My former tennis program and why i hate american clubs

[perfmode]

This was my schedule before I moved to the US and stopped playing tennis from the ages of 14-16.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 5-8pm (practice, conditioning)

5:00-5:30pm: jumping rope, light jogging, suicides etc.
5:30-6:00pm: warmup (mini-tennis, down-the-line rallies, crosscourt fh and bh, serves, volleys)
6:00-6:20pm: serve and overhead coaching with Orville
6:20-6:40pm: groundstrokes with Jean
6:40-7:00pm: volleys and approaches with Kevin
7:00-8:00pm: match play

Saturday: 7-10am (match play)

7:00-10am: matches vs other juniors and coach evaluation

All that for only TT$2000 (US$320) a month.

It's impossible to get that kind of value out of a club these days.

[atatu]

Do you really need a club to give you that structure ? You can do almost all of that stuff on your own, provided you find some other good players to work with. Then you have $300 to spend on private lessons per month ? That's about six private one hour lessons a month, which is more than enough. Yes, it's harder here if you don't have money, but don't use that as an excuse to quit. Look within yourself if you want to be a player. Also, enjoy it while you're young. I work 45 hours a week as an attorney, get home and spend all my free time with my two kids, go to bed at midnight, wake up at 6am to work out, and play tennis only twice a week, it's never going to be as easy as you have it now, so make the most of it.

[Thanatos]

With tight schedules, you also have to make practice quality ones.
Run your drills, work on weakness in your stokes, and play a practice match afterwards.

[Craig Sheppard]

You're a kid. Why aren't you on some school team? I used to get that kind of work 5 days a week at high school practice. Maybe not always supervised with a "pro", but that doesn't mean it wasn't quality time. We all tried hard to improve.

These guys are right, you don't need a club. And who pays $320 a month to play tennis? Hope you've already got your tour plans laid. I play at a really, really nice facility and get all the tennis I can handle for $100 a month. That's even steep, IMO. I played for years growing up without paying a dime.

You don't need to spend money to prove you love the sport.

I wich we had the opportunities and facilities in the UK to have the opportunities you guys across the drink have regarding sports in general and especially tennis.

There is still that view and attitude in many places of tennis being an elitest or upper class sport, resulting in a great lack of tennis facilities for thoose who love the sport and the country missing out on some undiscovered talents who give the game up, favouring football ( soccer) to get noticed for their talents.