Former World No. 2 Paula Badosa opens up to Caroline Garcia about the grueling reality of chronic injuries and the hidden struggles of the pro tour. Paula reveals the physical toll of playing matches on painkillers, the mental exhaustion of dealing with social media trolls, and the exclusive one-hour phone call with her idol, Rafael Nadal, that helped her navigate her darkest moments.

🌟 SPONSOR: IM8 Health A special thanks to IM8 Health for sponsoring this episode! IM8 Daily Essentials is our non-negotiable on tour—delivering 99 clinically dosed ingredients for gut, energy, and joint support to help with longevity and performance. 💪 Get 10% off your first order (code TIC auto-applies at checkout): https://im8health.com/discount/TIC

In this episode, we cover:

• (00:00) The reality of chronic injuries and the Miami incident
• (04:01) Changing her tennis identity to protect her body
• (09:00) Escaping the lonely, intense energy of the Tour
• (14:00) The toxic trap of linking self-worth to winning
• (19:00) "Let's try one more time": Playing through the pain
• (26:00) Fighting back against social media trolls
• (37:00) The one-hour phone call with Rafael Nadal
• (41:00) The biggest mistake young tennis players make
• (49:00) Why she is chasing inner peace over happiness

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Tom Hill never planned to be a tennis coach. He finished college, put his rackets in the wardrobe, and was planning law school. Then a chance encounter at a bar in Santa Monica led to a hitting session with Maria Sharapova. Then a call from Danielle Collins — ranked 250 in the world at the time. Eight months later she was Top 30. Then came Maria Sakkari. And six years, a Top 3 ranking and countless close-misses later, Tom is one of the most respected coaches on the WTA tour.

In this episode, Tom joins Caroline Garcia and Borja for an unfiltered look inside professional tennis coaching:

• How he accidentally became a tennis coach — via Sharapova, a bar in Santa Monica and a visa expiry
• Going from 0 coaching experience to taking Danielle Collins from 250 to Top 30 in 8 months
• The real story of coaching Maria Sakkari to World No.3 — and why they eventually parted ways
• How to handle a player who's losing their confidence — what you say, and what you never say
• The match point Maria had against Kvitova at Roland Garros — and how that one moment changed everything
• Why he never sets ranking goals — and what he focuses on instead
• The truth about travelling 45 weeks a year with a player and why he burned out
• How to coach two players at once — and why it only works if roles are crystal clear
• What coaches like Wim Fissette get right that most coaches get completely wrong
• Why winning junior Grand Slams means absolutely nothing for your professional career

Timestamps:

03:30 The bar in Santa Monica — the conversation that changed everything

04:30 Hitting with Maria Sharapova at IMG Academy

07:00 How Danielle Collins found him — and why that hour changed his life

10:30 Falling in love with coaching — helping players become their best

12:00 Taking Collins from 250 to Top 30 in 8 months — with zero coaching experience

13:30 "Me and you against the world" — starting out with no reputation

15:00 The Instagram post that led to Maria Sakkari

16:00 Working under Thomas Johansson — still messaging him once a week

18:00 Imposter syndrome as the youngest coach on tour

19:00 The hardest part of being a coach — 45 weeks a year on the road

20:30 Never setting ranking goals — why he focuses on the process

22:00 How Maria went from 30 to No.3 — four years of consistent improvement

29:30 "The best skill a coach can have is becoming what the player needs"

31:00 Why great coaches with one player often fail with the next

32:30 Can you be friends with your players?

34:00 The coach-player disagreement — what the coach sees vs what the player feels

37:00 How to handle a player after a devastating loss

40:30 How to plan a schedule — training weeks vs tournament weeks

43:00 More hours on court vs smart hours — what actually works

45:30 Why they stopped working together — and why coming back was an easy yes

47:30 Bringing in consultant coaches — threat or opportunity?

49:00 Two coaches at once: why roles must be crystal clear

50:00 Yannick Sinner's team — why Simone and Darren work so well together

51:30 The hitting partner debate — when do top players need one?

53:30 Why men rarely travel with hitting partners

54:30 Managing a big team — physio, fitness coach, psychologist and more

55:30 Every person in the team has their specialty

57:00 "If you're happy off the court, you play well on the court"

59:00 Parents as coaches — when it works, when it doesn't

1:00:00 Caroline opens up about her dad as her coach

1:01:00 Why coaches can't have emotions — the hardest part of the job

1:03:00 Would he ever coach on the ATP tour?

