Are Tennis Lessons Worth It? (In-Depth Guide)

Tennis, like all sports, can be quite hard to master. Luckily, there are always various options to choose from that can up your game and skills considerably. One of these options is tennis lessons, but before diving straight in and booking your own, it’s important to consider whether tennis lessons would be worth it?

Tennis lessons are worth it regardless of your skill level because you can always find a coach with better skills than yours; thus, you have something new to learn. Group and private lessons vary in quality and cost, but as a rule of thumb, group lessons are great for beginners and private for more advanced.

That being said, you can be assured that your money won’t be wasted if you decide to invest some in tennis lessons. However, you should always check reviews and other people’s experiences with the training group or coach because everything isn’t always as respected.

Before diving more in-depth into the world of tennis lessons, let’s take a quick look at when you should consider tennis lessons and when you shouldn’t take one.

When should you consider tennis lessons?

1. You want to speed up your learning

If you are serious about tennis and want to become the best player you can possibly be in a certain amount of time, then tennis lessons are what you need. If you are a total beginner, then group lessons can get you a long way. However, if you want to really speed up your game, then one on one private tennis lessons will give out the maximum benefits.

When you take tennis lessons, you can be sure that you are learning the strokes, footwork, timing, and everything in a correct way which will make you a better player.

2. You want to target a specific skill

Tennis lessons are also a great way to really hone a specific skill. For example, if you are having troubles with serving, a tennis coach could quickly show you the way by looking at what you are doing wrong and doubling down on that.

This applies to footwork, hand-eye coordination, timing, strikes, etc. If you want to really work on something, then tennis lessons will be great for that!

3. You have a lot of funds

Tennis isn’t the cheapest sport to play, and when you want to get some private tennis lessons, the prices will only skyrocket from there.

However, if you have the money and want to get an experienced athlete to guide you safely to the other side, then, by all means, invest some money for a great coach that will be really beneficial to your tennis skill mastery journey!

More on the costs of tennis lessons later!

When to postpone getting tennis lessons?

1. You aren’t serious about tennis

If you aren’t really serious about getting the best skillset and maximizing the learning for time invested, then I wouldn’t recommend wasting money on tennis lessons.

If you are more of a recreational player that really just enjoys the casual pass around with your opponent and are okay that acquiring the skills comes with time, then don’t get tennis lessons just yet if you don’t feel like it.

2. You don’t have a lot of extra money

Finally, as previously hinted that tennis lessons aren’t cheap and private ones often are somewhere near $50/hour so if you don’t have a lot of money to spend, then don’t use your last ones on tennis lessons.

There are a ton of ways to learn tennis other than with a coach or group lessons. If you want to know more about the alternatives, you can find a handful at the end of this article!

Keeping these things in mind, you should have a clear idea of whether you should take tennis lessons or not. The next step is to determine how often you should take lessons?

How often should I take tennis lessons?

In short, if you want to keep in good touch with the game, one or twice lessons per week will be great. If you want to see a decent improvement, three times a week is required. If you want to maximize your learning speed, then four lessons or more per week will make the most of it.

That is, of course, easier said than done, so there’s more to it than that. I always think about these three when I’m deciding whether it is my time to get some lessons in. These are the need to improve, the time you can invest, and the money you can spare. Let’s start with their actual benefits.

How fast do you want to improve?

Naturally, the more lessons you get, the faster you will see improvement in your overall gameplay or a specific skill, or where ever you are focusing your lessons.

As is said above, if you want to really maximize your tennis game, then you need to play multiple times a week, where at least a couple of them are tennis lessons tailored for your needs.

If you are more relaxed about honing your tennis skills, then one lesson per week is a great way to start at least.

Do you have a lot of spare time?

One of the two biggest factors that often comes in the way of tennis lessons is time. When you have school or work, perhaps a couple of kids and other responsibilities, time is the most valuable possession you have, and you might not want to sacrifice the little you have for tennis lessons thinking that you have the energy left to even do so.

