Tennis Coaching FAQs

Our Tots Tennis sessions are aimed at 3-4 year olds and designed to help these young players develop their agility, balance and control and ultimately have fun!

The Coaching Programme works on a termly basis and you can join mid-term if there are spaces available and only pay pro-rata for the number of remaining weeks.

Groups start with pre-school Tots sessions for players aged 3 and over, then continue through the blue, red, orange and green stages, for players aged 5-10, and then move into our yellow ball sessions for players aged 11+. We operate our age groups in line with LTA guidelines so if you are unsure which age group you should be looking at, please use the table below: include table

Our classes are separated by level:

• 4 – beginner
• 3 – improver
• 2 – intermediate
• 1 – advanced

• Level 4: A complete beginner or a player with very little experience. Cannot serve, rally or score and needs help understanding the rules of the game
• Level 3: An improver who can compete at the most basic level in their squad with assistance and would understand basic rules. Can serve (modified in some cases), hold a basic rally with the emphasis on getting the ball over and in
• Level 2: An experienced player who has competed at Grade 5-7 competitions. They can serve, rally and score and have a basic understand of the rules of tennis They have control over height, direction, and speed with a basic technique
• Level 1: A very experienced player who has competed in Grade 3-4 competitions. They can serve, rally and score and have an excellent understanding of the rules. The have control over direction, height, speed, and spin, and are technically sound

We follow the LTA guidelines and start moving our players to the next age-group where applicable before the Autumn term, to ensure all player moves are completed by the end of the year. Our administration team will contact you with the relevant class options when we are processing our age-group player moves.

First and foremost, our process is coach-led.  This means that if a coach feels they have a player in their class who needs to move up to the next level then the coach will contact our admin team, who will look at the options available. If there are suitable options available, the admin team will be in contact with you directly.  There may sometimes not be space in the next level up which will mean the admin team will wait for a space to become available before contacting you. we speak regularly with the coaches about the importance of developing children through the programme so that children can continue to improve their game.

You do not need to be a member of The Parklangley Club to be receive group coaching. However, if you are not a member, a £1.50 non-member surcharge will be added to each session, this excludes tots. For juniors attending more than one session per week, we recommend that you do become a member as it is more cost effective. Junior membership is £73pa.

Unfortunately, we don’t offer ad-hoc sessions across the coaching programme due to the size of the programme. The coaching course works on a termly basis and is booked as a course and so any missed sessions are paid for.

To secure the session space we would suggest keeping the course booking as it is. For those who cancel due to injury or illness, The Parklangley Club are unable to reserve spaces in group sessions. If the participant would like to re-enrol once healthy enough to do so we cannot guarantee a space in the session that they were originally in, as it may have become fully subscribed in their absence.

If an outdoor session looks in doubt, we will post an update on our website 30 mins ahead of the start time (where possible) with confirmation if a class is cancelled. The link is: https://www.theparklangleyclub.co.uk/cs/

Email us at tenniscoaching@theparklangleyclub.co.uk and we will inform the coach.

We invite all players to re-join the programme for the new term and automatically renew players into their existing classes unless we hear from you. We contact all players towards the end of each term to enable players to cancel should they decide to.

There is a four-week notice period for all group coaching sessions. Should you have any lessons scheduled after this time, these will be refunded to you.

Our popular holiday camps run during the school holidays, with sessions open to all players and abilities. The camps are advertised on our website a few weeks prior to camps being run. Bookings are made online using the LTA Clubspark booking links.

The most important thing about junior rackets is the size (literally the length in inches of the rackets). The following is a rough guide based on age/height.

• For Age 10 to 12 (4 ft 8 in. to 5 ft 2 in.) pick a 26 inch racket.
• For Age 8 to 10 (4 ft 4 in. to 4 ft 8 in.) pick a 25 inch racket.
• For Age 6 to 8 (3 ft 11 in. to 4 ft 4 in.) pick a 23 inch racket.
• For Age 5 and 6 (under 3 ft 11 in.) pick a 21 inch racket.

Our coaches direct contact details are listed on our website and coaching is organised directly with the coach.

For those attending one-to-one coaching onsite at The Parklangley Club, membership is required. If you are having coaching at one of our other venues, membership requirements do vary depending on the location and category of coaching you are having.