Colin Byer '24 Recruiting Profile

Hi, I’m Colin, if you don’t feel like reading all of this, In short, I have the shots that high level players have, I can hit big serves and spins of 8 utr or higher, however at the moment I lack consistency which makes me like a 5. I believe That I also lack some footwork. But the point is That I have potential. i lose to people that aren’t that good because they just hit the ball in a lot, but they don’t have the shots, and that’s the difference, they might beat me now, but once my bigger shots become consistent they should have no chance. im planning on taking a gap year and I really want to play D1 tennis and I’m very very committed. I play every day for hours and hours. I’ve recently hired an online coach to give me a training plan and have cut unhealthy foods, committed to 1000 jump ropes a day, and other things.

quick note about my matchplay: i have a big flat serve, however with a custom training plan im working on, I’m focusing on first being Able to execute wide slice and wide kick in my matches. however I have hit 108 flat on radar before. I don’t really hit super hard flat ones in these matches though. 

I want to make a quick note that my utr is not really accurate, because I don’t have enough matches in against higher level players. i look at utr 7s look at their matches they get to play 7s 6s and 8s a lot. look at my games i have played like 2 5s and the rest 3s and 4s. (Update I got to play an 8 and a 12, utr hasnt moved Even though I got 5 games against an 8.) (also playing a 12 is simply too high, so I got crushed) Once i play higher people i guarantee my utr will go up because I’ve played very competeively with people of 7 and 8 utr. my two matches from photos  is my most recent footage of me playing against an 8utr college player And an 12 utr college player. i got 5 games on the 8. I lost 0 and 0 to 2 utr but had a few chances to win a game.

 I’ve gotten better with consistency, but it still lacks a bunch. I’m gonna keep working and building that solidity. but seriously, i do not know a player anywhere i have seen that has a one hand backhand with heavier topspin than me. It’s heavier than my forehand which Is weird.

i would say a difference between me and others is first of all I don’t have a family that all played tennis and got me into it. I also was not really fit when I was younger. I actually was kind of chubby And I played video games. But once I was exposed to competition of tennis I absolutely fell in love with it, and since then I have become a way better athlete than I ever thought I would. I have videos of when I started playing tennis, and I was so bad. and what happened is I got into this 3 hour summer camp when I was a bit younger and it was a lot for me. I used to think it was crazy that I would do 3 hours every day. (3 hours is nothing to me now) I played in this group with 2 girls younger and smaller than me and they would beat the crap out of me with tennis. And I can’t explain it but that urge to become better was the biggest urge in my Life. I came from nothing and I work nonstop to become as good as I can at the sport. I’ve had coaches that told me when I was younger I would never amount to anything, but even a few weeks ago I saw this same coach and he was shocked when he saw me hitting serves. ive Never been more passionate about anything in my life than tennis. Not even close. I remember I would be crushed over and over and lose and be stuck and hate it so much, I’d go home and and be pretty Sad feeling so weak, but I would wake up the next day at 6 am and do it all over again. I would fight, and not give up.

currently I play at 6 am for 1.5 hours before school Monday, Wednesda, Friday at the manlius ymca, where i am also a tennis instructor there. I play at eleavte fitness for their two hour sessions on tuesdays and Thursdays. the difference with me, is that I stay longer. The coach there is nice and lets people stay longer without charge if the courts are not booked, these are all indoor. I will stay for 4 hours if they aren’t booked. One of the coaches told me I was the only one that actually stays hours longer and practices shots. I wasnt even quite aware of how much I play until he said “who else stays here for 2 hours after group and hits forehands on their own for 2 hours?”. half of the time I don’t even play with someone else. Lots of people believe you need a good hitting partner to improve a ton. But I believe when you’re learning fundamentals of shots, the best work you can get Is alone. And that’s why I have good shots technically that look like higher level players. I record my technique and analyzing it and ask coaches about it all of the time. I watch every sort of YouTube instruction online and have subscribed to some courses. That’s why I also feel I’m a decent coach for tennis, because I understand the correct methods to developing good technique. For the last 3 years I’ve done a 5 hour camp 4 days a week in the summee at this same club and I have stayed an hour, 2 hours, 3 hours after the session to practice. I’ve had a few days where Im not joking, I played 9 hours in a day. And the thing is, when I’m not playing, half of the time I’m on YouTube watching videos made by some of the best coaches from all around the world. And learning and doing shadow swings in my house.
another interesting thing about me, is that I have my racquet in my hand at all times, it’s scary because it’s like my phone, I just need to have it. and I actually have my racquet right next to me now as I am on the couch writing this.
another thing is that I understand tennis has a lot to do with technique and not just hitting for hours, and that’s why a lot of my time spent has been on my own analyzing my technique and learning from amazing online Coaches such as Jeff Salzenstein, Ian Westermann, Simon konov, and literally probably atleast 50 others I could name. Any youtube video about tennis technique I’ve probably seen it. When I coach people now, I sometimes feel like I could just go on and on for hours and hours about tennis. From mental training, to forehands, to talking about why some players plateau And some dont.  

my Character revolves around the same way I am with tennis. when I’m learning a unit in math, I will do everything I can to figure it out and understand it. I won’t just memorize it and spit it on the test. I enjoy learning every part of it. and my mind likes to understand every part of a subject same way with understanding tennis. When I am interested in something I put everything I got into it, no half assing stuff. I also value other people, at my club sometimes no one will pick up the balls after playing, I will be there with a basket going behind the curtains to make sure every ball is picked up because I think about the coaches and how they will have to pick that up if I don’t. I’m a hard worker and will put extra hours into figuring things out. thank you if you’ve read this far.

I’d also like to note I did Not start when I was 5 years old, I was seriously into tennis at 12 years old, so i am years behind, but have a caught up a decent amount.

I am also currently changing my forehand to add more of a racquet flip to make it into a real modern forehand. The one In my (older) video is sort of modern without a flip, but I’m working on adding it. My forehand is actually my weakest shot, the high ball put away I actually can execute really well on my one hand backhand which is usually a way harder shot to make, I believe my backhand is basically good for technique and I just need to improve my forehand and make some tweaks to get more on my serve. But my strongest game has alwyas been serves, volleys, slices, then my backhand.

as You can see I posted “more ball machine” I’ve already added more of a racquet lag to my forehand, I simply need To get more matches to become higher rated. Update: I’ve posted my match against an 8 Utr and another forehand session to see the improvement. 

i recently found a fix in my kick serve, that has almost doubled The spin and makes it really spin to the right wide. i get it a little bit in the match against the 8 utr. however I discovered the change about a week before I played him. this kick gave a 12 utr d1 college player trouble. im putting this match in, you’ll see, i had chances and had times where I was able to hit great shots and return his shots, but I screw up a lot of shots that I should make. When i hit the kick wide, he couldnt return it. howvwr I got crushed because I only really made this serve like 3 times in the match. again I developed the new Kick about a week before this match.  But I’m the end, just like the rest of my game, i have to groove it and make is really consistent now. i believe i have huge potential, Ive got the shots, i need to learn how to translate that into winning the points and executing well consistently.

one more update: i have a HUGE kick serve Now that I haven’t been able to execute In Matches Well, except at the very end of the highlights video. I’m going to link at some point some huge kick in practice