Greetings everyone…
My name is Barry Buss, and I’d like to welcome you to my new program, First Ball To Last, an Emotional Health and Wellness Program for competitive tennis players.
Many of you are familiar with my story, which is chronicled in detail in my recent memoir, You Can Get There From Here.
For those who are not, here are the Cliff Notes
In the spring of 1983, as an 18-year-old freshman playing for the defending NCAA champion UCLA Bruins, I walked onto the court 22-0. I'd won my first 22 dual matches, tying Jimmy Connors' record for consecutive wins at UCLA. I was on the cusp of breaking every single-season record in UCLA’s storied history.
A year later, I quit the team, dropped out of school, gave back my scholarship, and lived in my van, drinking and drugging my life away, wondering what had happened to me.
Well, what happened had been happening all along. I was living the tennis life with several undiagnosed and untreated emotional conditions that I dangerously began to self-medicate at the age of 14. These conditions would plague me for much of my adult life until I finally got the help I needed.
But enough about me.
The inspiration for First Ball To Last came to me on a book tour I was on for said memoir. During a Q and A session, I was asked if there was anything that could have been done to help me back then as an aspiring tennis player battling teenage addiction and a variety of emotional problems. And my answer was no. What happened to me was 40 years ago. There were few, if any, programs or services available then for talented, troubled teens like myself.
Then she asked me, 'What about today? What if you were to show up today, talented yet troubled on and off the court with all the same problems you had 40 years ago? Are there easily accessible, adequate resources to keep young, promising lives like yours from spiraling out of control? Unable to answer her at the moment, her question vexed me. Upon returning home, I began to research the situation. And sadly, though things are better than they were (pretty low bar), my answer would still be no.
So, I've taken it upon myself to create the program I and many other emotionally struggling athletes would have benefited dramatically from during our playing days.
The problem we are here to solve. The competitive tennis journey is long and demanding, the environment stressful and ever-changing. Playing Tennis is hard enough in itself. To the competitive tennis player, our ability to navigate the challenging emotional environment of sustained competition and demanding daily training often determines our level of success, with those who struggle with the emotional demands burning out and dropping out at far higher rates than necessary, with much meaningful Tennis not getting played.
My FBTL program aims to put an end to this dynamic.
Product: FBTL is an emotional health and wellness program tailored for the tennis experience administered through a subscription service app and website. I've focused here on Tennis, for that's what I know best. However, the program's methodology can be easily adapted to other sports. I've spoken with peers in the golfing, baseball, and even Pickleball industries who would love to see a program like FBTL for their sport. So, keep that in mind as we advance. Our already vast audience is almost limitless.
The concept of FBTL is multi-fold. Primarily, the idea is to build the ideal player. I've identified numerous qualities that the best and healthiest among us embody and developed a system to educate players about these traits in the hopes that they will incorporate them into their lives. Traits like perspective, composure, work ethic, confidence, character, and dozens more... Qualities that are not just performance-enhancing but life-enhancing as well, so when we hit our Last Ball, we take what we've learned through Tennis and apply the lessons to life's next challenges, be they education, career, family and relationships. We may never play like Rafa or Serena, but we can conduct ourselves like them in all our affairs.
And being able to put this on an app is paramount. 90% of web business now is through apps. Of all the luck; when I was just figuring out websites. But it's never been easier to reach so many so easily: Download, double-click, Apple Pay, and we're on our way.
The APP itself
App development was the first hurdle.
I've designed and worked hard to develop a no-code app with simple functionality. We're not creating a video game, so I tried to get the look and flow down and was pretty successful. Most of the flow, content, and layout are done, which is the most challenging aspect of APP design.
However, this method is limited in its look, graphics, and functionality. If we hope to scale up, we will need a better product.
Pricing estimates are not outrageous. Quality video content and app design features cost around 40-50k. As stated, the most challenging part, designing the app, has already been done.
Presentation: Attention is currency. Though I am and will always be the brains and inspiration behind FBTL, if we want FBTL to be successful, I should not be the face of this project. It is imperative to create an eye-catching, attention-capturing presentation. I'm a 60-year-old guy on an iPhone doing a Zoom call with no media training. I have communicated with many talented, creative, influencer-media types with whom I look forward to collaborating on content creation and presentation. In these modern media times, how content is presented is just as important as the content itself.
My vision is for a slick studio set akin to the Tennis Channel with all the bells and whistles of attention-capturing presentation with a telegenic, articulate, media-savvy motivational speaker type who can deliver the content in a passionate yet playful tone. This material can run a little dry. A stylish, sharp, playful presentation will be necessary for success.
