A New Wave of Online Coaching with Jeff Dawson

Summary

Jeff Dawson — former Yale tennis captain (captain of the Bulldogs with his brother), futures player, and co-founder of the online coaching platform Rhabit — joins Lisa Stone to discuss how he and his two brothers built a subscription-based video instruction platform that democratizes access to elite tennis coaching. The conversation covers the origin story (living in a trailer for a year, traveling the country to film coaches at the challenger level), the platform’s model (four areas: direct-to-consumer $100/year, B2B club/organization pricing, philanthropic subscriptions for underserved communities, and high schools), the coaching roster (90+ coaches including Grand Slam winners, Olympians, tour players, and top college coaches like Greg Patton, Billy Martin at UCLA, Debbie Graham Shaper from Stanford), and the “Rhabit” philosophy — “repeated habit” leading to flow states like Michael Jordan and Roger Federer described.

Guest Background

Jeff Dawson is the oldest of three brothers who all played college tennis and co-founded Rhabit (spelled R-H-A-B-I-T). He grew up in Northern Illinois playing through the Midwest section, attended national tournaments at Kalamazoo and Fort Lauderdale, and was coached by Jack Sharp — a well-known technical foundation coach. He chose Yale over Big Ten schools (Northwestern, Michigan, University of Illinois) because of his connection to coach Alex Strata and the team culture. He captained the Yale team with his middle brother. After graduating, he played some futures/satellite tour tennis before co-founding Rhabit with his brothers. His father, who played college basketball and some professional basketball, modeled athlete-parent behavior — heavily involved at a young age, multi-sport, and explicit about keeping kids healthy and enjoying the sport through age 16 as the baseline.

Key Findings

1. “Rhabit” = Repeated Habit — The Name Encodes the Philosophy

Dawson explains that Rhabit (R-H-A-B-I-T) stands for “repeated habit” — because the goal of all skill acquisition is to reach a state where technique and decision-making become automatic, freeing mental capacity for competition. He quotes Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” The 3-4 minute video format is explicitly designed for re-watching — not passive consumption but repeated exposure that builds ingrained response patterns. This philosophy connects to the Michael Jordan and Roger Federer descriptions of “flow state.”

2. The Gap Being Filled: Elite Coaching Access Without Geography or Wealth

Dawson identifies the same problem other platforms have identified — elite coaching knowledge is locked behind geography and expensive hourly rates ($150-200/hour from coaches who appear on Rhabit). At $100/year for unlimited access to 90+ coaches, Rhabit is competing with a single hourly lesson for the price of a full year of instruction from multiple perspectives. The explicit mission: “democratize great learning regardless of socioeconomic demographics.” The philanthropic tier (giving subscriptions to underserved areas) operationalizes this beyond rhetoric.

3. The Roster Covers the Entire Development Spectrum — Not Just Pros

A key design decision is including coaches and players at every developmental level: Grand Slam winners, Olympians, ATP/WTA tour players, but also challenger and futures players and top college players (top five in the country). Dawson’s reasoning: “As a student is going through their journey, they’re going to relate to different people at different levels at different times.” A junior player can’t relate to what Federer feels competing for Grand Slams — but can relate to what a top-five college player feels trying to earn a scholarship. The developmental empathy gap is addressed by including voices across the entire pathway.

4. Content Is Organized by Topic, Coach, and Level — Not Just Technical Stroke Work

The platform covers: forehand, backhand, serve, volley, overhead, service return (each with sub-topics in progressive order from beginner to advanced), plus physio, nutrition, tactics, formations, drills, and mental toughness. Filtering by level (beginner/intermediate/advanced) and by coach allows users to navigate by need rather than consuming everything linearly. This multi-dimensional structure anticipates what a player needs at a specific moment in development.

5. Production Approach: Authentic Conversation Over Scripted Content

Dawson describes the filming methodology: loose preparation, then a conversational session where coaches were asked what they most wanted to share and what they were most excited to teach. “The best film sessions were the ones where a lot of it was just get out there and make it very conversational.” The authenticity of coaches speaking about their genuine passion for specific topics — rather than reading scripts — resulted in content that explains why these coaches are respected in the industry. Highlight: driving through a mountain pass in a snow storm to film Greg Patton (one of the winningest coaches in college history) and finding it “so motivational and authentic.”

