Is this a typical Tennis clinic?

goober

goober

Legend
I went to a tennis clinic this morning for the first time. There were four of us. The instructor basically ran us through a bunch of drills for an hour with little or no instruction. The last half hour was playing practice points and mini-matches. Although I did get a good work out, there wasn't any learning just ball feeding. Is this typical? I thought $25 was rather steep for something I could do with a ball machine or a partner .
 
It depends really on the style of the instructor. Some instructors love to drill/drill/drill without much conscious advice while others will have you sit down beside the court and technically rip apart your forehand. Ideally there should be a good dynamic balance between these two methods.
 
Yeah, I don't know about typical tennis clinic, but one of my coaches, who's ran several and been to plenty, is like raftermania first described. He wants to drill you to death, and doesn't spend much time going over particulars. Especially when the groups bigger than 1 or 2. When it's like that, he feels that you should try and spend as little time to interrupt the practice in that situation, because players have individual problems and you don't want to hold everyone up for one person. Also, he believes the most important thing for improving is to just hit as many tennis balls as possible. He saves individual help for times when he's one on one with someone. I've seen several other coaches with the same approach. So, I don't know how typical it is, but it's not uncommon.
 
Typical lesson

I don't think that's your typical lesson from a pro. As an instructor myself in Montreal, I would think that I have a balance of technical and exercise. I also like to encorporate some sports psychology stuff which is in my training. I can do this for up to 6 people from 7-8, I have to admit, I try and have my students run around a little more because there is more down time.

My suggestion is that you take a private course. Of course it is more expensive. 90% of my clients take private lessons because they want my full attention and don't mind paying a little more to hit all the balls and get "full service".
 
Hitting as many balls as possible is ok if you have good technique. One of the women there was clearly using the wrong grip on volleys and he didn't even bother to correct it. So she hit a ton of volleys but she is still hitting them wrong. I guess the other part of the problem were the other players weren't that good. One woman claimed played in 4.0 leagues but her serves were incredibly soft with no spin. I had to hold back on the mini-matches or else the points would be too quick and I didn't want to look like I was picking on somebody.
 
tennisluv said:
I don't think that's your typical lesson from a pro. As an instructor myself in Montreal, I would think that I have a balance of technical and exercise. I also like to encorporate some sports psychology stuff which is in my training. I can do this for up to 6 people from 7-8, I have to admit, I try and have my students run around a little more because there is more down time.

My suggestion is that you take a private course. Of course it is more expensive. 90% of my clients take private lessons because they want my full attention and don't mind paying a little more to hit all the balls and get "full service".
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yeah I have taken private lessons before and they were better (depending on instructor). But the tennis clinics were not much better than the group lessons that you see with beginning players.
 
The guy who gives me lessons is very technical, has books with pictures of the proper form for every shot. This works well espesially for me because since I have camp 3 hours a day with this guy, 5 times a week where all we do it play games with little coaching, it gives me time to practice the things. And also since I was good, but with wrong technique, now as I am getting better technique with my strokes, my level of play has improved greatly. During the lessons he has me work on parts of my strokes at the beggining, not the full stroke. For example for 3 lessons I had only learned how to do a serve with only the brush because that is what he needed me to focus on. Now I am doing the full serve and it is much better then before. Basically during the lessons I work on one thing like serves where he will have me doing serves and tell me what I am doing wrong and what I should try to do. This type of lesson isnt as fun of hitting lessons, but its what you need if you want to be serious. My previous coach was good, but he said nothing about technique, all he really worked on was telling me to lower my self and go into the shots, or to toss the ball better on my serve.
 
What you're describing sounds like drills to me. A clinic is more like working on different aspects of your game with the instructor explaining/correcting obvious bad techniques.
Drills can be fun if you have people of the same level, i.e. 4.0-4.5. That way you can be working on a certain drill and not have to hold back or spend the entire time retrieving the ball. The adult drills that I go to last 1.5 hrs and cost $20. The instructor actively participate in the drills and we rotate (except for the instructor) so everyone has a chance to hit with the instructor and each other. During the drill with the instructor, he actually points out your mistakes and helps you correct them.
 
goober said:
I went to a tennis clinic this morning for the first time. There were four of us. The instructor basically ran us through a bunch of drills for an hour with little or no instruction. The last half hour was playing practice points and mini-matches. Although I did get a good work out, there wasn't any learning just ball feeding. Is this typical? I thought $25 was rather steep for something I could do with a ball machine or a partner .
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Could you have really had the same workout without someone pushing you in a drill? Rarely is this true. Unless you are some special person that can maintain a high level of intensity, great. Dont pay the 25 bucks! But be honest, I dont think you could.

