How much will going to a tennis academy like Bollettieri's help?

[Cindysphinx]

Originally Posted by LightningZI

I think it's cause of lack of matches with someone at my level.. I mean I can play with JV kids from other HS teams, Win easily, But it seems that whenever I play against people on JV that are higher on the ladder than I am, I can't figure out their style, possibly because they have none, and so I can't even move on to Varsity..

I mean I've played a 3rd Singles Varsity player from a different school and beat him in half a set, Won 3-1, I had a score of 7-5 in one set against 3rd singles from our school.. But coaches really don't notice much....

My coach really was a great coach, He used to arrange matches with his other students and give us both information about each others styles of play, So on and so forth and I learned strategy from him too. I started tennis in September or so, I think i started to take 1 hour lessons and get serious around December, By december I had decent overall except my serve still was horrible. Playing easy JV matches got my serve to a pretty amazing level (If I do say so myself, A pretty fast kick serve that gets me quite a bit of aces) and a horrible habit of using a Reverse forehand on almost every shot But other than that I'm just bored of playing people at JV levels, and unpredictable players. I'd go back to him again but it's quite boring and I don't think there'd be a lot more for me to learn. I'd go back to him for coaching but he recommended an academy to me, and so here I am just wondering about it..

I used to practice almost 5 hours or more every week so I don't think practice is or will be a problem, and I'm not too worked up about conditioning.

I really think I've plateaued cause of lack of challenging matches, or rather against good players. I just seem to perform much better against really good players and horrid against horrible players, Probably because I mess around against them and I'm very serious against good players.

Hmmm. Good information.

I guess I don't understand the nature of the problem. There are lots of ways to get more challenging match play with players stronger than JV that don't involve a trip to a world renown tennis academy. And once you do get those more challenging matches -- which should expose your weaknesses -- wouldn't you need some serious coaching to change bad habits so you can start beating those better players?

Then there's the frustration factor. If you go to Bolletari's and the strongest players you've played are your local JV opponents, will you be in so far over your head that you won't get much out of it? I don't know; I'm just asking the question.

I guess if your folks are loaded and can give you this experience just for the experience, go for it. I would say if you are really serious about improving your tennis, getting with a good pro and playing better players can be done more cheaply at home.

BTW, I went to their web site. Am I correct that they want $1850/week for tennis + boarding? And you're planning on going for 5 weeks?

[LightningZI]

Originally Posted by Cindysphinx

Hmmm. Good information.

I guess I don't understand the nature of the problem. There are lots of ways to get more challenging match play with players stronger than JV that don't involve a trip to a world renown tennis academy. And once you do get those more challenging matches -- which should expose your weaknesses -- wouldn't you need some serious coaching to change bad habits so you can start beating those better players?

Then there's the frustration factor. If you go to Bolletari's and the strongest players you've played are your local JV opponents, will you be in so far over your head that you won't get much out of it? I don't know; I'm just asking the question.

I guess if your folks are loaded and can give you this experience just for the experience, go for it. I would say if you are really serious about improving your tennis, getting with a good pro and playing better players can be done more cheaply at home.

BTW, I went to their web site. Am I correct that they want $1850/week for tennis + boarding? And you're planning on going for 5 weeks?

I like the points you made about that, I've asked Varsity people on my own team to hit with me, But half of them are conceited and don't even play JV players. The 3rd Singles guy is just a person who used to go to the same teacher as me so we did play a few games. As for playing against people from Bollettieri's I'm almost 99% sure that most if not almost all the people there will be better than me. But I don't see any improvement in myself from playing against people worse than me, Not even stroke reinforcement, It's probably been more harmful to me playing people worse than beneficial, I've picked up so many bad habits from it. As I said before, I'm serious against people better than me and I play around in matches with those worse than me. Probably one of the worse things I do.

I don't know if it's cheaper here than there, As it's $72 an hour for a pro here, 5 hours i think is how long it is at Bollettieri's everyday. So 72 * 5 is $360, And that times 7 gives you $2520. Which seems to be more than Bollettieri's, Not to mention I don't think a local pro here would teach a kid himself for 5 hours a day.

The bollettieri program I'm looking at is the summer 5 week camp which is around $8000 I believe including boarding.

The main thing I just want to do is improve my tennis, In any way possible, mental or physical.

[Slazenger07]

I went to John Newcombe's Tennis ranch many years ago. It was a great experience, Id definitely do it again if I had the money and time. Although my most memorable experience had nothing to do with tennis(had a hot girl ask to dry her lips on my t-shirt, of course I let her)

The instruction was really quality, I gained alot from it. One thing though is try and stay in "Newk's House" all of the other housing was small and shitty when I went but Newk's house was pretty baller, that's where I stayed, with about 8-10 other dudes.