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MATEUSZ TERCZYNSKI — ASSISTANT COACH IN TEAM HUBERT HURKACZ

below is some stuff matt tells us in this podcast :) he mainly talks about his life and coaching career but also mentions united cup. the podcast is quite long (1h46mins) so i picked the most important stuff. even if you dont care about matt specifically i think its an interesting listen/read to anyone who cares about tennis !!

— his father was a a coach

— he fell in love with tennis as a kid and immediately knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life

— he looked up a lot to his 11 years older brother that was competing

— his parents supported him no matter what

— he wanted to become a professional player (now we know he ended up in coaching instead)

— when he was 12 his family moved to london to help with tennis, there is a lot more opportunities there than in poland

— his mom stayed in poland so his family was apart

— he started to understand the 'adult things' very early by being on his own a lot

— most of the time while playing he didnt have a coach because his family couldnt afford it

— he has been working with hubi for the last 5 years (started in december 2020-january 2021 as a hitting partner, in 2022 he stepped up to become a coach)

— in his first two-three years traveling with hubi he was also hitting with other players

— every practice session with him has a purpose, it's never just to 'hit balls'

— one day he randomly texted magdas linette coach on instagram offering to be a hitting partner, he assumed that they would never see the message but they did. in the end they practiced together for 3 days and later on they did 4 weeks of pre-season together as well, it was his first big experience from the top

— its in his nature to ask a lot of questions just so he can learn

— "what defines a great hitting partner?" he says there is a lot of differences between the wta and atp tour: "the girls i think they like a certain type of ball, they like it flat on the hip level... but with me i have a pretty strong grip on my forehand, so i tend to lob balls, but magda was super nice and forgiving and supportive. then her coach tells me to go flatter, im trying to go flatter but i keep hitting the net so you start to overthink. when normally all your life you feel the ball and you dont care, but here you're trying to be perfect, trying to make her practice the best as possible, the more you think the more you struggle after. but with magda it was easy because she's super supportive and she's just a nice person so in the end it was okay."

— "later when you got the opportunity to do the same (become a hitting partner) with hubert, was it a big difference to hit with him? in what ways?" he answers: "it was a big difference, of course, we know each other since we were very young and we are friends, but the different part about it was he asked me if i would like to join him for pre-season in florida with his coach at the time craig boynton. i was very excited but there was a different kind of pressure, i wasn't there to adapt and play a certain way for him, i had to stay with him and not miss, stay on the same ball speed, run and be very good and also at that moment i just wanted to do my best. he was having a good practice, i was having a good practice. they saw that i can provide a quality practice for them and also a good atmosphere, it was that pressure. with hubi it was a little bit more difficult because he plays so well. sometimes you can make a lot of mistakes because he puts pressure on you, and then its difficult to keep the quality of the practice and especially in the beginning with the nerves its not easy, so.... i remember we arrived to florida, i was jetlagged, it was so humid, my grip is twisting in my hand because im sweating, i had blisters but i didnt say anything, i didnt want to be that person making excuses and everything. hubi is an amazing person, hes supportive, also craig was great so with time it was easy to be comfortable with them because i knew that they have a big perspective and they saw im doing a good job. i think whats most important in a team like that is to have a good atmosphere and trust. they saw that in me and now here we are, 5 years later."

— "how much feedback did you give the players when you had a role as a hitting partner? did they ask you a lot of questions about the balls or did you give feedback?"

"i remember it was more like i talked with the coach, the coach would come on my side and ask me for the feedback. obviously at that point i was just a hitting partner, the players were not looking so much for the feedback from me because im just this young guy who is just playing kind of okay and my job is to hit balls and run. but their coaches were really open, and it was really nice for me when they asked me 'what do you feel, what do you think?' it was nice to feel some value."

— "what were your main takeaways from craig boynton during that time, in your learning process to become a coach?"

"i was very lucky because he helped so much with my experience, he worked before with jim courier and others. he was a great educator, he was able to send a message well, i remember everything. he tried to give a tip, he compared it to a real life situation. just by saying something like that it makes you remember. he knew his ways already about coaching. he tried to help me, he was telling me a lot of things about the tour, i spent a lot of time in his room talking about tennis. he was always telling me how he prepared the tactics for hubi, how his opponent is playing. he took me under his wing, he was the best university i could have with tennis. he didnt treat me just like a hitting partner, he really tried to help me. he saw that im young and that i really want to grow, so i will always be very helpful for his time."

