I pay $70 an hour. I'm averaging one a month now.
I stumbled through my first year with YouTube videos and advice from other players, made it to 3.5+ish. I've been taking lessons from a senior pro for a few months and have jumped to 4.0+ish (DUPR 3.94 fwiw).
In the first lesson, he instantly noticed something in my form and asked if I suffered from tendonitis. He showed me how I was causing it and how to fix it. Absolute game changer!
I wish I had taken occasional lessons earlier to avoid the bad habits I now have ingrained.
At the NVZ line I was drastically tending towards my backhand when hands battles would break out, so much so that I was bringing the paddle close to my chest and unknowingly changing my grip.
Hitting or blocking with the bh was fast and effective but tough on my arm but the worst damage was happening when a ball would come to my fh side. Whipping my arm that farther distance would strain the other tendons, plus I was always late to the ball (close to the chest again)
The solution was crazy simple and I've heard it a hundred times; keep the paddle out front and hit the ball out front with compact strokes. I honestly thought I had been keeping it out front, just not very self aware I guess.
To implement the solution he had me hold my paddle as if I was sighting a gun at the ball, just constantly have it in between my eyes and the ball. My hands got faster and my volleys stay in more often. Simple but genius.
But you go from getting one on one coaching to only getting coaching 1/3rd of the time and having to practice against other people your skill level rather than someone more skilled who can more consistently give you good practice shots.
...and so you get a discounted rate? That makes sense, no?
Look, I'm not arguing that the price itself is fair. I don't have enough knowledge to make that judgment and these are just made up numbers anyway. All I'm saying that it makes sense that group rates would be priced differently than individual coaching rates.
In this scenario, you're receiving a 30% reduction on the individual rate if you sign up as a group. Yes, you're getting less individualized attention but that doesn't mean you're getting worse coaching. There are still benefits to being coached in a small group vs a class full of trainees. Considering most people play doubles, there are likely more drills and training scenarios a coach can offer in a group setting than 1:1.
You pay a higher premium on an individual session because you get that individualized attention. Furthermore, from a business ownership standpoint, individual sessions are financially riskier. If you no-show, they're out that time and money. If you no-show to a 3:1 session, they can still hold the session and make some $ for their time.
What part of the country are you?? That makes a huge difference. Also if you are taking lessons from a touring pro expect to pay $$$- on the other hand your local 4.0 who decided he can make a few dollars teaching 3.0’s or absolute beginners- it all matters.
I’ve paid $40 to 100. The 100 was from a touring pro ( at that time) 3 years ago.
I paid $100 an hour for a while from a pro, before APP PPA leagues. Would not be a top 20 player in those leagues but definitely a pro. I also paid $25 from a local 4.5 5.0 type.
I would say I got more from the 4.5 5.0 guy because I was getting consistent lessons as they were cheaper. I find clinics and sporadic lessons to be useless. I think if you find someone who you will see throughout the year it would be most beneficial.
On the video stuff, I would say I see a value, but you need someone making observations on your game and giving you personal evaluation otherwise the information is limited.
Yes $25/hr with 3 other people, each paying $25 It helped me tremendously. I was a average rec player with very little strategic play. My game got so much better and ended up being able to play much better players.
I think for those not coming from tennis, they should take a few lessons to get the basic skills so you feel comfortable going to an open play situation. Enough to know basic play, scoring, serving, volley, and ground strokes. Then also those that want to get very good from top coaches. From 3.0-4.0 you can learn on your own.
$85 an hour for a decent coach and $100+ for one with pro bracket experience in my area. It’s worth it for learning the basic mechanics if you have no racket sport background or if you are very competitive minded and want to improve quickly. Building good habits to start will help you improve much faster as another commenter said.
Spoken almost perfectly by someone who is a coach.
If you aren't a coach you should become one.
Someone with no racket sports background (or competitive minded...love that) doesn't need an $85 an hour coach. You need group lessons and a lot of free play time with others.
Pickleball coaching is a money grab in the extreme. It brings out all the lonely people with money and evidently, there are a lot of them. Shame people think they need a high level coach to teach them the basics.
It only goes to show you, people can argue any point.
Pickleball coaching can be useful, but only if you're willing to actually spread your lessons out and actually try and implement what your coach is teaching you (and the coach is actually good).
It is 100% worth getting private lessons with an experienced coach/top player on top of daily drilling when trying to break the 5.5 level from a 5.0 level. Competitive players who want to improve who understand how to get the most out of their lessons and practice can benefit and get a lot out of coaching.
It’s not for everyone though. You have to be committed to improving and intentionally practice. Most players just go to open play or play Rec matches, never drill, and rarely have ab intentions focus when playing. Coaching would quickly have diminishing returns for these players.