I couldnt tell if it was $25 each or $25 for all of you. Either way, you need to know what kind of practice you want. You still have to pay for the instructors time irregardless whether it is technical training or physical training. He still gets paid by the hour for his time.

I think you have to decide what you need. Some coaches attack better technique by working you hard on your conditioning. Others attack it from the "strokes" perspective. If you pick this person as your coach, make sure you communicate your goals and what areas you feel you need to improve in. If after a couple of sessions you are still not satisified, either move on or get the most out of your 25 bucks!
 
That's exactly how it works down where I live. There used to be a guy that run it and he'd offer lots of tips and instruction. But, since some new people took it over, the people that run it act just like ball machines....basically feeding balls and not saying anything. I pay $12 for an hour and a half of that. But, basically, I'm a strong 4.5 and the clinic is designed for 3.0's, so I get the majority of hitting practice with the pro that's feeding. Usually, the pro and I end up hitting for the majority of the time, since we're both on similar levels.
 
Bungalo Bill said:
Could you have really had the same workout without someone pushing you in a drill? Rarely is this true. Unless you are some special person that can maintain a high level of intensity, great. Dont pay the 25 bucks! But be honest, I dont think you could.

I couldnt tell if it was $25 each or $25 for all of you. Either way, you need to know what kind of practice you want. You still have to pay for the instructors time irregardless whether it is technical training or physical training. He still gets paid by the hour for his time.

I think you have to decide what you need. Some coaches attack better technique by working you hard on your conditioning. Others attack it from the "strokes" perspective. If you pick this person as your coach, make sure you communicate your goals and what areas you feel you need to improve in. If after a couple of sessions you are still not satisified, either move on or get the most out of your 25 bucks!
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Well it actually was not THAT strenuous. The other people in the group were in average shape at best and one guy was definitely below average. So I was not definitely not the rate limiting factor in the drills as far as a physical standpoint. We took frequent breaks for water. It was $25 each and from what I understood from talking to the others a turnout of 4 is actually small. Normally there are 6-8. I was checking him out as a potential coach but it was hard to get a gauge on him since he didn't really teach anything. He charges $65 for individual private lessons which is a little steep.
 
Well, 25 each seems a little steep but as you said there would normally be 6-8 instead of just four - I happen to think 6 (or less) is a good number and eight would be too many. So maybe the price varies with the number of people involved. Also 65 for an hour isn't that far out of line and it really depends on what your receiving for your money. Its funny how some who take lessons want to teach the instructor rather than the other way around - as my father used to say "its hard to learn anything with your mouth open".

I'm also assuming that the instructor is involved more with drills than any stroke teaching - pretty hard to teach strokes to that many at once.

Why not take a half hour and seen what happens - you might be surprised.
 
in my 40 years experience at multiple facilities the vast majority of tennis clinics provide very, very little actual instruction. Perhaps it’s because they have 6 to 8 participants per court with different wants and technical issues. Usually one coach just feeds ball feeds after setting up the drills. If you’re lucky, the individual drills are designed to promote appropriate doubles play and strategy, but they don’t usually work that way. If you’re taking a drill it takes a fair amount of discipline to concentrate on form, technique, and tactics by yourself. Many times it’s just an opportunity to groove bad strokes. Are the coaches being lazy? I think so. Do they consider adult clinics as a cash cow for the facility? Often. Just ask yourself what you learned after an hour and a half drill.
 
hehe, interesting to revive a ~20y old thread... but i miss the $25/clinic days...
i just got an email from a fellow 4.5, running a 2h clinic (for 4.0+) on public outdoor hard courts... claims to also include instruction...
$80/pp...

i do regularly attend a men's clinic in the winter... on clay, bubbled, by a former utr14, where we do get some instruction... which is $80-100/2h
all self feeding, with the coach walking around basically saying, "make this change"... IMO has been worth it :)

how much are "clinics" by you, and what does it entail?
 
