This is just blatant, unashamed self-promotion of my first video I have made of myself for uploading.
I teach tennis as a way to pay my tuition (it easily pays for 80% of my tuition, albeit at the cost of nearly all my weekends), and my students wanted a video to look at during the week when they don't have a lesson with me. Youtube is so full of really crappy servers and bad instructors. So, yesterday, I decided to make my own video.
I hope you all like it. I have more clips of a 360 view of my serving as well, which I might upload later. Thanks!
PS - Sorry about the ums and uhs. Please feel free to criticize. I know you didn't see any of the balls going into the far court. I'll have to post another video to show that I can actually get a serve (or two) in.
Some of these bad YouTube tennis instructors or servers are really weird and painful to watch. I posted some links in a comment below.
- I thought this guy would actually be good. He's dressed in Adidas tennis gear from head to toe (shirt, shorts, shoes), and he's really tall. But at 3:58, he attempts a serve and it's not pretty. They should have edited it out, at least. And at the end of the video, he's serving in jeans and displays ugly form.
- London Gay Tournament. Haha. This isn't for instruction. Just funny.
- This lady walks out, with a wide brimmed hat, and wearing a GLOVE to hold her racquet! WHAT! Then she proceeds to slam balls against the chain-link fence. Cool.
u sound really nervous in the video, try to act confident and charismatic even tho u might have trouble with that. calm down man its not like ur speaking to the president of the united states barack obama who was born in honolulu hawaii and graduated from columbia university and harvard law school. barack was a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney in chicago b4 teaching constitutional law at chicago law school. he then went on to be a senator in the state senate and us senate and eventually ran successfully for president in 2008 against republican john mccain. since then he has signed economic stimulus packages, health care legislation, wall street reform, and an order to withdraw troops from iraq. he also won the nobel prize. but hes not watching this video so dont be nervous man.
On August 14 2010 03:22 baller wrote: u sound really nervous in the video, try to act confident and charismatic even tho u might have trouble with that. calm down man its not like ur speaking to the president of the united states barack obama who was born in honolulu hawaii and graduated from columbia university and harvard law school. barack was a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney in chicago b4 teaching constitutional law at chicago law school. he then went on to be a senator in the state senate and us senate and eventually ran successfully for president in 2008 against republican john mccain. since then he has signed economic stimulus packages, health care legislation, wall street reform, and an order to withdraw troops from iraq. he also won the nobel prize. but hes not watching this video so dont be nervous man.
Okay. I'll work on that. I was a little bit nervous, I guess. I only had one take because I only had 15 minutes to take the video, and I was stumbling over words like crazy. Maybe next time I'll rehearse what I'm saying once before I film.
On August 14 2010 03:22 baller wrote: u sound really nervous in the video, try to act confident and charismatic even tho u might have trouble with that. calm down man its not like ur speaking to the president of the united states barack obama who was born in honolulu hawaii and graduated from columbia university and harvard law school. barack was a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney in chicago b4 teaching constitutional law at chicago law school. he then went on to be a senator in the state senate and us senate and eventually ran successfully for president in 2008 against republican john mccain. since then he has signed economic stimulus packages, health care legislation, wall street reform, and an order to withdraw troops from iraq. he also won the nobel prize. but hes not watching this video so dont be nervous man.
On August 14 2010 03:22 baller wrote: u sound really nervous in the video, try to act confident and charismatic even tho u might have trouble with that. calm down man its not like ur speaking to the president of the united states barack obama who was born in honolulu hawaii and graduated from columbia university and harvard law school. barack was a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney in chicago b4 teaching constitutional law at chicago law school. he then went on to be a senator in the state senate and us senate and eventually ran successfully for president in 2008 against republican john mccain. since then he has signed economic stimulus packages, health care legislation, wall street reform, and an order to withdraw troops from iraq. he also won the nobel prize. but hes not watching this video so dont be nervous man.
On August 14 2010 03:22 baller wrote: u sound really nervous in the video, try to act confident and charismatic even tho u might have trouble with that. calm down man its not like ur speaking to the president of the united states barack obama who was born in honolulu hawaii and graduated from columbia university and harvard law school. barack was a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney in chicago b4 teaching constitutional law at chicago law school. he then went on to be a senator in the state senate and us senate and eventually ran successfully for president in 2008 against republican john mccain. since then he has signed economic stimulus packages, health care legislation, wall street reform, and an order to withdraw troops from iraq. he also won the nobel prize. but hes not watching this video so dont be nervous man.
On August 14 2010 03:22 baller wrote: u sound really nervous in the video, try to act confident and charismatic even tho u might have trouble with that. calm down man its not like ur speaking to the president of the united states barack obama who was born in honolulu hawaii and graduated from columbia university and harvard law school. barack was a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney in chicago b4 teaching constitutional law at chicago law school. he then went on to be a senator in the state senate and us senate and eventually ran successfully for president in 2008 against republican john mccain. since then he has signed economic stimulus packages, health care legislation, wall street reform, and an order to withdraw troops from iraq. he also won the nobel prize. but hes not watching this video so dont be nervous man.
post mroe tennis vids! im sure lots of people on TL play too haha and you look decent at the sport ( and if you do teach it every weekend im sure you must be pretty good)
Good video! I played tennis all the way through high school, and I teach occaisionally - but 80% of your tuition!? How do you manage to make that much? Do you teach private lessons or work at a tennis camp? I usually just do private lessons, but I only make around 100-200 per week...
On August 14 2010 12:46 masami.sc wrote: Good video! I played tennis all the way through high school, and I teach occaisionally - but 80% of your tuition!? How do you manage to make that much? Do you teach private lessons or work at a tennis camp? I usually just do private lessons, but I only make around 100-200 per week...
Well, in the beginning, it was difficult. I would post advertisements in the newspaper or craigslist to try to get new students, but I'd only get 2-3 students. So that'd be about $100-200 per week, like you said.
But now, I devote my time to the tennis courts at a large apartment complex. There are a lot more people there, and they live right next to the tennis courts, so it's easier to assemble a large group of students together. Truthfully, I think I just got lucky.
I have about 10 students under the age of 16, and 4 adult students. So 14 students total, at the apartment complex alone. I only teach three nights a week. So I average about 10-12 hours per week. This is enough to get me close to $500-600 per week.
It wasn't easy though. There were plenty of other young tennis instructors, and we had some scheduling fights too. But it's important to show passion and devotion to your kids. I talk to the parents after each lesson and get them heavily involved. I schedule weekly "Mini-Tennis" tournaments and reward the winners with candy and prizes. Once, I even brought my junior champion student (who is nearly as good as me now), and played him in an exhibition match in front of all my young students.
You and I are not registered or sanctioned coaches. But remember, the old tennis coaches only feed balls from a cart and charge more money. Our strength is in our ability to actually play points with our students and to be more interactive. I have what many old coaches lack: real competition experience. I know what it feels like to be nervous and to make mistakes. For instance, Andre Agassi's coach certainly can give tips to improve your game, but Agassi himself is the one who can truly give you advice from a player's point of view.