private vs group tennis lessons

ADULT TENNIS LESSONS

PRIVATE VS GROUP TENNIS LESSONS: Which is best for you?

So you have decided to take up tennis as a new sport and are looking for tennis lessons with a tennis professional. Or you are an active player looking to improve specific parts of your game through professional instruction. Now you’re asking yourself, which is best? Private tennis lessons or group tennis classes. As someone who has been on both sides of this question as the player and as the tennis professional, I would like to lay out for you a solid argument for which is best and give you a simple game plan to get started. The answer is not always about what is the “best” option, but what works for your goals, budget, and learning style.

In this blog post I will break down the pros and cons of both private tennis lessons and group tennis lessons to help you decide on which works best for you as a consumer and as a tennis player.

1. PRIVATE TENNIS LESSONS

• Pro: Personalized Attention And Lessons Specifically Designed For Your Needs

  • Your coach will create a lesson plan for you to improve the part of your game that you choose.

• Pro: Scheduling Flexibility (Great for players who are not always available when group classes are scheduled)

  • Schedule your private lessons based on you and your coache’s availability.

• Pro: 1 on 1 Interactions With A Professional Tennis Instructor

  • Your coach can adapt the lesson based on your interactions and cater to you on a 1 on 1 basis.

• Con: Cost (Higher Hourly Rate)

  • Having personalized attention by a certified tennis professional can be expensive

• Con: Limited Context (The coach feeds you or rallies with you the perfect ball)

  • Improving your game requires live ball hitting with players at your level. This is where you gain the most confidence when you don’t get the perfect ball.

Best For: Players at an intermediate to advanced level (2.5-4.5+ level) or someone needing an emergency technical fix.

2. ADULT TENNIS CLASSES: GROUP CLASSES

• Pro: The Social Motivational Factor

  • You make friends, have accountability partners, and the time flies by. (Key for players who want to improve ability to rally with partners at similar levels faster)

• Pro: Cost-Effective

  • Group tennis classes are much cheaper when you compare it to private tennis lessons, especially with an organization less focused on profiting off of it’s customers

• Pro: “Live Ball” Match Simulation

  • You get a chance to play with players at near your level that hit balls from different positions, speeds, and spins (like in a real match).

• Pro: Structured Progression & Drills, Specifically Designed For Your Level

  • Coaches usually create lesson plans for classes where over the course of the classes are meant to help you improve your ability at the level of play that you are currently at.

• Con: No Individualized Coaching

  • Because coaches need to focus many players in a class and create a lesson plan to help players advance as a group, there is no time for them to work directly with you and your game.

• Con: Little Flexibility In Schedule

  • Usually tennis classes are scheduled based on “prime time” hours (happy hour, dinner hour, early evenings, weekend mornings). This means that you must be available when the class is scheduled.

• Con: Lesson Plans In Group Classes Are Pre-Planned

  • Group tennis classes that run for a period of time (6 weeks, 8 weeks, etc.) usually have a strict schedule for what is being taught, so missing a class could cause you to lose an important lesson.

Best For: Beginners to intermediate level players wanting to get a handle on the tennis fundamentals so that they can enjoy playing tennis socially or work towards competitive play.

SUMMARY

If you are looking to get started in tennis as a beginner or as someone who hasn’t had tennis training before, Group Classes may be your best option. This will give you the best “bang for your buck” in terms of learning or relearning the fundamentals, has the best cost value and affordability and gives you the social interactions that make tennis fun and exciting.

If you are a busy working adult, have very little flexibility in your schedule and you have a handle on the basics, you may want to go with private lessons as a start and then look in to classes once you are comfortable in a rally and playing points. Sharing private lessons (semi-private lessons) are a great way for beginners to get the best of both worlds. This will reduce the cost, but give you better flexibility that group classes.

If you are an intermediate or advanced level tennis player (NTRP 3.5+) and are looking for tennis lessons to improve very specific parts of your game, then private lessons are the way to go. Getting with the right coach who can not only come up with drills to specifically work on your issue and has the ability to hit with you for live ball drills is probably the right option for you.

RECOMMENDATION

No matter which route you choose, having access to resources and certified professionals is key to long-term success on the court. The USTA is a great resource for finding programs, tournaments, leagues and certified coaches in your area. You can find a list of these on their website Here.

READY TO GET STARTED?

We an official USTA Community Tennis Association and Nonprofit Organization. Our goal is to grow the sport of tennis in the community by offering affordable programming for all ages and levels.

We offer Private Tennis Lessons, Semi-Private Tennis Lessons (up to 4 players), Adult Tennis Classes and Junior Tennis Classes throughout the year at Herbert Hoover Middle School in San Jose, California.

For questions on our programming, reach out to us anytime at admin@gripspintennis.com or call us at 650-499-9387

Good luck!