We’ve been away from our mics for a bit, but we’re coming back strong in 2025—in more ways than one!

Tune in to hear what we’ve been up to and get ready for episodes you’ll love. We’ll be diving into topics like Neurotic Tennis Players, NTRP grievances, Wheelchair Tennis, and so much more!

A Complete Transcript of Our Conversation

Carolyn: 0:05

Hi, this is Carolyn and I’m here with Erin and is getting ready to be 2025. Erin, can you believe that? Crazy, it’s crazy. Okay, so what’s been going on in your life, Erin, for the past year?Erin: 0:17

Right, I know I’m really excited to record today. I’m like kind of giddy about it because it’s actually been a little while it has. We’ve done a lot of reruns lately, but I’ve told a lot of people this the nice thing about our show is we have so many episodes to over 200 and what are we at? 230 plus? Yeah, we’re almost at 250.Erin: 0:38

Yeah, so, oh, 250, even better, yes. So when we run a rerun, the chances of someone actually hearing it before is, you know, like slim. So people are still getting to them new content because we’ve done such hard work in the past and done so many episodes that we have not had a chance to record in a long time. But we’ve been running a lot of reruns that are still super popular and we’re still sitting in the top 10 every week.Carolyn: 1:03

I know which we appreciate. Thank you to everyone that listens to the podcast. We greatly appreciate it. Yes, Okay.Erin: 1:09

So what’s been going on in my life? So Carolyn knows this, but I’ll tell the listeners so I lived in the same house for 22 plus years and we decided we’re empty nesters now. So we decided to make a change this year and decided to do lots and lots of hard work that nobody wants to do, get their house ready for the market. I talked about it for like a year plus and the right house to buy just came up magically in our lap and so we rushed and, in the process of getting our second child off to college and moving her, like out of state for college, we also decided to work on our house and list our house and buy a house and move into a new house and all those things, and it was insanity for the last few months. But I am on the end of that and now I’m sitting in my new house recording with Carolyn.Carolyn: 2:01

Yes, and she and her daughter plays volleyball in Connecticut too.Erin: 2:05

Yeah, she could care less about tennis, although she does tell people about our podcast, which I very much appreciate, but yeah, she does not. To her, there is no other sport that’s important enough to talk about or watch or anything other than volleyball. But yeah, so she’s playing volleyball in college. She’s very happy.Carolyn: 2:26

Yeah, well, maybe she’ll play it as an adult. Yeah, she’ll play it as an adult. Exactly, she’ll be ready, she will yeah, because she’s athletic enough.Erin: 2:31

She’ll pick up tennis later I’ll make her. But yeah, and both my kids actually love our new house. They were both very sad to say goodbye to our old one, but they’re very happy here. So, and it’s super close to my tennis club, which is a huge bonus.Carolyn: 2:46

Yes, yes, and Aaron and I are no longer at the same tennis club either. So we may end up playing each other, which is really sad, oh gosh.Erin: 2:53

I didn’t even think about that. That’s terrible. If we do, will you text me if you’re in the lineup ahead of time?Carolyn: 2:58

I don’t care what our captain playing. We can’t play each other. Yeah, for sure.Erin: 3:06

So how about you tell us I know you’ve been traveling a ton what else is going on?Carolyn: 3:11

Yeah, lots of stuff with the kids right now, but, to be completely honest, I went through it was a crazy time with a health issue. It was stage three cancer, but I’m no evidence of disease now. So it’s just been a really crazy difficult period of time. But I’m so glad that we’ve been able to do this podcast together. Erin, I’m so glad about the people that I met through tennis. That helped me throughout this entire process, and it’s been I guess it was over two years since I’ve played tennis for fun, and so I went out for the first time and played a little while ago tennis for fun, you know, just with a group of people, and I lost the first set 0-6. So I’m rated a 4-0. But this is with people a level below me. I mean, they’re very, very good but, a level below, they’re 3-5s.Carolyn: 4:02

And then, like you know how you switch when you’re playing for fun, you switch partners every time. Well, every time my team would lose.Erin: 4:09

