Customer Case Study: Ian Westermann, Founder of Essential Tennis

Ian Westermann

Founder | Essential Tennis

It's critical to be able to differentiate yourself in some kind of way, and I think the Vibe makes it really fun and easy to do that.

Ian Westermann

Founder | Essential Tennis

Goals

Engage on-court students

Differentiate from other tennis coaches

Expand online presence with engaging content

Why chose Vibe

Open platform

Draw freely in an infinite space

Flexible use cases

More affordable

Use cases

Annotate videos

Write & share notes with students

Create videos

Diagram tennis strategy

IndustrySports Training

HeadquartersMilwaukee, Wisconsin

Products UsedVibe S1 55″

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Meet Essential Tennis

IndustrySports Training

HeadquartersMilwaukee, Wisconsin

Products UsedVibe S1 55″

Essential Tennis has been a pioneer in the digital instruction space. It offers some of the web's most comprehensive digital courses—in fact, Essential Tennis is the top tennis instruction channel on YouTube, with more than 175,000 subscribers.

Why Westermann chose Vibe

The openness of Vibe’s ecosystem immediately drew Westermann to the Vibe Board. As he puts it, Vibe “seemed like a very open platform where I could manipulate images, and text, and draw in a very open, freeform kind of way.” Westermann also noted that the Vibe Board was significantly less expensive than the competition.

How he uses the Vibe board on a daily basis

Westermann loves to use the Vibe Board for strategy diagramming, presentations, and video analysis. He regularly sets up the Vibe Board on the court during his students’ lessons so they can easily evaluate their form on video and quickly make adjustments. Even better, he can use the Vibe Board to annotate student footage and break down their technique frame-by-frame for easy coaching and instant feedback. Westermann also uses the Board to take detailed notes during each training session—notes that can be instantly saved and shared for future practice.

Favorite features

Westermann finds that in-depth video analysis is rare among tennis coaches. It’s no surprise that people ask what he uses to create content when he shares these instructional videos online. Vibe allows Westermann to contribute to the tennis community in a distinctive and refreshing way. As he says,

“I feel like if you’re a professional and you’re not differentiating yourself in any way from the way your job is normally done, then day after day, you’re just becoming more of a commodity and more replaceable,” he said. “I think being able to interact with technology [and with] media and create things of value—whether you’re a service provider or you create actual products—the better you can communicate, the more effective you’re going to be, the more valuable you’re going to be.”

Results using Vibe

Westermann has seen an upward trajectory in the content he’s able to create—and the audience he’s able to reach—using the Vibe Board. With more success on the court and on platforms like YouTube, he says that:

Vibe enabled me to communicate in more ways, and more interesting ways, so for me it’s super valuable.

He strongly believes that any tool that helps people convey their message in a more engaging and effective way is worth the investment, especially as a business owner and entrepreneur.