As a kid my options were simple as far as my tennis tuition was concerned , I had an option of two tennis Clubs in town , junior coaching was on Saturday mornings , if i required more then my Coach would give me a one on one for around $15 , not bad value . Let's look at it now days , how the times have changed;
If i were a parent who's child wanted to learn the game then i would look at the most convenient option , however if that convenient option wasn't available then i would have to look at option 'B', not as convenient but i would do what was required to get my child on court. School tennis is now available and has been for a few years now , it's how coaching providers saturate the market , but i am skeptical on the reasons for this service which i call 'baby sitting'. Here's how it works ; rather than take your child who is a beginner to a Tennis Club for tuition , you simply either drop them at school early for their lesson or let them stay at school longer for their after school session then pick them up later , pretty straight forward .
So what happens to the local Club just down the road who would like to see these kids walk through their gates after school and fill the courts for 20 minutes or so before the lessons start and in general , get a feel for the whole atmosphere of a Tennis Club ? Simple answer again , they miss out , the school now has that time.
It's interesting to note that some after school 'coaching' is being done less than a kilometer from some local Tennis Clubs , is this 'morally correct'? Some will say that it is introducing the game to kids without them having to leave their school grounds and in this respect it is a good thing, perhaps a sign of the times, everything needs to be laid out on a platter , like online shopping , you don't have to leave your 'comfort zone' to receive the product.
If the 'Coach' has any 'pulling power' he or she shouldn't have to leave the Club if the product that they are providing is any good , this was the case when i was a kid , it doesn't need to change , it's the 'Coach's' perception that has . All those years ago over 120 kids would come to the local tennis Club each week who's Coach had enough respect from the paying public to stay put , school 'baby sitting' was unheard of.
A Tennis Coach and a Tennis Club go hand in hand , only the 'Coach's' that are unsure of their own ability need to take their product any further than their Club . Some people use the game of Tennis for a Business and fair enough , some see it as a great way to make a living , others do it for a 'hobby', but let's not forget the fundamentals. If a 'Coach' is teaching at schools they are required to pay a fee for the court hire , Tennis Clubs generally make most of their money , apart from Membership , out of court hire , from both the public and the 'Coach', the Education Department makes plenty of $$ , Tennis Clubs don't. Could you imagine what would happen if real Coaches started going to schools and stating their case to the Principal that their program was better than the next bloke's ? Imagine the queue outside the Principal's Office then......
Do a good job , scrap the Schools and let the kids come through the gate at your Tennis Club, the public then has no choice but to look at everything on face value , keep it simple, the rest of the game is already too complicated....
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment