Private Lessons: Sacred Cow or Outdated Tradition?
The private tennis lesson is often seen as the holy grail of player development. It’s where “real progress” happens. Where serious players go to fix flaws, fine-tune technique, and get individual attention. For many parents, players, and traditional coaches—it’s essential.
But what if it’s not?
What if private lessons, as we know them, are not just overrated—but fundamentally flawed?
A Traditional Paradise: Why Private Lessons Make Sense in Old-School Coaching
If you coach through a traditional lens—cognitive, linear, information-heavy—private lessons are perfect:
- You get time for bespoke technical analysis
- You can isolate skills and control variables
- You can repeat movements with minimal distraction
It’s a cognitive and information-processing paradise. It makes total sense… if you believe coaching is about fixing technique and transferring knowledge from coach to player.
But what happens if we step outside that paradigm?
Ecological Dynamics: The Case Against Private Lessons
From an Ecological Dynamics perspective, private lessons lose their magic.
Why?
Because learning isn’t about absorbing technical input. It’s about interaction with the environment—with real problems, real opponents, and variable contexts.
And private lessons are often:
- Unopposed
- Over-controlled
- Lacking variability
Skill, in this view, doesn’t transfer well from isolated or decontextualised settings. Hitting a “perfect” forehand in a one-on-one session does not prepare a player for chaos, unpredictability, or decision-making in a real match.
Even When I Coach Private Lessons Now… It Feels Flawed
I still run the occasional one-on-one. But even with well-designed constraints, clear intentions, and purposeful practice design, there’s a fundamental mismatch:
I’m not 9 years old. I don’t move like a 9-year-old. I don’t perceive the world like a 9-year-old.
Even if I try to simulate the problems they face, I will never be attuned to the same information. I don’t share their affordances.
So yes, I can guide their attention.
Yes, I can shape their intentions.
But I can do that just as well—maybe better—in a small group or squad environment.
The Group Advantage: Richer, Cheaper, More Representative
Here’s the kicker: group sessions not only cost around 75% less per hour, they often provide:
- More game-like scenarios
- Social interaction and peer learning
- Increased variability and decision-making
- Multiple opponents and co-adaptive problems
And yet we still tell parents that one-on-one time is where the “real development” happens?
It’s not just tennis either.
I was offered private football lessons for my daughter recently. Private football?! As if running around cones one-on-one with a coach is going to prepare her for a 6v6 chaos-filled match on a muddy pitch. I laughed.
We Need to Stop Selling the Illusion of Progress
Here’s the hard truth:
The private lesson is often sold as a fast track to improvement.
But in reality, it’s a neatly packaged illusion.
Yes, players may feel more “technically correct” afterward.
Yes, parents feel like they’re investing in something premium.
But real learning doesn’t come from isolation.
It comes from interaction.
It comes from struggle.
It comes from variability, emotion, and feedback from the environment—not just from a coach’s voice.
If We’re Serious About Modernising Tennis Coaching…
We have to be brave enough to say: the private lesson needs a rethink.
That doesn’t mean scrap them entirely. But it does mean:
- Stop treating private sessions as the default path for every aspiring player
- Shift the purpose: from technical tune-ups to guided exploration
- Rethink how we create value in a 1:1 format
If you’re charging top dollar for a service, make sure it reflects how players actually learn.
Not how coaches like to teach.
Final Thought: It’s Time for a Coaching Upgrade
Private lessons are not inherently bad. But they’ve become over-glorified and under-scrutinised.
If we truly believe in player-centred learning, in dynamic skill acquisition, and in long-term development, then we need to design practices—not just sell time slots.
🎾 Want real development? Stop trying to fix players in a vacuum. Start helping them thrive in the environments they’ll compete in.