Yes, so you were the constant losing factor.Carolyn: 4:11

Yes, I felt like that Taylor Swift song hi, it’s me. I’m the problem, you know, like when you know it’s you, but I had a ball and I had so much fun being out there, Very grateful to be able to play. So it’s going to be an interesting time for me, coming back to USTA at the 4-0 level, which I don’t think I should be, and I even pressed the appeal button to try to appeal down by the computer and it was denied. So I may try a medical appeal If anybody listening has been through that process and it’s actually worked and they were able to do it. But my understanding. I remember I sat through a meeting and I was just listening and it was very rare for medical appeals to get approved. I could be completely wrong, but I thought that’s what I remember hearing.Erin: 4:54

I’ve heard that too, and that’s actually a good segue into what we’re going to tell our listeners, which are some topics that we want to talk about in 2025. One of them being urban legends, because we always hear something about tennis and then we just like think that’s what the rule is, but I have heard the exact same thing, so we’re gonna have to get someone on that actually knows the answer. But I know a tennis player, a male, who had like multiple knee surgeries and he like wrote in letters trying to get a medical appeal and they denied him.Carolyn: 5:27

They denied him too, right, but yeah.Erin: 5:30

I also had a girlfriend I told recently that you tried to appeal and she was like I think if you have cancer and you’re coming back to 10s, you should be able to pick whatever rating you want. I know right. I was like, okay, I’ll let USTA know that.Carolyn: 5:43

Yeah, but some people do play through it.Erin: 5:45

So I think every situation is different, so I understand that.Carolyn: 5:48

But yeah, we’ll see how that goes. I definitely need to have a different mentality going in, because a part of me is like I’m just going to play four singles and see what happens.Erin: 5:57

I’m going to play a lot of singles this year too, so we really better not play each other.Carolyn: 6:01

Yeah, okay, we’ll make sure of that. Don’t tell our captains, we’ll make sure of that, okay. But we’re excited about 2025. Both of us, we’re really excited about all the people we get to interview, because we have been putting people off a little bit because we’ve just not been available, especially me. I haven’t been available to record, so now we have the availability. So, erin, do you want to talk about some of the things we’re going to interview?Erin: 6:23

We’ve got a lot yes, we have a long running list and if anyone anyone wants to email us and give us more topics, we’ll just continue to add it to our Google Doc and we may or may not ever get to talk about it, but we do love hearing from people and what they find interesting.Carolyn: 6:38

But yes, please do email us, because that’s where we find a lot of our topics and we’re constantly I mean, we read all the emails, even if we haven’t been able to get back to everybody yet, we are going to do it. I think we have. Oh, we have Okay good job. If we haven’t email us again. It’s been a hard year. It has. Yeah, give us some grace. We’re giving ourselves grace, though. That’s right.Erin: 6:59

Okay, some of the topics like we talked about we would love to do this Urban Legends, because there are so many things that you hear in tennis and USTA League that people just take like they hear it and then that’s it. Like they just feel like that happens with rules, but it also happens with things like we talked about medical appeals. Remember we interviewed someone a while back that, um, I had heard that in the northeast that you had to play straight up like oh yeah, but. But then we were like but how do you know if you’re all four o’s, how do you know how to play straight up unless everybody knows? They’re like broken down rating. Like if I’m a, so I’m also. You know Carol and I are both 4.0. So if we’re like a 3.625 or you know whatever, like nobody knows their dynamic rating.Carolyn: 7:46

I guess yeah, like how do you know if someone’s better than the other person, if they’re the same, if they’re both three fives, how do you know which three five is better? And that?Erin: 7:53

depends on, like, who your partner is and how you feel that day. I mean, there’s too many factors. So I don’t even know if that’s an urban. I mean, I know that’s an urban legend. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but anyway. So yeah, urban legends. We’ve been talking to someone for a while out of Wyoming that we want to find out about. You know, we’re really interested in like different tennis around the country. When I talked to this woman, peg, about Wyoming tennis, she was saying how different it is because there’s like really super wealthy areas and then you know, like parks and recs and stuff like that. So I don’t know, I just find different tennis around the country Very interesting. But I also have figured out that we’ve talked to enough people where they’re like oh, we have all the same problems.Carolyn: 8:36

