Let’s Outfit a Tennis Room

[EdWeiss]

Our charitable organization (Norwalk Grassroots Tennis) has recently moved into new space (a modular building) and one of the rooms will be dedicated to tennis. The room is 20 feet by 30 feet (a little less in usable space since there is a small sink in one corner of the room) with an 8 foot high ceiling. The floor is Linoleum (a little slippery). I would love your ideas as to how to stock or decorate the room. We have a budget of roughly $750-$800 but could go a little higher if needed. I have listed below some potential items just to get the discussion rolling. Also, what about things like poster boards with pictures of strokes or important sayings? We already have a Great Base Backboard - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mWS_gwLIUw - so that does not count towards the $750-$800.

Some potential items for your consideration to get the ball rolling,

-Eye Coach: =$180 retail:

http://howtoplaytennis.net/

-Jump ropes of different sizes

-Balance boards – any in particular you like?

-Soft mats to be barefoot on and practice footwork and shadow strokes

-Foam Balls. Dr. Martin Baroch who speaks at various seminars sells ones that he believes are of better quality then the normal ones. http://api.ning.com/files/mQNS8aIZyE...scENGOct1a.pdf

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[tennis_chiro]

Our charitable organization (Norwalk Grassroots Tennis) has recently moved into new space (a modular building) and one of the rooms will be dedicated to tennis. The room is 20 feet by 30 feet (a little less in usable space since there is a small sink in one corner of the room) with an 8 foot high ceiling. The floor is Linoleum (a little slippery). I would love your ideas as to how to stock or decorate the room. We have a budget of roughly $750-$800 but could go a little higher if needed. I have listed below some potential items just to get the discussion rolling. Also, what about things like poster boards with pictures of strokes or important sayings? We already have a Great Base Backboard - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mWS_gwLIUw - so that does not count towards the $750-$800.

Some potential items for your consideration to get the ball rolling,

-Eye Coach: =$180 retail:

http://howtoplaytennis.net/

-Jump ropes of different sizes

-Balance boards – any in particular you like?

-Soft mats to be barefoot on and practice footwork and shadow strokes

-Foam Balls. Dr. Martin Baroch who speaks at various seminars sells ones that he believes are of better quality then the normal ones. http://api.ning.com/files/mQNS8aIZyE...scENGOct1a.pdf

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Glad to see you have the Great Base Backboard in there. That was my first thought. You should also consider mounting anchors which can be used at different heights with rubber tubing. Good pullup bars can be mounted high enough to be relatively "out of the way" and yet supply a tremendous fitness resource.

If the floor is flat with no dips in it, investigate whether or not you might be able to get some flooring material donated from one of the sport court manufacturers. My preference would be for Mele "Mateflex". Mele Manufacturing is in Utica. It's a great court surface and the sprung floor nature of the material would make it ideal for an activity room. Some sort of outdoor carpet might be better at muffling the sound echoing around in such a room. You could try the manufacturer's of Supreme Court. You might even find an old piece of JP Stevens Sportface lying around in a warehouse somewhere. That would be ideal.

But you are off to a great start with Smith's backboard. You should think about having a flat simple wall that can be used with foam balls. That wall could even be a mirrored wall and it would be great to have at least one large floor to ceiling mirror at least 5 or 6 feet wide.

don

[EdWeiss]

Thanks Don, all very good suggestions!

[klacr]

Ed,

Glad you posted this question on the forum. We spoke about this topic a weeks back and I gave you a few ideas

A few suggestions...

Jump ropes
Portable tennis nets
Balloons or light inflatable beach balls (helps kids when they pop the ball up to keep it up, doesn't go as fast as regualar tennis balls or foam balls. Give kids feeling of accomplishment when they can do a significant amount of ups from their racquet)

All of Don's suggestions are great as well.

Please keep us posted Ed

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton