Just Play

Just Play

By: Ryan Trickey & Andy Aitken

Language: en

Categories: Sports, Tennis

Just two tennis coaches talking all things tennis!

Episodes

Am I Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced? How do you Rate Yourself?
Oct 23, 2025

We discuss how people in general rate themselves, do you compare against other people at your club or pro's? Is it following fundamental things such as being able to rally and serve and who is correct?

Duration: 00:18:35
Enticing You to Become a Tennis Coach? We Breakdown the LTA's Promo Video and Our Thoughts on it
Oct 17, 2025

We sit down and discuss the LTA Coach Development's video trying to get more people into coaching, or are they upsetting people in other industries and portraying them in a bad light? We discuss it all!

Duration: 00:19:56
Talking about Club Committee's - What Roles are Important and Which Ones Would we Get Rid Of!
Sep 22, 2025

As we both work in club environments we thought it best on episode 20 to delve into committee's and how important are they, which roles you MUST have but also which ones could you do without?

Duration: 00:29:07
Representing Your Country - How Important is it in Tennis? We are Available and Ready to Play!
Sep 17, 2025

We discuss how important in this era to play for your country in the Davis Cup / Billie Jean Cup with players deciding to prioritise training blocks and competition over playing for your national team - or is there more to the story?!

Duration: 00:24:05
Quitting Never Wins & Winners Never Quit
Sep 12, 2025

A good debate on does competition keep players in sport or does it push them away? What involvement and responsibilities do the player, coach & parent have and is it possible to build resilience in players with it being okay to fail sometimes?

Duration: 00:36:23
Tennis Elbow - Is it really avoidable and How can you ACTUALLY prevent it
Sep 07, 2025

It's a niggly and painful injury we have all had once upon a time in our lives, but does 'Tennis Elbow' get a bad rep? Is it actually caused from tennis and is it avoidable from the start of your tennis journey? We discuss!

Duration: 00:17:06
US Open - How have the Brits done, The Mixed Doubles - Success of Failure? Our Predictions for the Singles!
Sep 02, 2025

The US Open has now hit Quarter Final stage in the singles so time to review it so far and give our predictions for the rest of the draw. We also discuss the controversial Mixed Doubles tournament that took place and did the winners send a message to the tournament on who should have entered? Plus we discuss how our Brits faired in the tournament.

Duration: 00:19:43
Private Lessons vs Group Coaching - What's better?
Aug 13, 2025

Is going for a 1 - 2 - 1 lesson better for you to improve or should you put yourself in a group environment? We explain the pro's and con's of each to help you make your own decision whilst also letting you know what we prefer teaching.

Duration: 00:24:57
Strings - How Important is the Science of It? Let us tell you!
Aug 08, 2025

We go into the world of stringing, how important is it to regularly change your strings or should you just let them break, does weather and court surface make a difference and what are we using? Let us unpack it!

Duration: 00:22:31
Equality - Prize Money, Formats, is it fair for Men's and Ladies, We Discuss!
Aug 03, 2025

We discuss the ongoing discussion that keeps coming up in the world of tennis in terms of equal pay. Is it fair that men's and ladies get paid the same but play a different format? Does it need to change? Is it the new norm? If we were put in charge would we try and change it and if so, how?

Duration: 00:35:07
Ever wondered where Tennis Game Scoring Originated from? We L'oeuf it!
Jul 29, 2025

A short pod for us for a change! We speak about how tennis scoring came about and some of the myth's of where it began and would we ever change it to something else?! Or is it perfect!

Duration: 00:12:40
Wimbledon Round Up - Better late than never!!
Jul 24, 2025

We speak about the two weeks at SW19 and the champions in each event, notable matches were obviously the men's and ladies singles, but who in terms of the Brits did well.

Duration: 00:19:45
Which is the best Grand Slam? From Court Surface, to Fan Experience, we digest it all!
Jul 05, 2025

In this episode we decide to take a look at all four Grand Slams and compare them, from the unique court surfaces that players play on, to a fans experience around the grounds and what we believe costs are like and how easy is it to access tickets?

Duration: 00:37:13
Ryan turns 40! Time to Interview him and find out a bit more about it!
Jul 03, 2025

Ryan turns 40! Where has that time gone?! Andy decides to interview Ryan unscripted, to find out more about his tennis in those first 40 years, what his best outfit was, best racket, and whether he thinks at 40 he could be his 20 year old self in a tennis match .. surely not!? Listen to find out!

Duration: 00:35:54
Wimbey Round Up - Round 1 Big Shocks!
Jul 02, 2025

We look back at Day 1 & 2 of the Wimbledon Championships which has produced 10 Brits making it through in singles to the 2nd round for the first time in Wimbledon history. However, lots of big shocks with big names going out, we review all the action so far.

Duration: 00:22:41
Talking the Finals of the French Open, and turning to the Grass - Who we think will win SW19 2025?
Jun 26, 2025

We review the ladies and men's finals at Roland Garros 2025 with big congrats to Gauff and Alcaraz. We begin to look at the grass court season, the first couple of weeks have been completed with Wimbledon on the horizon, who do we think are the strong favourites and are there any dark horses to look out for?!

Duration: 00:22:33
Masterful McIlroy - How did he deal with the pressure?! Would we do any better?!
Apr 30, 2025

More of a light hearted pod for Ryan & Andy on this one, they go discuss the recent victory of Rory McIlroy claiming the career slam and what had been the elusive green jacket to his already glistening collection of titles. We discuss how did he do it and our life pressure whether it be on the court, or generally just being competitive in everyday life.

Duration: 00:31:06
3 Years Old to National Champion! How we would do it! (Part 2)
Apr 28, 2025

We follow on from the previous pod and talk more about what we believe is required from 11 years onwards. What needs to be the focus for the player, but also factoring life also, family, friends, what sacrifices need to be made to become a National Champion and hopefully m make tennis your future job

Duration: 00:35:51
3 Years Old to National Champion! How we would do it! (Part 1)
Apr 21, 2025

We delve into how we would create a champion from the age of three years old to a National Champion. We talk in Part 1 the journey from coming to the club, the importance of player, coach, parent relationships and how much training, competing and nutrition are up to the age of 11 years old. Is quality better than quantity? What are the most important attributes that we look for.

Duration: 00:34:42
Has our coaching changed over the last 25 years? How we started and how we coach now!
Apr 12, 2025

In this podcast we discuss how our coaching journey began, what we were good at and not so good at, what we improved, and has the game evolved in 25 years since we first started?

Duration: 00:37:10
Attempting a Guinness World Record - Nutrition, Sleep deprivation, Who Won & Playing Dragons?!
Apr 10, 2025

Another episode with Ryan and Andy, going into detail when they attempted starting on Monday 8th August at 9am and finishing three days later on Thursday 11th August. Hear how they dealt with it all, how they came about the idea and who the eventual winner was whilst raising money for the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust

*Note - current record as of recording is 82 hours set in 2024

Duration: 00:34:35
The Beginning! Getting to know us
Apr 09, 2025

Episode 1 and the start of our podcast journey! Get to know Ryan & Andy's journey, from how they began in tennis with parents to how they became tennis coaches.

Duration: 00:23:59