The Underrated Benefits of Tennis Leagues

THE UNDERRATED BENEFITS OF TENNIS LEAGUES

Last week we discussed the importance of joining a tennis league to improve your game, however leagues do more than just provide more practice. 

After coordinating a large in-house tennis league for nearly 2 years, I learned that one of the main reasons people join and continue playing in a league is for the social aspect of it, especially in doubles leagues. You will meet so many people, creating many lasting connections. I can't tell you how many times I've seen players in a match chatting as they come off the court, setting up times to hit with each other. In fact, tennis leagues create lasting friendships and good business relationships. I've met several business connections through our tennis league. Many players will also join leagues with their friends which is a fantastic way to keep active and motivated.

Another benefit of tennis leagues is getting the chance to play a variety of people from other clubs, but for the reasons you might think. Take USTA Leagues and City League for example. People bring food and end up interacting with opposing teams from different clubs. By talking with them, you might end up learning about new programs, events, and opportunities (tennis related or not). You might hear about a great coach to take lessons from, social events, etc. Whenever we host a City League match, we see this type of exchange of dialogue all of the time. 

Now for a shameless plug:

Sign up has begun for the Winter Session of our own in-house league, the Portland Tennis League, which starts January 7th, 2019. What's nice about our league is that we will created matches for you based on your availability every week. How it works is we'll send you an email requesting your

availability for the following week, then send you the match schedule we create a few days later. We do all of the scheduling for our players, making the process of playing in a league very easy. All you have to do is show up! Our league features:

• Doubles
• Singles
• Mixed
• 8 Matches guaranteed

If you're interested, head over to www.portlandtennisleague.com

        

3 Ways To Improve Your Tennis Game

3 Ways To Improve Your Tennis Game

Tennis, like any sport, takes years to perfect. While you might be naturally gifted at the sport, you will reach a point where your tennis game plateaus. Here are 3 ways to consistently improve your game:

#1 JOIN A TENNIS LEAGUE

This I cannot stress one enough. While it's fun hitting with your buddies, playing the same few people will not help you improve at all unless they are significantly better than you. You need to play new people on a consistent basis.This will expose you to a wide variety of players each with various strategies and playing styles. By playing a range of players, you will be able to adapt to different playing styles quickly. By joining a tennis league, you will be playing new players every week.  This can be City League, USTA, etc. This sounds like a plug, but we have a fantastic tennis league with doubles and singles that I would highly recommend. They do all the scheduling for you and you generally play against new people every week. Can't beat that. Check it out here: www.portlandtennisleague.com

#2 GO TO TENNIS CLINICS, HIT GROUPS, GROUP LESSONS, ETC.

This ties back into playing and hitting with other people, however this won't necessarily be strict match play. Going to clinics and hit groups provides an additional benefit of having a tennis coach moderating and analyzing how you play and how you can improve. Most tennis coaches will also structure their clinics and hit groups to include skill work and agility drills. We have an entire City League team at our club who take group lessons from one of our coaches just to improve their game on league matches. 

#3 TAKE PRIVATE LESSONS

This one sounds redundantly obvious but it's so often ignored and overlooked. I'd bet money that at least half of the players reading this who want to improve their game do NOT take private lessons. If you want to really improve your game, this is a non-negotiable! Coaches will point out flaws in your technique & form, and tell you how to improve on certain areas that may be lacking. Additionally, they will help you work on whatever your specific goals are. Probably 99% (don't quote me on the statistic) of the top players out there take private lessons or have taken private lessons.