Sounds about right. In my neck of the woods, 15$ for club practice then 15-20$ for club match. Rinse repeat + monthly dues. Tennis is an expensive sport.
 
Jst21121 said:
Sounds about right. In my neck of the woods, 15$ for club practice then 15-20$ for club match. Rinse repeat + monthly dues. Tennis is an expensive sport.
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still a low price... nice. those are 1990's prices...
inflation calc says... $20 in 2005, should cost $31.07 today :P
 
nyta2 said:
still a low price... nice. those are 1990's prices...
inflation calc says... $20 in 2005, should cost $31.07 today :p
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Yeah if I had to pay 30$ for practice then 30$ for match every week + then club fees of 100-200$… and then restringing fees plus new shoes every 3 months… well I would be broke for sure
 
Jst21121 said:
Yeah if I had to pay 30$ for practice then 30$ for match every week + then club fees of 100-200$… and then restringing fees plus new shoes every 3 months… well I would be broke for sure
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3mos... that's impressive (presuming hard court). hc sneakers last about 6w for me...
 
Clinics are typically drills with specific themes. The goal is not to focus on technique but to reenforce specific things they want you to work on. IMO it’s rather difficult to focus on a particular person’s technique in a group setting. If you’re looking for technical input you should probably look into private/semi private settings.
 
Jst21121 said:
6 weeks? dam...thats like 100$ a month on top of all the fees. You must be loaded or just love tennis that much. Wife would def say pick another hobby lol
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my wife's a runner, and she's spending like $150/3mo on just running sneakers... and of course she needs different color ones to match her running outfits :P
 
nyta2 said:
my wife's a runner, and she's spending like $150/3mo on just running sneakers... and of course she needs different color ones to match her running outfits :p
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Dam I do Ironman triathlons and just use one pair a year. LOL. But yes the shoes + mileage does matter, but not really if you aren't super competitive and just wanna finish. Nice to have such expendable income tho
 
goober said:
Hitting as many balls as possible is ok if you have good technique. One of the women there was clearly using the wrong grip on volleys and he didn't even bother to correct it. So she hit a ton of volleys but she is still hitting them wrong. I guess the other part of the problem were the other players weren't that good. One woman claimed played in 4.0 leagues but her serves were incredibly soft with no spin. I had to hold back on the mini-matches or else the points would be too quick and I didn't want to look like I was picking on somebody.
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The one I went to had pretty much everyone using bad technique. I was afraid to look around in case that bad form got locked in my brain.
 
Most clinics with multiple players on court don't offer a lot of individual instruction but a good instructor should throw out a few pointers and even a demonstration or 2 along the way. Also, some pointers on tactics during point play should be offered. Examples: instructor may point out your take back is too big on your forehand volley, or ask you to make contact in front on your forehand groundstroke, or tactically, an instructor may ask a doubles team with both players at the net to shift R and L together as a team to follow the direction of their shot. I have seen instructors that do hardly anything except feed balls and cheer the players on and you're right, that isn't really worth your money. I have a friend and we usually drill about an hour before point play and that's as good as a lesson where the instructor doesn't offer anything.
 
Goofy goofy goofy goober
goober said:
I went to a tennis clinic this morning for the first time. There were four of us. The instructor basically ran us through a bunch of drills for an hour with little or no instruction. The last half hour was playing practice points and mini-matches. Although I did get a good work out, there wasn't any learning just ball feeding. Is this typical? I thought $25 was rather steep for something I could do with a ball machine or a partner .
Click to expand...
 
Clinics are great for hitting a lot of balls. It’s best to get private lessons or if you can self teach with YouTube. Then you can work on a particular stroke or two at the clinic. I occasionally go to a 3.5-4.0 clinic for 90 minutes @ $20.00 with 6 to 8 players and and helps my strokes because you hit a lot of balls. But, I don’t go there with the idea that I’m gonna get a lot of instruction. It’s unreasonable to expect the instructor to give individual instruction at a clinic. A few quick pointers yes and hopefully you catch on to what the instructor is saying. It’s worth $20.00.
 
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