The Academy runs five days a week, for three hour sessions from 630P-930P. (In the summer hours, we go from 930A-1230P). The Academy is designed to develop high performance players who are focused on tournament play. We begin the session with a full stretch and warmup that involves basic fundamental shadowing drills. Then we do multiple ball drills including the serve, volley, overhead. After that we put the players into various groups to do some match play, supervising the players, correcting and adjusting their technique as their games are slightly different when there are points involved. After the match play portion, led by our fitness coach, we do an intense ½ hour tennis specific fitness to incease the players’ speed, endurance and power. We end the session with a cool down stretch.

Yes. Many of our competitive players also supplement their training with private tennis lessons. Call (562) 666-1779 to schedule a session and to discuss rates.

We see the players as a family. We take a look at each individual kid and what they need. We do drills and fitness as well as match play. Most academies just do games and match play.

We coach kids starting at five years in private sessions. We will be developing a group session soon.

UTR (Universal Tennis) is more important these days because most of college tennis recruiting is based on your UTR rating. The USTA ranking is just an American ranking. It doesn’t apply to other countries. UTR is universal.

The next step from UTR is ITF (International Tennis Federation). The next step after ITF, is WTA or ATP.

I always say don’t aim for college; I say aim for going pro. Everyone focused on going pro will also be preparing to play for a Division 1 college. For example, if you’re a UTR 11 and above, you’ll have a pretty good chance of making a Division 1 team. Most players in Division 1 tennis teams have ATP or WTA points under their belt.

To prepare for pro tennis, you must train everyday at least 3 to 4 hours a week.

At Silva Tennis Academy, I will also work with your junior player on their recruiting videos, focusing on what college coaches want to see and what colleges require.

We train adults in morning sessions. The main focus for adults is to make them understand how tennis works, to really develop a more instinctual tennis IQ on the court and also how to manage the pressure of playing. Tennis is more than just learning skills. Tennis is a life sport. These sessions are especially good with parents of our junior players because they can empathize first hand what their kids are feeling like on the tennis court.

Yes, of course. It’s not about age. It’s about level.

We try to understand what their goals are. What their mindset is. What they want to do.

No longer just social tennis, I train them using a building process. In competition, being successful in tennis matches is about gaining experience and being exposed to various scenarios and patterns. You have to learn a variety of tennis – soft balls, hard balls, angles, learning patience about working the point; working on the mental aspect. As I stress with the juniors, it takes 100-150 tournaments for a tennis player to understand all the elements. We emphasize to not stop trying. My dad used to say, “when something clicks in your mind, it clicks. Gotta keep working every day. One day it’s going to click.”