Timeline: I plan to present the material on this website in a Beta test format. I have commitments from an estimated 100 players, adults, and juniors (I'm aiming for more) to participate in the Beta test to determine what works best and what needs tinkering. I hope to streamline the material and move it to the app by summer.
A major push for a US Open rollout would be impressive but possibly too ambitious.
A more realistic rollout plan would be an intense end-of-25 membership/marketing blitz, hitting the ground running on the first day of 2026 with a strong first-quarter push, with all the energy of Christmas, a new year, and the beginning of the new season with the excitement around the Australian, Indian Wells and Miami events.
A well-orchestrated rollout... A high-profile player to be the face in commercials, a TC ad blitz, tennis influencer types to push it out over all social media, and tour players past and present doing cameos within the content, we would make a big splash in an industry dying for innovative content. We'll have a few years’ head start on any possible competition. If we go hard early, we can discourage imitators from entering the field, thinking they could do better.
Market Analysis: Nothing like this exists anywhere on the market today. There are no direct competitors in this space, and no apps currently exist that bring the entire tennis experience directly to a player's smartphone via a subscription app. The potential here is enormous and immediate.
Unique Value Proposition: Direly needed; nothing in the marketplace even comes close. The tennis journey is unique, stressful, demanding, daily, and long. One might even say it's the sport for a lifetime—the title of my next book. A handy, informative program like this is well overdue. The ability to have clean, valuable information at one's fingertips to be applied at a moment’s notice.
Parents and players alike will go to great lengths to improve their games. This will be a tremendous, affordable product presented sharply to a hungry, starving customer base who will try anything if they believe they’ll improve.
I love the tagline: FBTL, a year’s subscription, all for the cost of a private lesson..
Marketing
This is the whole ballgame. We will have a unique, effective product. How do we get it to the tennis masses? Having been in tennis journalism for some time, I know the tennis community is vast yet dispersed. Trying to reach them all at once is like herding cats.
I have several marketing plans in place:
Grass Roots: Leveraging my vast connections within the professional tennis world, the ITA/NCAA world, the Tennis Academy world, Social Media tennis accounts where my name/brand is well-established, monthly UTR-themed events held within Greater Nashville area and beyond (fascinating development, UTR has 800,000 active ranked players) a book of Collected essays that I will promote and book-tour behind, all the coaching conventions where I can showcase our product. (I have much experience in this space.) Patient yet methodical marketing and outreach through all social media.
Grander Vision: Have a world-class player become the face of the app. Imagine a series of TV/Web ads with a CoCo, Alcarez-level player or personalities like a John McEnroe or Nick Kyrgios airing on TC or ESPN during high-volume periods (Us Open, etc.). A hit ad with a CoCo-level player using the app while playing would be a blockbuster. I have advertising ideas galore for this space. A well-conceived advertising campaign would be quite the splash.
Additionally, I've had conversations with the USTA and UTR about my program; they know who I am and what I'm doing. If we build a great product and continue to add more endorsements along the likes of Dick Gould, Patrick McEnroe, Kelly Jones, and others solidly in our corner, partnering with the USTA and UTR and their vast membership bases could be Game Set Match for FBTL.
Market
If you haven't noticed, Tennis is hot again, with the USTA announcing just recently that tennis participation numbers reached a new high at 25.7 million players, the 5th consecutive year of annual growth, with much of that growth (45%) in players under 21 years of age
As a tennis coach for nearly 40 years now, one consistent takeaway from my profession is that parents, especially tennis parents, will go to great lengths to support their kids' athletic dreams. USTA has announced a goal of 35 million players by 2035, investing vast resources to continue building the game. That tells me Tennis is healthy and expanding, providing FBTL with an expanding pipeline of future clients.
According to the most recent UTR numbers, over 800,000 players with UTR rankings compete in UTR events worldwide. A partnership with them would be enormously beneficial and profitable. And this is important. I have an agreement with UTR to do FBTL-themed events. The market potential for this is off the charts.
The USTA League numbers are estimated at 600,000 adults competing annually in the USTA League system. Again, a vast untapped market of competitive tennis players would benefit immensely from FBTL.
In addition to the USTA, there are 154 tennis federations worldwide. A successful, smooth-functioning program would undoubtedly attract the heads of these Federations.
In summary, from all my years in the industry, I've seen all the significant movements in Tennis: popularity, professionalism, equipment, coaching, training, facilities...
The next great movement in the tennis industry will be its competitors' emotional health and wellness.
Our positioning for this next significant surge could not be better if we strike now.
What I would have given then for a program like this during my playing days...
I want to direct you to the How It Works video to understand FBTL and how it works fully.
I can be reached by phone or email
BarryBuss@me.com or 310-776-0180
Let’s schedule a call and talk if any of this intrigues you.
Thanks for your time!!