Spot RI

I’ve been coming to this court for about 4 weeks now and I absolutely love it. They provide affordable tennis for all levels and ages. More importantly the staff and players on the court foster a family environment which is hard to find these days. All players, at all levels, from different backgrounds, are treated equally. There isn’t a system of favoritism because one player is better than another. At any time you can find some of the best players in the region and presently you can participate in clinics with pro’s who are in the top 1% in the world for practically free. If you find any place that charges less and provides the quality of play, and experience, they are mostly going out of business.

I’ve only had 2 lessons so far and I’m so incredibly impressed! First off, the very first interactions I had with the director Larry were terrific. I had trouble navigating the website to register so I called Larry and he was very responsive and eager to make it as easy for me as possible. Turns out I FAIL at navigating websites. The website is actually very user friendly and shortly after my phone call I found what I was looking for and easily registered.
A little background: I have never played tennis and have poor hand/​eye coordination so I was very nervous when I showed up to the courts but Larry gave me a very warm welcome as soon as I wandered up. I had my 2 kids in tow because my husband was running late to get them so Larry immediately handed them rackets and balls and let them go play. He obviously loves the game and really stresses the family and lifetime aspects of the sport. I knew immediately that I’d be signing the boys up for lessons this summer
The class that I enrolled in was 101 or beginner tennis. In addition to Larry there were two younger tennis professionals, Hassan and Tendai, helping out with coaching. It was a large group of varying abilities but they handled it well, Since my friend and I were the only ones who had never played any tennis, he gave us a little extra coaching. All three coaches were positive and encouraging and I had a great time but I was a little intimidated because it seemed like everyone else had more experience than I had.
Any doubts I had went away at my second lesson. Now that they had a better understanding of everyone’s abilities they separated the class into two groups: true beginners like myself with Larry and the more experienced players with Hassan and Tendai. Once again I had a great time but I actually felt that I got a little better. It was so fun I’m sure that I will want to continue. I think the fact that an uncoordinated person such as myself can come away from two tennis lessons with the confidence to take up the sport is proof that they know what they’re doing over there at SPOT. I can’t wait til my next lesson!

Lessons are mediocre; staff should be trained to manage children more appropriately: There’s a strong sense of «pick your favorite friend to play with» mentality which leaves some children feeling left out and lonely on the side lines. Not such a good way to nurture youths on their way to learning about team work and healthy camaraderie.
In sum, the program needs to improve on teaching kids better life skills together with focused, incremental steps teaching core tennis skills.