YMCA Arlington Tennis & Squash Center

I am so glad I found the YMCA Arlington Tennis Center to continue playing tennis. I relocated from New York City and was worried I wouldn’t be able to play indoor tennis in Arlington but this place is awesome! 8 indoor courts, friendly staff, and one of the best customer service experiences I have had in a long time at a fitness/​recreational facility. Plus they give you free court time in the summer! I highly recommend.

I love playing tennis and have been playing almost my whole life. I come from Socal so we’re all about our tennis, but once I moved to the east coast I realized that I needed to find a facilities asap. For once in my life I was going to splurge on the facilities and pay membership to be in an indoor facilities. This place has 1 perk. That 1 perk is that there are 8 indoor courts, but that’s pretty much about it. Membership fee from Feb — Sept is about $ 340, but I was willing to pay. Anyways, after the membership fee, to even play on the courts, you have to pay between $ 18 – 24 per hour or join a clinic and that’s about $ 35 per session. As I was saying… I was willing to pay to play, but what has stopped me from continuing is the constant terrible and rude customer service that I’ve received. If people are paying this price, then they should probably have better service.
I’ve been trying to go to one of the clinics for about 1 month, but their coaches never reply back to you or management takes awhile to reply back. They have terrible customer service, the staff are rude. I called in few times to find out more information and every single time, they were ambiguous and told me to come in to see the rates since they always change or they would tell me that they didn’t know and I should check the website (which is confusing to navigate). I filled out an application and was getting ready to pay for the membership fee, when the office staff didn’t know how much I would be paying for the membership fee. I told her I didn’t feel comfortable writing down my credit card information without knowing how much I would be paying. She gave me attitude for not wanting to do so. I finally settled on telling her to have the director call me or email me how much the fee was going to be and if it was reasonable, I’d give the director my card info.
Finally I went in person and checked out the facilities from the lobby. They wouldn’t take me on a tour of the facilities. But the desk staff let me see from the window. Once again, I was willing to pay to play, but then the straw that broke the camel’s back for me to write this review and decide to take my business elsewhere was the fact I just called in to see if there were any spots open for tonight clinics and whoever I was on the phone with curtly told me to call back in 10 minutes. I had asked him if he could email me the answer because I was headed to a meeting and wouldn’t be out until it was time for the clinic. He was disengaged with our call and in fact talking to someone else while I was talking and then promptly cut me off by putting me on hold without letting me know. I stayed on for about 4 minutes before I decided to hang up.
I’m extremely disappointed. I love the game and wanted to get back out on the court, but they have turned me off from playing here.

Game, set, match! YMCA has eight, indoor tennis courts. The courts were resurfaced about a year ago and play fast. The lighting is good. The place is showing it age because the roof leaks whenever it rains. Southside courts are much warmer than the Northside courts during the hot summer months due to weak air conditioning.

…Where do I start…
There’s in-​fighting and turnover.
The a/​c in half of the courts don’t work.
The coaches and director never call you back. The front desk person told me that the director never checks his messages or returns calls.
The front desk people are easily overwhelmed by basic data entry. Everything takes forever, and things are done with a high error rate. Court reservation messed up, charged money to wrong account, etc.
There’s poor coordination between the front desk and the coaches and director. Once, I showed up for a weekly clinic, and found out only after arrival that the session had been cancelled.
The equipment is in poor condition. Ball machine clicker doesn’t work, the rolling ball collector basket is broken on all four corners so that balls slip out, broken metal edges are an injury risk, etc. The front desk person also told me that restringing a racquet there takes a long time. They recommended that I take my racquet to the tennis shop instead.
The locker room is ancient and crumbling. Some lockers don’t close/​lock.

So I’ve been going here 2 – 3 times a week, so I’d say I like it. I’ve been going to two clinics with Coach Neal. He has given me some good tips on improving my game. My only complaint would be that it’s always the same drills, but I don’t care too much as long as I’m hitting. It can be tough to get into a drill because most of them are pretty full, but I’m working my way in. The players are really friendly and helpful about other opportunities to play. I’m glad this is my home base.

Wow… I called asking politely about Court Time, said that only members could register. Then I asked if she might possibly know any other indoor tennis facility and got a swift «No I don’t, goodb– *click*» A bit rude…

Coach Neal is a phenomenal instructor! He takes your game to another level by keeping it simple and imparting key words to improve your mental focus. I’ve seen him work with both youth and adults and achieve the same level of success. Coach Neal is the BEST instructor to select if you are at the Arlington YMCA. My game steadily improves with each lesson I take from him!

Nice indoor tennis court. Limited parking.

I joined the club about a year ago and really enjoy it. I had been playing tennis for many years but did not enjoy the game as much as I did not see any improvement. The same old bad habits again and again. After I started going to the drill classes and doing a few lessons, both the technical aspect of my strokes and strategy for winning improved immensely. The club is very low key, you hardly notice it when driving by, but they have eight tennis and two squash courts. They also have free child care for members at the Y next door and the care is of high quality. (Times are limited)
Do a few drill classes and work with a couple different pros. Some are geared to beginners, some are geared for players who want to develop a harder hitting, more aggressive game. With the wet, cold winters we have, an indoor facility nearby is a huge benefit for tennis players who want to hit all year.

I take my son (under 10) here once a week for a two hour lesson. He loves it and the teacher to student ration is 1:8 and the instruction is outstanding, The administrator is a great guy and very friendly. The facilities are unbelievable and I feel so lucky to have this club near my home. I signed my son up for a one week tennis lesson this summer.

I have mixed feelings about this tennis center… I started coming here initially because of a deal on Groupon, so I’m not sure if other customers are generally treated differently. I purchased two tennis lessons and a month long Y membership. When I called in to schedule the lessons, the tennis instructor I spoke with was not friendly at all… then, for the second scheduled lesson, the instructor never even showed up! Maybe 30 – 40 minutes into the lesson, another instructor came over and said he would just take over it for the missing instructor. Although I didn’t end up getting the full value of the lesson, I ended up sticking with the instructor — Coach Neal was great. I went back for a few more lessons with him and paid full price. He is very patient if you are new to tennis and is a very encouraging instructor. For those people that decide to take lessons here, I would stick with someone reliable/​friendly like him.