Students who seek to learn how to play tennis, enhance their tennis abilities, or participate in tennis events excel with instruction from experienced, knowledgeable tennis coaches.
At a club, the coach is typically responsible for coordinating both individual and group tennis sessions, as well as developing training plans based on the students’ current tennis abilities and assessing the students’ overall performance.
In addition to group tennis lessons, it’s common for coaches to offer private, or individualized, training sessions.
Why You or Your Child Should Get Tennis Coaching
Whether seeking private or group tennis instruction, the benefits of working with a coach are plentiful. Here are some of the best reasons to hire a tennis coach for both youth and adult lessons.
1. Getting Good at Something is Fun!
If you’re the active type who’s played sports in the past, you likely already know that it’s fun. Why are sports, like tennis, so much fun to play? Let’s take a closer look below.
- Goal-setting, performing well, and being active.
- Performing effectively as a team, encouraging teammates, and displaying excellent sportsmanship.
- Having a coach who sets a good example, accepts failure, and pays attention to players’ perspectives.
- Kids simply want to have a good time when it comes to sports.
- Being challenged, picking up new abilities, fixing errors, and playing various positions.
- Playing in tournaments, getting playing time, and playing your favorite position.
- Having a well-run practice, being able to play freely, and doing various exercises.
- Establishing good relationships with your friends, your teammates, and your teammates’ friends.
- Retaining an optimistic outlook, reducing stress, and disregarding the result.
- Consistent calls from the officials, parental support, and compliments for good performance.
- Team meals, fist bumps, and virtual or actual team gatherings.
- Having great gear and equipment, winning medals or prizes, and regularly playing tourneys at new locations.
2. You Learn the Right Techniques
A tennis player’s techniques and overall skill set dictate what that player can consistently perform with the tennis ball in various strokes, such as a forehand, serve, backhand, or slice, in both practice and during matches.
The more technical talents and abilities a tennis player possesses, the more tactical, decision-making tools they have at their disposal.
A coach teaches his students to grasp patterns of play, higher versus lower percentage shots, and an opponent’s strengths and weaknesses to help them compete successfully in a match.
A tennis player must know, feel, and be realistic about their tennis talents to compete properly.
3. A Coach Knows Your Skill Level
Working with players of different ability levels within the same group is a significant hurdle that experienced coaches know how to overcome.
It’s simple to concentrate just on the “good” athletes, but excellent tennis coaches know how to help all athletes reach their potential, regardless of their skill level or motivation.
Good coaches work to achieve the greatest performance from each of his athletes, both collectively and individually. This enables a coach to adopt an athlete-centered approach while keeping unity within a group.
4. Learn Injury Prevention
On the tennis court, an injury can occur for a number of reasons, including inadequate preparation, poor technique, defective equipment, and individual anatomical or biomechanical restrictions.
A coach knows what to do to keep his athletes safe and injury-free. Here are some common techniques:
- Before exercising, warm up. Warming up gradually raises an athlete’s heart rate from resting level and simply running in place is a great technique.
- Teach players how to stretch. Stretching should target all muscle groups being used and with tennis, you’re using most!
- After exercise, cool down. After a workout, a coach will often have a cool down session so the student’s heart rates can return to normal.
- Coaches know how injuries occur. Coaches often teach certain rules and procedures to actively avoid injury.
- Coaches quickly recognize improper training methods and fix them accordingly.
- A coach may be able to help an older student, for example, with identifying potential chronic or recurring physical problems.
- When pushing players to the next level, a coach knows how hard to push, which activities should be performed, and which equipment can be safely utilized.
5. It’s Affordable
Some hobbies are expensive. In comparison, picking up the sport of tennis requires a relatively small investment in equipment and, if you decide to join a club or sign-up for lessons, a low monthly fee.
Tennis equipment can be expensive, depending on the quality you go for. The required tennis equipment that you will need when you begin playing doesn’t cost nearly as much as a decent set of golf clubs.
Your tennis rackets will be the most costly expense. You can buy an inexpensive racket that will work just fine. But if you can afford it, you probably don’t want the cheapest one and if you’re just starting out, there’s no need for the most expensive model either.
You can expect to pay around $100 for a quality, adult-size tennis racket.
When competing, players often have more than one racket in case one is damaged or the strings break.
Tennis shoes are important and the next most costly purchase for newbies. These may cost anywhere from $40 to over $100 depending on the brand.
To play tennis, you obviously need a predesignated court. When the weather permits, most cities and towns have public tennis courts at parks that can be played on for free. These are first come, first served, as you would imagine.
If the weather is too cold, hot, or raining, an indoor court is ideal. Private courts often have a monthly membership fee or will let players book a court at a day and time that suits them for a small fee.
Finally, you have the cost of a coach. While some coaches charge upwards of $200 per hour, at Basha Tennis private lessons range from $65 to $95 an hour, while group lessons are approximately $11 to $35 an hour (depending on the number of players to coaches).
Tennis Coaching & Lessons in Mountlake Terrace
If you’re looking for tennis coaching for yourself or for a child in the Mountlake Terrace area, please click here to see why Basha Tennis is right for you. We offer adult and youth tennis lessons, plus you can work with Josh or one of our other coaches one-on-one too! Reach out if you have any questions.