Depending on where your nearest court is, how flexible the lesson times are, and the sum of all your other things in life, you might have the ability to squeeze in a tennis lesson here or there. All in all, you need to think about your time and schedule a bit to make everything work.

On the other hand, you might have all the time you need, which is great because then you can take multiple lessons per week if you have the money, which brings us to the second biggest factor. Money.

How about your funds?

Money is the universal tool that determines whether you can do certain things or not and how much. As previously said, tennis lessons aren’t cheap, so you need to figure out your money situation before investing in tennis lessons.

It’s important to keep in mind that when you decide to take tennis lessons, that often includes at least more than five lessons that will add up to hundreds of dollars.

Luckily there are different kinds of tennis lessons to choose from such as group and private lessons. Group lessons are far cheaper there are many tennis students paying to the coach, whereas private lessons you are the sole source of income.

Let’s talk about the differences between group and private lessons next.

Group Vs private tennis lessons

There are two main groups of tennis lessons: Group and private ones. As their names suggest, in group training there are many students whereas in private lessons you will be alone where you are able to get more focused training. Let’s review group tennis lessons, and it’s pros and cons first.

Group

I highly recommend group tennis lessons if you want to learn and see a variety of different game styles, get a lot of fun out of your training by socializing with others, and trying different group drills and even play doubles. As a bonus, group lessons are often cheaper as well. Below you can see quick pros and cons.

Pros:

• Training with others
• More drills and options
• Cheaper

Cons:

• Not tailored for your specific needs

Private

When it comes to private lessons, you are more able to voice out your goals and get targeted practice on those, your coach will often be more experienced, and your skills will get better faster overall. On the con side, private lessons are often quite expensive. Take a look at the pros and cons list below.

Pros:

• Better learning overall
• Often more experienced coaches
• Your wishes are better heard

Cons:

• Less training options
• More expensive

How expensive are tennis lessons?

When it comes to the cost of tennis lessons, there is no single right answer. The cost highly varies depending on whether it is a group or private lessons, location, and the experience of the coach.

For example, I have gathered a variety of different tennis lesson providers and their prices so you can have an estimate on what to expect when looking at tennis lessons. Take a look at the table below.

Lesson Provider	Type of Lessons	Hourly Cost
Lessons.com	Private	$60
Lessons.com	Semi-Private	$30
Lessons.com	Group	$20
TossAndSpin.com	Private	$55
MyTennisLessons.com	Find Your Own	$40-$200

As you can see, private lessons really aren’t cheap, and you are most likely to pay +$50/hr from them. Group lessons aren’t super cheap either, but $20/hour is considerably less than what you would need to pay from private ones.

It all comes down to what kind of training and coach do you want and how much money do you have. Many of the websites above let you insert your own zip code that locates the nearest coaches available for you, so give it a try even if you just want to look.

Tennis lesson alternatives

If for some reason you don’t want to take tennis lessons, or they don’t fit your budget, don’t worry! There are various other ways to learn tennis. Below are my personal favorites!

• YouTube
• Find an opponent and go to the court
• Strike to a wall repeatedly
• Watch professional tournaments from tv
• Learn from free courses such as DailyTennisLesson

From these alternatives, you are able to find world-class instructions on strikes, serving, footwork, timing, and everything between. When you need to take what you learned to a spin, just grab your friend, spouse, sibling, or other person and go to a tennis court and hone your skills.

Sometimes you just don’t have the time to go to a court or can’t find a partner to go with; in that case, I personally like to hit that tennis ball to a wall and improve on my strikes and arm strength. You can also go to the gym and work on the fitness level that will also benefit you next time you’re playing tennis.

The point is, you don’t necessarily require tennis lessons to improve your tennis game, and there are many other ways to learn as well. However, if you have even a slight interest in tennis lessons, I highly recommend them because you are able to quickly see how things are done.

Conclusion

All things considered, I am certain that tennis lessons are definitely worth it for most tennis players because who wouldn’t want to greatly improve on their tennis skills and destroy opponents after opponents?

Anyways, I hope that this article was helpful to you and you are one step closer to choosing whether you find tennis lessons worthy or not.