Coach Michael discusses the progress HAT has made on YouTube, the status of the 5280 voting and the importance of stretching after practice, match or workout!

By: Ryan Segelke


At High Altitude Tennis we are big on making sure our clients (players and parents) get the most quality and value out of the money they spend with us!  Our primary focus is the three hour team practice we run each weekday with private tennis lessons sprinkled in from time to time.  We do this because frankly I would rather my students spend three or more hours on court for the same price (and same quality instruction!) as a one hour private tennis lesson.  Often you will see a student who has been convinced that they need to take three or more private tennis lessons per week and in some cases they even get persuaded to hire a full time private coach ... Needless to say we do not recommend this for the majority of junior players!  

Before you start wondering if I mis-titled this article, let me get to why and how often I believe private tennis lessons are a necessity to a player looking to develop their game (at any age!).  

The one on one time that a private tennis lesson offers is a crucial part of the relationship between a player and coach.  This is particularly important for younger players who are at a very impressionable age. Having a knowledgeable, trustworthy coach who not only teaches strokes and strategy, but more importantly responsibility and life lessons will be pivotal in their development as a young adult. 

Let's say during the week I see that one of my students is having trouble with their backhand during a three hour team practice.  I don't have an hour to pull him aside and work on his backhand as this would be unfair to the rest of the team members.  So, I put him on video that day and show him exactly what he needs to do to improve it.  He writes it down in his journal and is coached to make sure he goes home to work on improving his stroke.  In my opinion this is a great time to suggest a private tennis lesson to make sure that the student gets the one on one time he needs to ensure that the concepts he is applying during practice and at home on his own are concrete and accurate.  

Determining the frequency of taking private tennis lessons depends on the situation.  If my student is working on his backhand needs a follow up tennis lesson or two to ensure he is staying on track I believe that's absolutely a great thing.  BUT what I would not do is to have him start to come in for multiple private tennis lessons per week.  I once heard a coach say that he would rather give a 1-minute tennis lesson than a 1-hour tennis lesson because he wanted his students to learn how to be independent thinkers and that being an independent thinker was crucial to their success in tennis and in the real world.  I am in this school of thought as well!    

It really comes down to balance and common sense.  I really enjoy teaching private tennis lessons and being able to focus in on one student for an hour or more at a time.  I just have to remember that I have a responsibility to make sure that I am giving the student the proper information so they can go home and improve their game whether it be in the backyard, super market or at the local courts.  Better yet, maybe they go home and help their mom or dad with their backhand or serve!  It's not what I know, but what my students learn! 



If you are looking to get back into tennis or would like help on a stroke or two in particular, sign up for a private tennis lesson!  

By Steve Smith

One short answer would be juniors change so often because pros do. Juniors do copy pros.

A longer answer would be the role of the ‘buyer’, the ‘seller’ and the ‘taker’. The buyer is the parent(s). The ‘seller’ is the tennis coach. The ‘taker’ is the junior tennis player.

Yes, as always, there are exceptions to the rule but this is how the typical scenario plays out.

The buyer (parent)  has no idea what they are buying. They are writing checks with little or no experience and little or no tennis knowledge. The buyer is an under-educated consumer.

The seller (coach) knows what they are selling and it is not tennis development. They are selling credibility and credibility is not product knowledge. Credibility means you are believable, not necessarily truthful. To be truthful as a tennis educator, one would need information.

Teaching is information transfer. Unlike the buyer (parent), the seller (coach) has experience. But the seller generally does not have an abundance of tennis knowledge. Actually, it is a tragedy how little product knowledge the seller usually has. The seller is a street entrepreneur. If the seller were selling cars, he could convince you that if you bought a car without tires you would save on air.

The taker (junior player) just takes. They take private lessons, groups, clinics, camps as well as one-on-one fitness sessions. The junior player, like the parent, has little or no experience and little or no tennis knowledge. Of course, the junior player, like the parent, gains experience the longer they are in tennis. But seldom do they truly gain tennis knowledge because the seller does not have it.

Note: If there were such a thing as product knowledge, the product, which in this case is tennis, would have to be produced. Players would have to have serves, volleys, specialty shots and the list goes on. Players would have complete games and be a ‘ finished player’; which used to mean that you can play all over the court and finish a point at the net.

Back to the buyer (parent). The parent is going down a path for the first time. Siblings are usually close enough in age that their tennis path with coaching is the same as their brothers and or sisters. The parent is going down a path that they have not been down before and with no directions. The parent usually can only rely on their opinion or the opinion of others, on how to evaluate a coach, but the method in most cases has little or no merit because their judgment is usually not based on fact. Coaches generally are 98% people skills and 2% product knowledge. The parent loves personality. The upbeat, cheerleading coach that is full of optimism, has pockets full of money.