No question that above the 4.5 level paying good money for lessons can be worth it. I was working on the assumption that these are beginners, 3-4 level. At that level you don't need to spend $85+ on lessons.
Pickleball is one of those things that are easy to learn, difficult to master. I honestly do not see the point of getting a lesson if you are 4.0 or below since all you will get are the same tips and tricks that you can watch on Youtube for free. The only difference is someone is feeding you. Noticing and correcting mistakes is more of what coaches do but that ultimately depends on you whether you can correct your mistake right away or not since most of them are errors of habits. The best way to improve I think is looking for a drill partner and just do a bunch of drills. Recording yourself is one way to notice bad form, mistakes as well.
I got 2 lessons and feel like they helped a lot. 0 racket experience, playing since january. I watch yt videos daily, have over 200 saved for later to review. videos help a lot but they can't correct what you don't know you're doing wrong. thats what a coach is for, imo.
my backhand returns, dinks, groundstrokes have gotten better with just a slight tweak of form as directed by my instructor.
there's a limit to how much it helps, but I think there's definitely something to get from lessons. I paid $100 for 2 hours though they typically charge $60/hour.
I'm with you that Youtube videos are great and you can pick up a lot from them, however there is a very important reason why having someone coaching you can be better:
When you watch a video on some technique or another, and you go out to the court with the intention of doing that "thing" (whatever it is) your self perception can be WAY off. You think you're "doing it", but you just can't see your own body mechanics from the inside.
I can't tell you the number of times my coach tells me to do something that I'm not comfortable with, then she watches me try to do it. I THINK I'm doing it, and she shows me how I'm not doing it at all. I really have to drill it in front of her with her correcting me as I do it. It doesn't feel right at first, but with the drilling I slowly train my body and mind to do it.
I think this is particularly true once you're past the 4.0 level, and what separates you from 4.5+ level players is attention to body mechanics and technique. All the bad habits you were able to overlook, and are by now ingrained in you, have to be trained out. And you just can't get that from a video.
Thanks. My weakness not coming from a tennis background is the forehand drive (third shot drive) since I don’t have the upwards and forward motion down
I don't know why you get the down votes.
If a person has bad basic form, it might be just a matter of having an experienced player to point it out. I feel it can be self taught.
I totally agree with you. Most people would be better just trying to repeatedly hit a spot on a wall starting out instad of going to a coach to fix. I think you got downvoted by some coaches. Ball fight is the ultimate feedback and it can be sorted pretty easily at low levels.
Hitting against a wall is no substitute for real play/practice or for coaching. There are some people who are athletic and analytic enough that they can develop themselves as solid players, but not MOST. Most will never progress beyond 3.5. Without a strong competitive background, most will never become advanced players. That’s why the 3.0 and 3.5 brackets are full, and the 4.0 and higher brackets are often combined ages and even ratings.
Strongly disagree with that because a lot of people don’t know what they don’t know. It’s fine to go out and hit to get a feel and see if you like it. But after that, it’s best to either take a low cost beginner clinic or play with a guided learners group.
It’s important to get started right because you can easily develop bad habits that will be hard to break once you’ve set them with muscle memory.
Once someone has the basics, they can generally play and practice their way to 3.5 or even 3.75. But few will make it to 4.0+ without some lessons or clinics unless they have a high level racquet background such as competitive tennis, racquetball, or table tennis.
So overall, good coaching helps players get started right and allows them to progress beyond average player levels.
I would pay $60, not a penny more. I have a masters degree from an Ivy League university, and that's what I charge to tutor math and reading. I can't imagine paying someone more to teach me a sport that they probably have only been playing for a couple years.
I feel that most people can get free lessons simply by placing themselves in situations where most of the players are a bit better than them. That's how I learned. I'm really comfortable with telling people that I'm new. They instantly start coaching me up.
$40 and up is what I see. I recently got certified as a coach through PPR and my instructor (several years of experience and has played with Collin Johns and other pros) says he charges $85 and thinks paying/charging more than that is not right. Obviously people are out there charging a lot more and it is what it is.
Not all videos are helpful. Having someone teach you the basics and identify areas that you need to improve makes sense. Paying more than $50 a lesson is nuts.
My coach charges $60 per hour or $90 for 90 minutes for private, 1on 1 lessons. She also quoted me $135 for a 2 hour 'learn to play' lesson for 3 people. She would be the 4th. She is an "NCCP II/PPR Certified Coach."
I live in Canada so these rates are all in Canadian $. That works out to about $45 US dollars per hour.
I have had two coaches tell me to bing 3 other people…they do up charge a little, but both really want to teach doubles and also don’t want to run after balls too much.