1:04:00 His advice for young players: build the right style, not the best results

1:06:00 Why winning junior Grand Slams means nothing for your pro career

💊 THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY IM8

IM8 Daily Essentials is the all-in-one supplement Caroline uses on tour — 99 clinically dosed ingredients covering gut health, energy, joint support and longevity in a single daily sachet. No stack needed.

🔗 Try IM8 and get 10% off your first order → im8health.com/discount/TIC (use code TIC at checkout)

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Gavin MacMillan spent years building athletes nobody expected to make it — boxers, hockey players, tennis pros. Then Aryna Sabalenka hired him, and the tennis world started paying attention.

In this episode, Gavin breaks down the serve transformation that took Sabalenka from 6 double faults in a single final to 6 double faults across an entire tournament. He explains why 99% of strength coaches in tennis are operating on the wrong principles — and why bigger, faster, stronger is the biggest lie in the sport.

He's now working with Coco Gauff. And he has thoughts.

🎾 WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE

→ Why conventional weight training is actively hurting tennis players

→ The Federer "toothpick" principle: how elasticity beats muscle

→ Sabalenka's serve rebuild — the real story, step by step

→ What Gavin is working on with Coco Gauff right now

→ Why you can't think your way through a serve under pressure

→ The coaching lie: "I played it, so I can teach it"

→ The broken ATP/WTA system — and why nobody's fixing it

→ Caro Garcia on what she'd change about her career if she started over

→ Why tennis is the single hardest sport in the world to succeed in professionally

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

⏱ CHAPTERS

01:00 Gavin's background — 7 sports, hockey, losing his mom at 15

02:00 Narcissistic tennis parents & the crystal ball problem

03:30 Why tennis is the hardest sport in the world to succeed in professionally

06:00 Tennis vs the fight business — the only comparable mental challenge

07:30 Inside boxing: weight cuts, Cotto vs Canelo, and the A-side

10:30 Why conventional weight training is destroying tennis players

12:00 Force vs power — the Soviet training science nobody in tennis is using

13:00 Federer's toothpick body vs Nadal — the real difference explained

15:00 The door analogy — why bigger muscles increase injury risk

18:00 Why there's almost no science in tennis coaching

20:00 Gavin's live analysis of Caro Garcia's game

22:00 Caro's shoulder injury & the 22,000 serves per year problem

25:00 The insane tennis calendar — no other professional sport does this

28:00 Instagram fitness coaches on tour & the science nobody uses

29:00 Technical flaws in the modern game — you cannot hide them anymore

32:00 Federer's on-the-run forehand & why Sampras would dominate today

35:00 The skills gap — why top players still can't execute the basics

37:00 Gavin joins Coco Gauff's team — his exact role

39:00 How long does it really take to change technique on a pro player?

42:00 Coco's serve numbers — the before and after

44:00 The Sabalenka serve transformation — the full story

47:00 The reps math — why "5-minute serve fixes" are for functional morons

48:00 What Freddie Roach taught Gavin about great coaching

51:00 One thing in the corner — simplicity under extreme pressure

56:00 The 70% first serve rule that made Sabalenka unbeatable

1:00:00 Advice to young players: what actually builds a career

1:01:00 The 85% rule — why going 100% loses Grand Slams

1:07:00 Women's tennis marketing — why the tour is failing its own players

1:11:00 Identity, mental health & living and dying with every point

1:18:00 The camera on Sabalenka after a loss — the tour's exploitation problem

1:22:00 Federer's parents — what Gavin learned meeting them at the Australian Open

1:24:00 Coco Gauff at 21 — changing her serve the week before the US Open

1:29:00 Caro: "I would have had a better team" — what she'd change about her career

1:31:00 Every athlete falls to their level of preparation — not one rises above it

1:34:00 George St-Pierre, stars aligning, and the luck factor in elite sport

1:37:00 The unlicensed conditioning industry — and why it's getting players hurt

1:40:00 Injury prevention: the right evaluation every player should have but doesn't

1:42:00 The serve biomechanics breakdown — why Rafter's motion damaged him and Federer's didn't

🎾 TENNIS INSIDER CLUB

The inside story of professional tennis — hosted by Caroline Garcia (former World No. 4, 2022 WTA Finals Champion)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.