Yes, we talked to people in Michigan, florida and that, even though you know we’re in all these different places, the same things, the same things out on the court.Erin: 8:45

Exactly exactly. Another one is I met, actually at the US Open this year. I met a woman who now owns the rights to what is called Impact Team Tennis, which is formerly known as World Team Tennis. So you and I have been interested in World Team Tennis for a while, just like the different rules and how you can sub people in, how you don’t use like the traditional scoring system.Erin: 9:11

Points one, two three, two, three, four, you know stuff like that. So we’re going to interview people that have a wheelchair tennis non-profit. Uh, so wheelchair tennis in north carolina, uh, what else? Oh, neurotic tennis players. That’s one we’ve been wanting to do for a long time and that has to do with, like, what line people play, who they, you know. Like one of the big things is, as captains, confirming matches with people and then, like, then they reconfirm and then they’re like, where am I playing and who am I playing? Like just the neurotic.Carolyn: 9:49

Yeah, Like the kind of.Erin: 9:50

I don’t, I don’t want to say busybody, but just like the people that are just like kind of can’t keep everything straight and they’re just or they’re like super neurotic about whatever, Like I said, their partners where they’re playing, what team they’re playing against, what line they’re playing.Carolyn: 10:06

Even the things they do on the court. You know, like they’re bouncing the ball 25 times. There’s just we’re just all a little crazy. So I think that’s good. I’m really looking forward to interviewing her about it, because I think that’s a really good topic. I do too.Erin: 10:19

Can you think of some other ones? We talked about 3.5 to 4.5 or 3.5 to 5.0.Carolyn: 10:24

There’s a player that went from level 3.5 to 5.0. So I can. I’ve never heard of that before.Erin: 10:31

Have you heard? Not in one jump, just so our listeners know she went from 3.5 to 4.0 to 4.5 to 5.0, literally in those. So I guess I mean it wasn’t four years, I guess she was a self-rate 3.5. So we’ll not count that year. So in three years she went from a 4.0, 4.5 to 5.0.Carolyn: 10:52

Yeah, I’ve never heard of anyone making that jump from 4.5 to 5.0, because that’s people that played in college. I mean to do that as an adult recreational player. I can’t wait to interview her about that. I mean, if anyone listening has gone from 2.5 to 5.0, please contact us because I would love to hear that.Erin: 11:12

Yeah, and I think if someone went from a 2. To a five, oh, just taking lessons and practicing, then that’s like a one-off ever.Carolyn: 11:23

Right, yeah, I’ve just never heard of it. I’ve never heard of that.Erin: 11:26

But if you’ve gone from, I think, in this. Um, in our friend’s case I think, from three, five to five.0, that is a huge jump. But she was also a college athlete. She wasn’t a college tennis player, but she was a really, you know, really good college athlete. So it makes a little bit of sense.Erin: 11:44

But that jump from 4.5 to 5.0, I feel like, is the, that’s the doozy, that’s like we don’t know anybody that goes from 4.5 to well I know a few people four or five to five-oh, but that’s so rare in adult rec tennis.Carolyn: 11:57

Yeah, you’re playing people that played all growing up and yeah, I can’t wait. I mean that would be my she’s a phenom. Yeah, she’s just a phenom. Yeah, I mean my goal would be. I don’t know what my goal would be now. Your goal is to be happy at four-oh. My goal is to be happy at 4-0. My goal is to be happy at whatever level I’m at.Erin: 12:15

That’s right. Actually, we should talk about goals. My goal in 2025 is I think I’m going to play a lot more singles again, which I didn’t in the last few years and listen, I’m aging. So for me to say, my goal is to play singles at the 4-0 level and like, I’m obviously going to try to win all my matches, you know, but I’m going to try to win all my matches, you know, but I’m going to try to be a lot more consistent this year, I’m actually going to quote take some lessons from my new, my five-oh friend.Carolyn: 12:40

Right, let’s hear what she has to say. How do you do it?Erin: 12:43

Cause she made it. I mean, I don’t, and my goal is not to actually even make it to four, five or five-oh, cause it’s just not going to happen. But my goal is to play more consistent and she’s a very consistent player, so I’m going to try to sneak in some lessons with her and my goal is going to be play singles a lot more in the spring and win at singles by being consistent, because right now I just hit the ball really hard and I usually just lose matches on my own. My opponents don’t necessarily have to win.Carolyn: 13:11