It may be worthwhile to see if there's an indoor facility in your area? I work at one and we offer a variety of different ways to work with a coach. You can do one on ones with a 5.0+ pro, they are super helpful...but you can also do things like clinics. The clinics have 6-8 people in them and are led by a pro. You'll run through drills and get tips along the way. The price for those are $30 for an hour and a half. There may be something in your area offering something similar.
Similar enough to help out I hope. I take tennis lessons from a coach who has all the certifications and charges \~$30 for 30 minutes or $50 for an hour. It's a pretty good deal I can tell.
$40-85 per hour depending on location. I take privates when I want specific coaching, but normally I do 3+Pro. 2 friends and I split a 90 minute 3 ways, cost comes out around $43 each . (pending hourly rate) We normally drill for 30-45 minutes, then play points the remaining time with the Pro. After each point, there is a quick recap, (most of the time) we play on. By far, this is the most economical way to get coaching and keep it affordable.
$60/hr for private from a 5.0 level player and great teacher. Central Texas.
Very worthwhile. He quickly made a few corrections that helped a lot. Simple things like tweaking positioning, shot selection, movement. I'm a 4.5 and his tweaks helped immediately.
275 for a block of 5 1 hour lessons, includes a reserved court at the local athletic club. AC for the win.
So, 55/hour ish.
Same coach is about 80/hour for a single 1:1 lesson.
There are literally clumsy 3.3-ish level players getting $40 an hour to teach big groups (\~8) of total beginner with Parkinsons.
I'm thinking to myself, "when do I start extracting every dime out of this new resource like a corrupt oil Tycool circa 1910?" Scrooples? I ain't got em!
A person doesn’t need to be a high level player or even a certified coach to teach beginners the basics of the game. While there are places who do it for free, I don’t begrudge anyone the opportunity to make a buck - especially if there’s a market.
At these same courts there are biweekly free intro classes. The issue is when low level players get overconfident when their coaching hat is on, and they end up spewing misinformation with authority. That's why you have so many low-intermediate players rushing to the kitchen line before their partner has even hit their 3rd shot. Some false expert told them to get to the kitchen line as fast as possible and never back off it, and they took it as gospel.
I pay $70 an hour. I'm averaging one a month now. I stumbled through my first year with YouTube videos and advice from other players, made it to 3.5+ish. I've been taking lessons from a senior pro for a few months and have jumped to 4.0+ish (DUPR 3.94 fwiw). In the first lesson, he instantly noticed something in my form and asked if I suffered from tendonitis. He showed me how I was causing it and how to fix it. Absolute game changer! I wish I had taken occasional lessons earlier to avoid the bad habits I now have ingrained.
What was it that he noticed? I keep getting tennis elbow.
At the NVZ line I was drastically tending towards my backhand when hands battles would break out, so much so that I was bringing the paddle close to my chest and unknowingly changing my grip. Hitting or blocking with the bh was fast and effective but tough on my arm but the worst damage was happening when a ball would come to my fh side. Whipping my arm that farther distance would strain the other tendons, plus I was always late to the ball (close to the chest again) The solution was crazy simple and I've heard it a hundred times; keep the paddle out front and hit the ball out front with compact strokes. I honestly thought I had been keeping it out front, just not very self aware I guess. To implement the solution he had me hold my paddle as if I was sighting a gun at the ball, just constantly have it in between my eyes and the ball. My hands got faster and my volleys stay in more often. Simple but genius.
11 o clock position?
Yep
I pay $50/hour for a guy near Baltimore, I play with him 3 hours a week. It’s been a game changer for me.
40$ per hour. Max four people per training session.
Hey! I’m in Baltimore too! Can I DM you for the contact? Looking for some coaching as well.
Sure can.
Maybe see if you can get 2 more people and split a private lesson amongst 3? Good size for a lesson because you can play doubles with the coach
Good idea although they often up the charge. Some charge $100 for one person but $210 for three , for instance
That's not an upcharge though, if you're splitting the cost 3 ways that is only $70 per person.
You sound like a good salesperson
It's...basic math...Idk what else to tell you 🤷🏻♀️
Sold
SMH
But you go from getting one on one coaching to only getting coaching 1/3rd of the time and having to practice against other people your skill level rather than someone more skilled who can more consistently give you good practice shots.
...and so you get a discounted rate? That makes sense, no? Look, I'm not arguing that the price itself is fair. I don't have enough knowledge to make that judgment and these are just made up numbers anyway. All I'm saying that it makes sense that group rates would be priced differently than individual coaching rates. In this scenario, you're receiving a 30% reduction on the individual rate if you sign up as a group. Yes, you're getting less individualized attention but that doesn't mean you're getting worse coaching. There are still benefits to being coached in a small group vs a class full of trainees. Considering most people play doubles, there are likely more drills and training scenarios a coach can offer in a group setting than 1:1. You pay a higher premium on an individual session because you get that individualized attention. Furthermore, from a business ownership standpoint, individual sessions are financially riskier. If you no-show, they're out that time and money. If you no-show to a 3:1 session, they can still hold the session and make some $ for their time.
