Feb 20, 2012

How to choose tennis academy?

  • Choose the program 
First, you need to decide the program and  how long you want to send a player to the tennis academy.

The main two types of programs are the summer camp and  professional program (compitition pro, academy training).


Summer tennis camp - a program for children from 6 to 16 years old in summer. Its better to start searching camps in March - April the latest, to be able to get all details, information about the academy and a visa (if required), and book tickets. In summer, the price of air tickets is increased. Many of the Academy will organize the camp, not only in the summer, but during the school holidays. If your child has a good tennis level, I would suggest choose a professional program for the summer period.

Professional program -  for any period of staying the whole year. Its always possibillity for joining groups any time during the year. I wont advice to come just for one week. A player will need time to adapt after the flight and get used to the training process and a new place. A minimum 2 weeks.  To evaluate the process of the traininig and understand  the whole idea you should plan your trip  for 1-3 months, then you can make right decision. 

If you would like to go to academy with a kid, you should inform the academy. Some academies dont approve parents in the training process of the kid.

  • Choose the country

The basic countries, where are all the players are going for training, Europe (Spain, France, Italy) and USA, there are also plenty academies in Czech Republic, Emirates, Asia and Australia. 

  • Pay attention to accomidation and meals for the player
Unfortanately, not all academies can provide accomidation in the academy. Most academies provide homestay (under 18 age) or apartments (from 18 age), or hotels. Situation with meal is more easier in all academies. They have cafes and restaurants inside.

  • What academy is right for you?

There are 2 types of academies:

  • Popular big commercial academies
  • Small unknown clubs

Unfortunately, many academies are using the names of famous tennis players. No need to rely on a player name. Tennis bussiness is not easy to create in a few years. Create a database, find  an experienced coach, who can manage the process of training, good fitness coach, as well as people who are associated with tennis and understand a lot about tennis.

Some small clubs can also compete with other great academies. Plus, a small number of players and low prices for training, but the clubs have a problem with the visa in the long term.

Choose the academy with the experience more then one year. 

Check the number of players in the program. The more people, the less attention the player will get.

  • Read the reviews

Try to get more information, who trains at the academy, if you play tournaments, you can meet coaches from the academies, watch how they comunicate with players, ask questions about their academy.

Reviews can help to get an idea of the academy, but dont believe them for 100%. Some reviews, that I read about academies, are far away from reality. 

  • Is it worth to go to the academy? 
Yes, as the academy helps to understand the system of training, tennis player's lifestyle, each contry has different vision of teaching tennis.