Tennis lessons on demand

S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
Tennis coaching has finally caught up with Pizza Delivery technology. Or maybe has gone beyond that with instant delivery by drones and all that.

One of the problems has always been that you the student has to work around a teaching pro's schedule. Now he/she will come to you. It used to happen only through Craigslist ads before where you have the same two guys posting their ads every day.

One question I have is: how does this get around the issue of clubs (and public courts for that matter) not allowing lessons by unauthorized pros on their premises? I can see it being useful to those with courts in their complex. Does this company negotiate with a set of clubs for permissions to teach?

And don't bother to flame me saying it is an ad. It does not conflict with what TW is selling and I have no financial interest in this.

https://www.playyourcourt.com/

Excerpt from email from FYB:

What if there was a way for a tennis coach to come to YOU for a lesson?
In other words --
You would pick the court. You would pick the time. You would pick the coach.
No more having to twist yourself into a pretzel to work around someone else's schedule, or court availability at a club near you.
Now?
It's on YOUR schedule.
All you have to do is visit his website and enter in your zip code to see if he's in your "service area..."
 
It came back with four teaching pros and they all seemed to have good credentials but the closest was 36 miles away. Their rates are higher than comparable pros at a club but I guess that's to make up for their travel time and expenses.

I noticed that there weren't any recommended teaching pros in the clubs nearby. That's a good sign because I wouldn't take lessons or have my kids take lessons at the clubs nearby. I took my daughter to a club about 45 miles away for lessons a long time ago.

So it may be a useful service for those that will pay more to save personal time. I assume that the consumer would have to acquire the court time.
 
movdqa said:
It came back with four teaching pros and they all seemed to have good credentials but the closest was 36 miles away. Their rates are higher than comparable pros at a club but I guess that's to make up for their travel time and expenses.

I noticed that there weren't any recommended teaching pros in the clubs nearby. That's a good sign because I wouldn't take lessons or have my kids take lessons at the clubs nearby. I took my daughter to a club about 45 miles away for lessons a long time ago.

So it may be a useful service for those that will pay more to save personal time. I assume that the consumer would have to acquire the court time.
Click to expand...

Did you make sure there was no additional results menu below the search results? Easy to miss it.
 
movdqa said:
I assume that the consumer would have to acquire the court time.
Click to expand...

Not so easy due to the club policies I mentioned before.

This summer my club even went after a college-bound girl (a club member) who was hitting with a little kid (another club member) and giving him pointers! They figured out she was being paid by the kid's father. That is how paranoid the club coaches are about protecting their income.

From what I read on here, even public and high-school courts have policies about allowing only some coaches to teach there.
 
I clicked on additional results but there was only one closer and his credentials didn't seem as good as the ones in the first section. The others in the second section seemed more geared to juniors than adults. I think that the initial set of recommendations takes your goals and desired approach in mind while second-tier recommendations list anyone in the area, whether appropriate or not.

This is not surprising as I'm not in a tennis-dense area.
 
I could see a video service working - kind of like this board but in a paid manner with dedicated staff. The problem is that you'd have to wait for feedback, same as with this forum.

I've definitely picked up useful pointers from reading the threads here, whether they are about a specific technique or suggestions to other people posting videos to get feedback. But not everyone works in that way.

I guess the club monopoly is pretty hard to break.
 
Zero results for my state and the closest appear to be in New Orleans which is 2.5 hours away by interstate.
 
sureshs said:
One question I have is: how does this get around the issue of clubs (and public courts for that matter) not allowing lessons by unauthorized pros on their premises? I can see it being useful to those with courts in their complex.

Does this company negotiate with a set of clubs for permissions to teach?
Click to expand...

Every public court I see around me prohibits lessons.

And it's very doubtful that they have agreements with these courts as that is too complicated and expensive.

Although convenient for the player, I don't see how this is a viable business model.

Most every quality teaching pro is based out of a home club. Not likely to get a good quality coach that makes house calls.
 
It might be a good option in two cases: those who live in housing developments with tennis courts, and those who have a private court.

Even the first one is tricky. When I used to rent, I was in a place with two lighted tennis courts. Due to the demand (which was not always high though), they had rules prohibiting teaching pros. The idea was that the courts were meant for enjoyment of residents, and the pro is an outsider hogging the court (and not paying the management a share of the money). However, you could have as many guests as you wanted - nobody checked or complained about that.

I also think they were concerned about liability issues when commercial activities occur on the courts.

So that leaves those with private courts in their estate homes.
 
Someone reading this thread contacted me about lessons based on my posts here. I just want to make it clear that I'm not looking for lessons - I was just curious about the business model.
 
I just thought of something. There are 2 Craigslist guys here who post every day. They have their own place but will go anywhere. I think every city has places where outside coaches can teach under the radar otherwise how are these guys doing it for years?
 
Scott from PYC - how it works

Hey guys, Scott Baxter here (CEO & Founder of PlayYourCourt). One of our pros pointed out this thread to me so I thought I would chime in and answer some of the questions about how we operate. Feel free to respond with any questions.

Our model is geared towards making it easier for aspiring players to get certified instruction in their neighborhood. We only hire certified pros and interestingly enough a good majority of our pros are part-time or full-time staff pros at private clubs looking to pick up some extra teaching revenue in their down time.

Pricing - we stay competitive if not a little bit less expensive than the same instruction would cost at the nearest facility. All of our pros are certified with strong teaching and playing backgrounds, so it is certainly possible to find a lower quality of instruction for a lower price point. Instruction with directors and head pros at clubs typically costs more than staff pros for the same reason. We are focused on quality of instruction and of course that doesn't always come at the lowest price point.

As far as the court logistics - our model is certainly not to sneak around on courts where we are not allowed. We are open in 44 states currently and the restrictions and rules on courts vary a great deal depending on the area. In some areas such as Northern Virginia for example, we (as a business) have contracts that allow us to use courts for private lessons. In other areas, such as LA, our pros themselves have permits that allow them access to certain courts for lessons. We only teach where we (business/pros) have permission, but we work hard to make sure we have enough court access to make instruction accessible in all of the areas we offer service.

At the end of the day my vision is to make tennis an easier sport to access. Right now lack of convenience is a big deterrent for both players and parents to get involved in the sport, and we're hoping to change that.

Cheers,
 
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