By Liza Horan, Editor

Woody is executive director of the 32-court Midland Community Tennis Center in Midland, Mich., which hosts a women's pro event and 20 other tournaments. He's certified by the USPTA and PTR, and works as a USTA Recreational Coach Trainer and member of the elite travel team of the National Cardio Tennis Speakers Team and Fast Track Your Business with Technology presenter for the Tennis Industry Association. Woody has won numerous awards for his grassroots work and for his facility. I caught up with him at PTR Symposium in Hilton Head, S.C., in February.

Two years after your started playing tennis you were competing nationally in the 18s. How did your junior competition experience lead to tennis becoming your profession?


My plan was to become a nurse, but when it was time to go to college, my mother was recently divorced. There was no money. It was either flipping burgers or work on my tennis. Tennis was my ticket through college. So I went to nursing school and was teaching tennis on the side, 30 hours a week. I got 1 ½ years into it and realized there was a career path and that I could make a good living as a head pro. I always gravitated toward things that kept me passionate and that I could have ownership in. Tennis offered that, so I said: "Okay, I'll try to be the top at what I can be."

Is it true you lost 50 pounds through Cardio Tennis?


Yeah, I lost that. You know, you get focused on your job and you slowly put on weight. In college I was 183 and went up to 235. I'd play a tournament and I'd hurt for a week. I said, "I'm tired of looking at this guy in the mirror," seeing things jiggle. I don't like things to jiggle. In the back of my mind I knew I had to go the gym. I don't like the gym. I joked about the gym!

And I always remembered what Jack Groppel and the sports science experts say: "You need to get in shape to play tennis, not play tennis to get in shape," even though it was more in the context of pro athletes. I was at the USPTA conference in 2005 and my friend Jorge Capestany was giving the Cardio Tennis class and invited me along to try. I strapped on a heart-rate monitor and tried Cardio Tennis—for myself.

After the class I looked at my watch and saw I had just burned 1,000 calories. I said, 'Wow!'

I also changed my eating; I don't call it a diet, I call it a Food Reduction Plan. I lost 30 pounds and (then-TIA President and Cardio Tennis evangelist) Jim Baugh said, "Hey, wouldn't 50 be good?"

That would be my college weight. I did it, but I looked a little too skinny. We wife didn't like it; she said I looked like a runner.

And now you travel around the world teaching pros about Cardio Tennis?
I saw what it did to me and what a positive effect it had. I did it for me—it wasn't supposed to be for the whole community, but I became a poster-child for Cardio Tennis. You kind of fall into it. It motivates people and gives them encouragement. That's what pumps you up as a tennis pro.

I love getting people excited about the fitness of tennis. When you use tennis for fitness it helps the other parts of your game. It's fun. It's a labor of love.

Still doing it?


Yes, I burned 500 calories just teaching the class this morning. I can tell you how many calories I've burned since I started; I have it stored on my heart monitor watch. [Digs watch out of bag.] I have burned 767,959 calories from Cardio Tennis since October 2005.

A few years ago, you told me that you had taught tennis at a prison, the Saginaw Correctional Facility in Michigan. Are you still doing that?
I did that in 2006 and now the group is asking about it. They want to do it. They get pumped up about tennis. It gets old lifting weights, and they want some stress release.

The first time I was going through security on my way in, I thought, "Do I really want to do this?"

But the idea of these guys being criminals went out of my mind. They were just guys playing tennis. My whole impression changed. We're probably both surprised. I forgot I was in a prison.

It started as Cardio Tennis, and eight to 10 guys came out. The first time a couple of guys were smoking in between runs. I left the racquets there, taught them some skills to share with others and said 'pass it on to your groups.'

They really appreciated the time spent, I think. They were the most attentive guys I've taught because they were getting attention. Their wants and needs aren't the same. They want to extract information from you so they can beat each other. It's a much healthier way to express that than the reasons they're in there.

It's the emotion of the heart that tennis does. It's like, "Whoa, this is great!"

It's a pretty fulfilling thing to do.

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