history. Compared to the majority of the big names in tennis, Dennis’ business have been profitable ever since.
• When Pat Van der Meer suffered a stroke, Dennis focused on her recovery by using tennis as a rehabilitation tool. Applying the same principles he used to teach thousands of people, he engaged Pat’s motor abilities and gently challenged her to use them.
• Perhaps the most revealing aspect of Dennis’ resilience became apparent to me when I worked at PTR Headquarters and talked often with his accountant. She was very impressed by his gutsy reaction to whatever obstacles he faced. Dennis always presented a “can do” attitude and sought alternatives. “Don’t get into a business you don’t understand, but always go for more,” was his maxim. Within the parameters of his knowledge and instincts, Dennis rebounded and achieved remarkable transformations by seizing opportunities.

8. Build Bridges
• Tennis organizations have not always been as proactive and as open minded as they might seem to be now. In years past, I saw several officials try to undermine Dennis’ progressive approach. During my international travel, I encountered his declared enemies, people who hid behind the perceived power of their positions. Those “sacred cows” folded one by one, sometimes shamelessly becoming raving fans of Dennis. This is a testimony to Dennis’ influence as an agent of positive change. As the saying goes: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
• Time and time again, Dennis built tennis as an essential aspect of a community by participating in Chamber of Commerce meetings, dealing with the tourism and sports infrastructure, and emphasizing mutual collaboration. Today, PTR is recognized in many countries thanks to local representatives who understand how to carry out the same efforts in their region. This is proof that Dennis’ five fundamental steps have universal appeal:
1. Have a long term growth strategy.
2. Know what you know and explain it simply.
3. Develop every process step-by-step.
4. Create an expansive network of allies: local, regional, national and international.
5. Collect and nurture a database of satisfied customers.

9. Leave a Path for Others to Follow
• Dennis arrived in the United States from South Africa without much more than a tennis racquet and a smile. From his days as a club pro in California to his current properties on Hilton Head Island, he led by example. Some people may disagree with his management style or his personal views, but no one can dispute that Dennis is a force that has added energy to tennis as a game. He revolutionized the teaching profession and prompted his students to ask themselves, “How far can I go?”
• Dennis and the staff at PTR have always emphasized the “family” connection, in a successful attempt to share not only what we know, but a feeling of global camaraderie. All PTR’s promotional and marketing efforts are based on this premise. Tennis is as global as its values and they must be preserved by those who live them. Following in Dennis’ footsteps requires vision, courage, and the heart of a teacher.

These days, I coach executives on how to go beyond their personal best. To them, I’m “the tennis guy”. It makes me proud when they recognize my passion for the game. I suggest that every PTR member look back and remember who they were before they met Dennis. Above anything else, Dennis did it his way and it mattered.