What is an intermediate player?

[Edward DFW]

What do you consider an intermediate player?

A place that I go to every now and then (to use the ball machine) has 2 types of open drills:

beginner / intermediate
and
intermediate / advanced

I haven't been to either and when I called about them to see what they mean by intermediate I didn't get any kind of meaningful answer.

I tend to think that the first one is 3.0 / 3.5 and below. Not sure what the cutoff is for the more advanced one. If I had to guess I would say 3.5 would be the minimum.

Your thoughts?

 

[HunterST]

What do you consider an intermediate player?

A place that I go to every now and then (to use the ball machine) has 2 types of open drills:

beginner / intermediate
and
intermediate / advanced

I haven't been to either and when I called about them to see what they mean by intermediate I didn't get any kind of meaningful answer.

I tend to think that the first one is 3.0 / 3.5 and below. Not sure what the cutoff is for the more advanced one. If I had to guess I would say 3.5 would be the minimum.

Your thoughts?

Just go to the intermediate/advanced unless you've been playing less than 6 months. The better your hitting partners are, the better you'll be.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

It really depends on the context. An intermediate tennis class at a community college might be primarily made up of lower level players than an intermediate tournament player. I would consider 2.5/3.0 to be low intermediates while 4.0 would be a very high intermediate. But that is really my own take on this.

 

[Blake0]

Beginner/intermediate will have players that are like learning strokes, or are developing consistency or something. Technique will be bad to okay, most players won't be too consistent.

Intermediate/advanced is for more competitive version for higher leveled players.Technique will be okay/good, most players can hit the ball for a couple balls and know how to play at around a 3.5+.

 

[LuckyR]

Intermediate means to me, someone who would benefit from stroke technique instruction, but is not a beginner. Advanced folks have honed their stroke technique and need to work on execution, tactics etc that is, they need a coach. An intermediate could benefit from an instructor.

 

[FuriousYellow]

Just go to the intermediate/advanced unless you've been playing less than 6 months. The better your hitting partners are, the better you'll be.

Disagree. The intermediate/advanced players are paying to hit with people at their level and continue to build on their skills. They don't want to be your ball feeders while you learn basic tennis strokes.

 

[HunterST]

Disagree. The intermediate/advanced players are paying to hit with people at their level and continue to build on their skills. They don't want to be your ball feeders while you learn basic tennis strokes.

Well I'm talking about what will benefit the OP, not other people. Also, I said only to choose that class if he's been playing for more than 6 months. By then, most people will be at least 3.0s and thus can fit into the lower level of intermediate.

 

[naylor]

Well I'm talking about what will benefit the OP, not other people. Also, I said only to choose that class if he's been playing for more than 6 months. By then, most people will be at least 3.0s and thus can fit into the lower level of intermediate.

... which, as a lower level intermediate, surely means attending the "beginner / intermediate" level? At that level, the intermediate works a bit less on learning basic technique, and a bit more on consistency - he becomes the feeder and "wall" for the beginners if need be, and can work with other lower level intermediates on improving execution.

I have attended sessions for intermediate / advanced players where one or two "lower intermediates" also attended. Typically, the "required" standard is where players can play rally balls cross-court or down-the-line that regularly go above 20 strokes (so 10 hits each). The main difference between the standards would be that the advanced players would be comfortable trading topspin forehands, and on the backhands they would be comfortable switching from slice to top depending on the incoming ball, and on both forehands and backhands they would generally achieve good depth on most balls. Whereas the intermediate players might often resort to pushing / blocking when caught by deep forehands, on the backhand most of their shots would be slice, and generally their depth would be more variable - but still, they regularly managed to get the rally going for 20 shots and beyond.

What usually happened is the lower intermediates never really got the routines going - not even when rallying with the better intermediates - and they found the entire session quite frustrating. And they didn't come back next time.

 

[HunterST]

... which, as a lower level intermediate, surely means attending the "beginner / intermediate" level? At that level, the intermediate works a bit less on learning basic technique, and a bit more on consistency - he becomes the feeder and "wall" for the beginners if need be, and can work with other lower level intermediates on improving execution.

I have attended sessions for intermediate / advanced players where one or two "lower intermediates" also attended. Typically, the "required" standard is where players can play rally balls cross-court or down-the-line that regularly go above 20 strokes (so 10 hits each). The main difference between the standards would be that the advanced players would be comfortable trading topspin forehands, and on the backhands they would be comfortable switching from slice to top depending on the incoming ball, and on both forehands and backhands they would generally achieve good depth on most balls. Whereas the intermediate players might often resort to pushing / blocking when caught by deep forehands, on the backhand most of their shots would be slice, and generally their depth would be more variable - but still, they regularly managed to get the rally going for 20 shots and beyond.

What usually happened is the lower intermediates never really got the routines going - not even when rallying with the better intermediates - and they found the entire session quite frustrating. And they didn't come back next time.

Good points. My thinking is just that it's difficult to improve rapidly when you're the best player amongst your class. I think it's always better to try to be hitting with people who are a little better than you. I was in a beginner's class for about 6 or 7 months and when I moved up to the higher level class my game really picked up. I think the beginner's class is absolutely necessary, but hitting with beginners severely limits how much you can improve. I think its benefits are really exhausted by about 6 months of play, thus my suggestion.

 

[mtommer]

OP,

Is the place a tennis club or just a place that also has tennis like the YMCA?

If it's the former I couldn't tell you. If it's the latter then beginner/immediate is probably people who are just learning to hit as well as those who can hit but are still concentrating on getting the ball exactly where they want it. The intermediate/advanced would most likely be those who can play a game of tennis, probably equivalent to 3.0 or 3.5.

 

[LeeD]

Of course, it's always better to find hitting partners and opposition just a little better than you. Playing with/against a soft hitter doesn't help your ego, your game, or ability to handle better players, but....
Consider the guy you're looking for .... maybe HE"S looking for a better player to play with, and it's not YOU.
I always see examples of slow moving slow hitters always wanting to "play up", but they constantly complain about having to play at their own levels.
Rant rant, rave rave......

 

[HunterST]

Of course, it's always better to find hitting partners and opposition just a little better than you. Playing with/against a soft hitter doesn't help your ego, your game, or ability to handle better players, but....
Consider the guy you're looking for .... maybe HE"S looking for a better player to play with, and it's not YOU.
I always see examples of slow moving slow hitters always wanting to "play up", but they constantly complain about having to play at their own levels.
Rant rant, rave rave......

Yeah I can definitely see how that would be a problem. Obviously everyone can't be playing people better than them. However, I've also seen PLENTY of people who don't want to be with players better than them because they don't want to be embarrassed or feel out of their comfort zone.