In 1995 a close friend of mine, who had been an athlete all of her life (we will call her Beth), contracted viral encephalitis and lost significant motor ability, destroying her athletic skills. She became a shadow of her previous self and struggled with movements that she once executed with ease. This was the event that would one day be the incentive that led to the founding of the EASI Academy.

There was no plan to develop a tennis academy, or to become a world recognized expert in tennis training and education, or to change how tennis was taught. The only objective was to help a close friend regain as much of her previous athletic skill as possible without having any idea what would be possible, if anything.

Looking at conventional rehabilitation methods, it was clear that they would be long, costly, and largely ineffective. Brain trauma rehabilitation was, and still is, in a primitive state when compared to other areas of rehabilitation. Something more was needed beyond rote repetition of movements. Rehabilitation needed purpose, direction, motivation, and meaning it seemed to me. Hence, I decided to try an entirely new approach: Learn an athletic skill that was difficult and demanding. Of all sports, tennis stood out as the best possible venue for rehabilitation except for one problem. I knew nothing about tennis. But it seemed that there were many good people in the community that knew a lot. This began the first phase of the journey to EASI.

This phase consisted in taking Beth to one tennis pro after another to see what they could do to teach her how to play. In the process, I made many good friends and Beth made some minor progress. But things were going too slowly, and there was another problem. During this journey, it became clear that there did not exist any coherent, organized, systematic, and scientific body of knowledge about tennis. Perhaps this was why Beth was not making better progress. There was only one way to go. Develop a scientifically based tennis training program from the ground up. While this may have seemed ambitious, some people just don't notice these kind of obstacles. So I proceeded, blindly, onto phase two of the journey to EASI.

For several years, I examined every facet of the sport of tennis, formulated new approaches, and made some minor progress with Beth. But progress was still slow. I wasn't doing any better than the pros I knew. So I reasoned that something was amiss. I contacted my associate, Professor Walter Freeman at U. C. Berkeley, an expert in neuroscience and the dynamics of the brain. and opened up a dialogue. Within the same time frame, I was exposed to the research of Professor Ellen Langer at Harvard, an expert on the human learning process.

From these two colleagues, I realized that the world of tennis instruction, and education generally, must undergo a paradigm shift if significant progress was to be made in Beth's rehabilitation. From Freeman's work on mesoscopic brain dynamics and Langer's work on learning, I formulated the first phase of EASI. In fact, the acronym "EASI" was coined from ideas presented by Langer in her research. It was short for Experimentation/ Exploration, Adaptation, Self realization and Individual initiative. Pretty crude for an acronym, but it was good enough

Utilizing the new methods developed from Freeman and Langer resulted in surprisingly rapid progress in Beth's development. I reasoned that if Beth could make better progress than she had made following conventional training methods, maybe others could too. And if others could, maybe this would lead to a new approach to brain trauma rehabilitation. Thus entered the phase of the EASI Tennis web site, an online tennis instruction web site. I spent several years writing articles for this web site, for MidAtlantic Match Point, TennisONE.com and Procomparetennis.net. But there was no way to measure progress using online instruction, and measurements of progress are essential in science if one is to validate a theory, especially a theory that overthrows most of current tennis instruction. What was needed was empirical data: Train students to play tennis by using the EASI methods developed for Beth and documented online at EASITennis.com (now discontinued).

EASI now entered the field of tennis instruction and head-to-head competition with pros using conventional methods. This was perfect because there were concrete and highly visible metrics with written records available to measure the EASI method against conventional methods: The USTA tournaments.

EASI moved from Virginia, where everything began, to Houston, Texas to set up the EASI Academy and prove that the methods were not only superior, but far superior to conventional methods. After several months of searching, The EASI Academy found a home at the Memorial Bend Club in Houston and began operations. In only a few weeks, the expected results followed. EASI was developing tournament players at a speed never before seen as the USTA records clearly show. At last, the journey to EASI had found validation.

The importance of empirical validation is found in science. A theory must be empirically demonstrated if it is to be accepted as fact. The potential for the discovery of new methods of brain trauma rehabilitation is directly linked to the success of the EASI Academy in advancing normal players at a never before heard of pace. This meant that brain trauma rehabilitation could be revolutionize if rehabilitation could be dramatically accelerated compared to conventional methods.

The EASI journey is in its latest phase in which normal players can now achieve a high level of tennis skill in the shortest time ever while shedding light on the problem of brain trauma rehabilitation. The USTA records show that EASI not only accelerates player development, it develops champions.