6. B2B and Philanthropic Tiers Create Sustainable Mission-Driven Business

The four-tier model (individual subscription, club/organization bulk pricing, philanthropic subscriptions, high school programs) shows deliberate thinking about market segmentation: individual consumers who want affordable access, institutions who want team pricing, underserved communities who can’t afford even the low individual price, and high schools trying to build fundamentals programs. Each tier serves the democratization mission differently, and the B2B and high school channels create sustainable revenue that funds the philanthropic tier.

7. The Father’s Rule: Healthy and Happy and Still Enjoying the Sport at Age 16

Dawson describes his father’s explicit principle — borrowed from his own background in college and professional basketball — as “the key is to be healthy and happy and still enjoying the sport by the time you turn 16.” The rationale: get to 16 still engaged, and then you have the tools to take it wherever you want it to go. This modeled restraint: never forcing single-sport specialization, always multi-sport, heavy emphasis on academics. The outcome was all three brothers playing college tennis, with zero reported burnout.

8. Women’s Coaching Content Is an Acknowledged Gap

Lisa explicitly flags the gender imbalance in Rhabit’s coaching roster — many men, fewer women — and Dawson acknowledges it directly. The gap exists partly because the brothers’ initial outreach was at the challenger level, where female players skew younger and have less media comfort. They committed to expanding the women’s content. For INTENNSE’s purposes, this gap in the market — unfiltered WTA-level coaching voices — remains underserved as of this recording.

Actionable Advice for Families

• Use video instruction platforms like Rhabit as supplemental instruction between live sessions — the goal is building habitual responses through repetition, not replacing the coach-player relationship
• Expose junior players to coaching voices at their current level (college players, challenger players) alongside professional voices — developmental empathy matters as much as elite aspiration
• Evaluate whether your family’s tennis investment could be partially re-allocated from a single expensive hourly session to a full year of multi-voice video instruction — both have value but serve different development functions
• Apply the “healthy and happy at 16” test to your junior’s development trajectory — if they’re not enjoying the sport by that age, the investment returns are about to diminish dramatically
• Multi-sport development into mid-teens is not a deviation from the tennis pathway — it’s a burnout prevention mechanism with strong developmental evidence

INTENNSE Relevance

• Content platform opportunity: Rhabit’s model — democratized video instruction from elite coaches at $100/year — is a template for what INTENNSE could build as a content platform extension. INTENNSE’s mic’d coaches are already performing on camera; packaging their teaching in short-form video content (3-4 minutes per concept) creates a product that generates revenue, builds coach brand recognition, and deepens the talent pipeline
• Developmental voice hierarchy: Dawson’s insight that juniors relate to different coach voices at different development stages is directly applicable to INTENNSE’s broadcast strategy. INTENNSE players — recent college graduates and lower-professional players — are exactly the voices that junior players training now can most relate to. This is a content and recruitment asset simultaneously
• B2B model for academies: Rhabit’s club/organization pricing structure could inform how INTENNSE structures a “coaching certification” or “affiliated academy” program — providing video content libraries to partner academies at institutional pricing in exchange for pipeline access and brand visibility
• Philanthropic tier and community pipeline: Rhabit gives subscriptions to underserved communities as part of its mission. INTENNSE’s community engagement strategy should include analogous initiatives — not just marketing, but providing real developmental resources to communities that cannot afford elite access, building long-term brand loyalty and expanding the talent pool INTENNSE draws from
• Authentic coach voice as broadcast strategy: Dawson’s filming philosophy — get coaches talking about what they’re most passionate about, then edit the authenticity — is exactly the broadcast register INTENNSE’s mic’d coach model should pursue. Not pre-written line reads but real coaching instinct, captured and edited for maximum impact

Notable Quotes

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle (quoted by Jeff Dawson as Rhabit’s philosophical foundation)

“We want to democratize great learning — so that regardless of socioeconomic demographics, kids and adults will have access to positive, good information.” — Jeff Dawson

“The key is to be healthy and happy and still enjoying the sport by the time you turn 16 — if you can get to that point, then you have the tools to really take it to where you want it to go.” — Jeff Dawson (quoting his father)

“As a student is going through their journey, they’re going to relate to different people at different levels at different times — you don’t go from junior tennis to pro, there’s a chronological order.” — Jeff Dawson