But you hit some good shots too.Erin: 13:12

It feels so good when you hit a good shot.Carolyn: 13:14

It doesn’t it? It feels so good. My goal, I think this year especially because I haven’t played in two years USTA matches is to just not mentally lose it out on the court and to be like, okay, you know, I mean the worst I can lose is 0-6-0-6. I mean it doesn’t get worse than that. So my goal is just to stay strong and stay in a positive mindset about it.Erin: 13:38

That’s a good yeah, that’s a really good goal. We’ll see if that happens, but I know I can’t wait to talk to you throughout the season to see if, like are you just hanging on by a string? You’re like. I know I’m supposed to be positive.Carolyn: 13:49

But it’s not working. I haven’t learned anything from this podcast.Erin: 13:52

Because, again, though I think you’re, you have that mentality because you grew up playing competitive sports at a high level. Like you could have gone to college and played basketball.Carolyn: 14:03

But I think too, you know, we’ve talked to a lot of people where they said their level’s going down. So they were at a 4.5, and now they’re a 4.0 or 3.5. And they still find joy, even though their rating’s going in a different level. So that’s my goal.Carolyn: 14:18

So that’s what you’re going to try to remember Well, to find joy, no matter what Right. That’s what we’re and we learned a lot. I remember we talked to Eric last year and he won the four or five national championship and I remember him saying that tennis is very humbling, it’s a very humbling experience and that you know you get out there and it really tests you. So it will be a big test, I think, this year for me to see how that goes. And you know what I realized too after I played for the first time in forever my entire body was sore. I couldn’t even walk down the stairs and that just shows you all the muscles you’re using from playing tennis. So I need to think of it more that way. But it’s hard. That stuff’s hard, I know, I know, but I’m excited for you.Erin: 15:00

Yeah, I know, I know, but. I’m excited for you.Carolyn: 15:04

Yeah, I’m excited too. I’m excited for this year and I mean, I feel like the luckiest person ever, exactly, I’m very, very excited. Okay, who else, erin? Who else are we going to interview? Anything else?Erin: 15:14

Let’s see, we have so many, there’s so many things on our list. Oh, how about this one? We had a woman who, at 66 years old, she emailed us and said that they she’s on a team, that they have mandatory uniforms and mandatory lunches. We’re very interested. Actually, I will say too, this is not an urban legend, this is a heard it from my best friend, directly from her. My best friend plays out of Colorado, in the Denver area, and they also have through USDA, have mandatory I’m assuming the daytime player. She’s a nighttime player. I’m assuming the daytime players have a mandatory lunch thing as well, but as a night player, she also had a mandatory like social dinner and she’s very successful business wise and she was like I do not have time. She’s like I want to socialize with my team, I don’t have time to socialize with the other team. So she stopped doing it, but it is a mandatory USTA thing. So I’m wondering at what point she’s going to get in trouble or she’ll, you know, be the black sheep or whatever.Carolyn: 16:15

Oh, wow. So this is like a local. They say if, what do they say If you’re the home team, you’re in charge of bringing food.Erin: 16:26

Okay, you’re in charge of bringing food. Okay, food, food and drinks, yeah, and she’s like, nope, not happening. But I’m sure other people have too. But it’s no, she was like it is very much like, do they require it for the men too?Carolyn: 16:33

I would assume. So I would assume that it’s the same. That’s a good question. Yeah, to make it more social, do you think is the okay?Erin: 16:40

that’s interesting, fun, but fun with your own teammates, like we had my friend canana on right from New Jersey and that was a thing too in New Jersey, but she was like it was so awkward.Carolyn: 16:52

Because they’d cuss each other out on the court and then they’d be like do you want your chicken salad? How would you like your chicken salad?Erin: 16:58

Do you want it on a bun or a croissant?Carolyn: 17:08

Please let us know your tennis goals for 2025 or any other topic ideas you have. Also, we would like to interview roger federer, so if anyone listening knows him, please let us know. Thanks so much for listening and hope to see you on the court soon.