Classic Strokes Tennis Lessons

Our services are pretty simple: we give great tennis lessons that are also fun!

The lessons are also good exercise, however, and can be comparable to the sort of workout that you might get when working with a personal trainer - and are both a LOT less expensive and more enjoyable as you are outdoors and not stuck in a gym.  One of my clients who doesn't need any more lessons keeps scheduling more, however, as he says that the workout is much better than working with a personal trainer.

But, back to the tennis lessons.  As mentioned on our home page, we teach great fundamentals which goes along with our name "Classic Strokes."  I learned from an Australian pro who grew up in an era when Australian players dominated the game with perfect groundstrokes (you really needed them too when playing with wooden racquets - and on grass courts).  From how I learned to play, I can teach you the same consistent and repeatable classic strokes that can take your tennis game as far as you would like to go.  More about our classic strokes and lots of pictures can be seen on our Technique page.

The location is very convenient for most of San Francisco as we use a private court that is about three blocks north of the Civic Center (on Franklin between Turk and Eddy) and a map is on our contact page.  We can give lessons at a court of your choice, however, but there is a minimum $10 surcharge per lesson for the additional time and transportation expense.

Listed in the section below are the different prices for individual lessons or for various packages that you might find interesting.  The following may also be helpful as a reference for how many lessons may be needed to achieve your goals:

• Beginner: six to eight lessons to reach a point where you have good footwork, grooved strokes that you can continue to improve on your own (and the ability to sometimes hit six or eight good shots in a row), and a basic reliable serve that you can continue to improve for more speed and accuracy.
• Intermediate (2.5 to 3.5 rated): two or three lessons can have a big impact on your groundstrokes by emphasizing consistently repeatable fundamentals, good footwork, and hitting lots of different types of shots to you with varying pace and spin.  Allocating 20 minutes or so of each lesson to your serve will also typically result in more pace, control, and variety on your serve within three or four lessons.  Precise technique is also taught on more specialized shots such as volleys, serve returns, and overheads which can also usually be improved quite a bit within three or four lessons.
• Advanced (4.0 rated): Individual sessions that are essentially hitting practices can help you work on parts of your game on which you would like to focus.  As mentioned in other sections, I can hit a wide variety of shots to help you continue to work on and improve any areas in which you would like to be more consistent and have more powerful shots.

Classic forehand (note the racquet angle) and below is a classic backhand with the same racquet angle (see Technique page for more photos) and I can teach both a two-handed or a one-handed backhand. 

Client Comments

Although there is a separate page for client comments, since this web hosting service is such a great deal, some comments are also below:

Beginner comments:

"The instructor makes learning tennis very simple and straightforward. I feel that I am learning consistent strokes that will allow me to continually get better the more I play. Each lesson is getting more and more fun as I am now sometimes hitting good shots five and six times in a row and I am also hitting consistent serves that are also getting faster and faster" - Felicity S. (28 years old, after nine lessons)

"I never thought tennis would be so simple! I feel that I am being taught great fundamentals and I can already hit really crisp shots on both my forehand and backhand and with a lot of power." - Sherry P. (26 years old, after three lessons)

Intermediate/Advanced Comments:

"My volleys had always been very inconsistent but a combination of showing me proper footwork, keeping my racquet in front of me, and crisply punching volley shots instead of trying to hit them, has led to very quick improvement. I also now have much more range and versatility as I was given a wide variety of balls to hit with differing pace and trajectory." (John M., 3.0 rated, 43 years old)

"I had chronic shoulder pain and my serves were a lot less consistent than I thought they should be at my level. After hitting only about ten serves, I had my grip adjusted and the shoulder pain went away and I was getting in probably 50 percent more first serves and with more pace too. My groundstrokes were also helped too from earlier shot preparation and much smoother strokes instead of using a lot more wrist action as I did before." (Henry C., 4.0 rated, 33 years old)