I recently signed my 5yo up for a Tenniskids class at her Montessori school. We missed the first class due to vacation and the coach just didn't show up for the second class. Supposedly he had a family issue, but his boss didn't know about it and the school was not notified he would not be there until several calls were made from the staff at the school. Because of that situation I was a little leery of the professionalism of the company, so I made it a point to arrive early to watch the tennis lesson. The coach, KC, was even tempered, patient, and friendly with the children, so I was very pleased initially. He also had all kinds of equipment that I could see would be very useful for teaching 3-6 yos. Including a tiny net which about 3 kids could stand at without being too close. I assume because of the tiny net, he was only instructing 3 of the 6 children at a time. The other 3 children were sent to play while waiting their turn. He actually told one group "you can play with the inflatable man" which had a hole in the middle, for hitting the balls through I assume. However, their was no instruction actually given to them. He moved the inflatable behind him so they would not get hit by a ball, but it was still out of his sight. The children of course started hitting it and jumping on it and some other kids from the school who were having recess came over and joined in on the fun. One of the 3 children getting the lesson decided they would rather play with the inflatable man also and left the actual lesson, leaving only my child and one other child getting a lesson. Which in theory would have been pretty nice to get a semi-private tennis lesson. However, a child came over 3 different times to tell the instructor the kids were doing something to her, being rough, etc. He listened patiently to her complaint each time and then walked over to tell the other children to stop rough housing and then went back to the lesson. The actual time of instruction could not have been more than 5mins total out of the 15mins I was watching.
My children have been in several different age-appropriate classes and my husband has been a coach for this age group for over 20 years, so we are well aware of how this age group can be taught/coached in a constructive and safe way. The curriculum should never include time where children are left unattended and out of sight. If the instructor can not engage 6 children at the same time, there needs to be an assistant or a different curriculum for this age group. When I brought this up to the owner of Tenniskids, Jeff Newell, his response was "Our price of $15 per class would not allow for two coaches, we would lose money". If the money is the only thing he cares about I definitely do not want my child in that program.
I will say, he did agree to give me a refund, minus the 2 classes that have already been held. He started his email response off by saying "I guess tennis isn't for everybody". Which is not really the point. My daughter loves tennis and has taken 2 other tennis programs (also for 4/5yos) while we lived in the SF Bay Area. Those two companies (one for classes and one for camp) seemed to easily keep all the kids engaged. If they weren't hitting the ball themselves they were listening to the instruction or running drills. I guess since the program is at the school they hope the parents don't actually come to watch, so they don't know what they are paying for is mediocre daycare with a tennis racquet. read more