Observations from my morning clinic (about clinics in general)

[Deleted member 23235]

New Div 1 coach from Spain ran my clinic. It was excellent.

He brought the youthful enthusiasm of a pro that hasn't yet realized most won't do their homework to improve.

We discussed the various famous academies in Spain and he made us really work. Slightly different game scenarios as well.

This type of coach makes a big difference to the clinic experience.

that's great!
not doing hw is not the issue, imo.. it's pros who are unwilling to "scare away" clients by reprimmanding them for not moving, cheating, or whatever.
not realizing that if you build a quality product/clinic, you'll weed out the serial clinic takers that are also there for a psych attaboy session, and will attract the serious players.
problem is that the folks serious about improving are not as plentiful as the serial-clinic-takers ca$h cow$ willing to pay for their daily tennis affirmation.
a well run clinic is literally too hard for many people (for me too, but at least i try, don't cheat the drill, and not complain when told i'm being lazy)

 

[heninfan99]

that's great!
not doing hw is not the issue, imo.. it's pros who are unwilling to "scare away" clients by reprimmanding them for not moving, cheating, or whatever.

Good point. It becomes more like adult daycare and just don't scare anyone away method to keep the money flowing BUT, yeah, there should always be a clinic offering for hungrier players.

Also, he's getting a STEM degree, I don't think this will be his main job like the others so I guess he can take more risk.

 

[FiReFTW]

Is clinic like a group session or something?

 

[heninfan99]

Is clinic like a group session or something?

The ones I go to are typically one coach and four players(sometimes five). 20 minutes of drills and the rest games that simulate match play scenarios.

 

[ChaelAZ]

We have some really great clinics, but a further drive for me. Our local clinics are decent. in general though I treat them all as cardio and drills over instruction and skill development. Then, if it turns out good I am pleasantly surprised, but I am never unhappy. Well, there have been a few they had WAAAY too many people in the group so there was a lot of standing in line waiting to get reps in. Those I stop going to, but don't happen too often. I like groups with around 6-8.

 

[tomato123]

The 3.5-4.0 clinic I sometimes go to averages 6-8 people and it’s pretty much 1 hour of warmups and drills with virtually no instruction or feedback, and 1 hour of match play... I think it’s mainly about the value since we only get so many good tennis weather days in Maryland, and at $49 for 2 hours indoor ($45 per clinic if you sign up for 6 weeks) it’s a lot of cheap court time especially in the winter.

When I got back into the game I realized clinics were not for me for how much I wanted to work on my game and how fast I wanted to improve, so I am happy to work with a private coach who charges a very reasonable price as my normal tennis routine for the week, and drop in at the clinic when if the wife has a work dinner or something and I want to get some more competitive practice in and work more on what I practiced with my coach in the week. I also realize I’m fortunate enough to be able to afford these options at this point in my life to indulge my obsessive hobby...

Another interesting observation was that a few guys at that clinic who play multiple leagues year round consider this clinic to be their “lesson” night(shrug) so they just play league matches and attend this clinic. I guess everyone has their idea of what they’re looking for with their tennis.

 

[nyta2]

hehe, this popped up in my similar threads feed. entertaining reading my old thread...
i actually did find a clinic that had what i was looking for.
basically it was coop hitting, and focused drills, where the players ranged from 4.0-5.5
drills are very specific, and designed to work on specific elements of your game
rotations are ladder based, so the best players usually end up on the top court together.
coach walks around, pointing out tech flaws, calling you out for lack of effort, etc... zero coddling,... just like his junior program

main con is for the coach not able to retain a consistent # of adults for various reasons: #1 being conflicting schedules (work, kids, fami, etc...), but he's also trying to keep the level high (4.0+), which further significantly limits the pool of consistently available people to fund this program.... (alot of 4.5+ (more toward the 5.0 end) don't want to pay for a "clinic" (and don't quite understand the idea of a "high performance adult program"), as they think they already "know" and/or they have been disillusioned by the typical "clinic")

my takeaway is that, it's hard to profit from these kinds clinics (for 4.0+ crowd)... far easier to cater to the 3.0-3.5 crowd...