— "is your coaching style similar to his today?"

"he gave me the basics for sure, he taught me so many things that i use them still because i think he gets it and understands how tennis works. he taught me how to talk to the player in certain situations because sometimes it can backfire on you if you say stuff in the wrong moment during the match when you see that that they're struggling, when they're emotional and in a bad spot. at that time you have to give less informations, basic messages so they can stay motivated because if you're gonna go with too much information then the mind of the player will explode. so he taught me about communication with players. but of course im still learning, im still gaining experience. im still in my early stages of coaching, but i had the best start i could dream of."

— "can it be difficult to develop your own coaching identity instead of just copying others all the time?"

"i never copied, but in some way you are shaped by people you spend time with from the early ages. im never gonna be the same as craig, im never gonna be the same as nicolas massu, i have different qualities myself, but with spending a lot of time with them also with ivan lendl im able to see different methods, im not going to copy somebody 1:1. they give me the knowledge and experience. im almost 30, i would say thats really young for a coach, but im able to apply my own ways and i think my character is different than theirs. because of knowing them and the experience they gave me im able to show my own way. im never gonna be as energetic as nico, im never gonna have the same american approach that craig has, i will have my own way."

— its important for practice sessions to be as realistic as matches

— hubi likes to analyze things so thats a key part of practice

— matt doesn't have a fixed contract with a set number of weeks he has to spend alongside hubi. he says he spends around 60% of the year with him, there is more weeks working than resting but he doesn't complain because he's passionate about it

— holidays are for his private life, for spending spending time with his fiancee and family

— he feels like he's living the dream now, being at tournaments he always dreamt of attending, but transitioning from being a hitting partner to a coach wasn't easy

— he says that sometimes he used to 'see the glass half empty'. "im at this big tournament but i would like to play it myself, why am i not the one playing? i learned that life is a journey and not everything goes as planned. as a young kid i thought i would be an amazing tennis player, but then life gave me different opportunities to make my dreams come true and now i look at things in a different way. im very grateful because not everyone has a chance to do what i do. i play tennis on my weeks off, some local tournaments or just practice for myself. im really happy with my life at the moment."

— "during the matches do you coach him a lot?"

"we give him simple messages, hubi is not a player that we will give a lot of details to because they would just make him think too much. some players wanna hear that, something specific, but its more about keeping hubi positive, reminding him what things he has to do. he figures out the way."

— he talks about united cup: "serving as team captain for poland was an amazing experience for me, last year was the first time and everything was new for me. managing 6 or 7 people in the team, and these people are very strong individuals because they are tennis players, the whole year they think only about themselves so everyone wants to play the matches and compete. i cant provide that for everyone, only a few people will play and i have to make the best decisions for the team. first year was a bit more stressful than this year. this year showed me so many new things, so many new situations for me and being able to manage that, to keep the team together even though some players were not happy with my decisions because for example they wanted to compete and play, but i had to choose a different player because i felt like this is the biggest chance we have. not everyone will always be happy, but this is a part of this job, you have to be a leader and keep everyone together and take care of them and make them understand that this decision is for the team and not against them. last year we made finals, this year we won. this year i had difficult situations with the team but i was able to manage them better because of my experience."

— "how do you keep a good atmosphere in the team despite the difficulties?"

"by setting up conversations in private. if you see a player is struggling, is upset with tears in the eyes... im a sensitive guy, its not like i dont care. its difficult for me. but by talking and communicating you're always able to resolve a problem and the player appreciates that you care, that you spent time with them. its a lot of pressure doing that but in the end it really paid off and im happy that we could win for poland. im happy that we could lift the trophy, once the week is done im so tired for the next 2 or 3 days because all the emotions go down."

— "what makes a player like iga so exceptional and good?"

"being up close for the last 2 years being team captain at united cup i was so impressed with the intensity shes able to bring on the court but also on the practice court. i had a chance to hit with her sometimes, the intensity she brings is amazing. the focus and intensity is exactly the same as in a match. i know its very difficult to do. sometimes the practice sessions are not long but the intensity and the quality of the practice is impressive. shes always locked in like shes about to play a grand slam final."

— "iga has a different character than hubi so this part is interesting for me, how to communicate, its key in tennis. if you dont communicate you dont have a chance to be a good coach."

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