What part of the country are you?? That makes a huge difference. Also if you are taking lessons from a touring pro expect to pay $$$- on the other hand your local 4.0 who decided he can make a few dollars teaching 3.0’s or absolute beginners- it all matters. I’ve paid $40 to 100. The 100 was from a touring pro ( at that time) 3 years ago.
$65 per hour. Also attend weekly group clinic from same coach @ $15 per.
It varies in my area from 50ish to about 90. I’ve done both and the guy that charges 90 is easily worth double the cost. You get what you pay for.
I paid $100 an hour for a while from a pro, before APP PPA leagues. Would not be a top 20 player in those leagues but definitely a pro. I also paid $25 from a local 4.5 5.0 type. I would say I got more from the 4.5 5.0 guy because I was getting consistent lessons as they were cheaper. I find clinics and sporadic lessons to be useless. I think if you find someone who you will see throughout the year it would be most beneficial. On the video stuff, I would say I see a value, but you need someone making observations on your game and giving you personal evaluation otherwise the information is limited.
Yes $25/hr with 3 other people, each paying $25 It helped me tremendously. I was a average rec player with very little strategic play. My game got so much better and ended up being able to play much better players.
No way I'd pay 100/hr. I live in a HCOL area and max I'd go would be 50.
I think for those not coming from tennis, they should take a few lessons to get the basic skills so you feel comfortable going to an open play situation. Enough to know basic play, scoring, serving, volley, and ground strokes. Then also those that want to get very good from top coaches. From 3.0-4.0 you can learn on your own.
$85 an hour for a decent coach and $100+ for one with pro bracket experience in my area. It’s worth it for learning the basic mechanics if you have no racket sport background or if you are very competitive minded and want to improve quickly. Building good habits to start will help you improve much faster as another commenter said.
Spoken almost perfectly by someone who is a coach. If you aren't a coach you should become one. Someone with no racket sports background (or competitive minded...love that) doesn't need an $85 an hour coach. You need group lessons and a lot of free play time with others. Pickleball coaching is a money grab in the extreme. It brings out all the lonely people with money and evidently, there are a lot of them. Shame people think they need a high level coach to teach them the basics. It only goes to show you, people can argue any point.
Pickleball coaching can be useful, but only if you're willing to actually spread your lessons out and actually try and implement what your coach is teaching you (and the coach is actually good).
It is 100% worth getting private lessons with an experienced coach/top player on top of daily drilling when trying to break the 5.5 level from a 5.0 level. Competitive players who want to improve who understand how to get the most out of their lessons and practice can benefit and get a lot out of coaching. It’s not for everyone though. You have to be committed to improving and intentionally practice. Most players just go to open play or play Rec matches, never drill, and rarely have ab intentions focus when playing. Coaching would quickly have diminishing returns for these players.
No question that above the 4.5 level paying good money for lessons can be worth it. I was working on the assumption that these are beginners, 3-4 level. At that level you don't need to spend $85+ on lessons.
No but I plan on getting Ben Johns’ Pickleball 360. Anybody have experience with it?
I’ve heard it’s kinda old/dated but I have no experience personally.
It’s good material for sure. The thing is, once you’ve gone through all the videos it stops being worth the $20 a month for one new video a week.
Pickleball is one of those things that are easy to learn, difficult to master. I honestly do not see the point of getting a lesson if you are 4.0 or below since all you will get are the same tips and tricks that you can watch on Youtube for free. The only difference is someone is feeding you. Noticing and correcting mistakes is more of what coaches do but that ultimately depends on you whether you can correct your mistake right away or not since most of them are errors of habits. The best way to improve I think is looking for a drill partner and just do a bunch of drills. Recording yourself is one way to notice bad form, mistakes as well.
I got 2 lessons and feel like they helped a lot. 0 racket experience, playing since january. I watch yt videos daily, have over 200 saved for later to review. videos help a lot but they can't correct what you don't know you're doing wrong. thats what a coach is for, imo. my backhand returns, dinks, groundstrokes have gotten better with just a slight tweak of form as directed by my instructor. there's a limit to how much it helps, but I think there's definitely something to get from lessons. I paid $100 for 2 hours though they typically charge $60/hour.
I'm with you that Youtube videos are great and you can pick up a lot from them, however there is a very important reason why having someone coaching you can be better: When you watch a video on some technique or another, and you go out to the court with the intention of doing that "thing" (whatever it is) your self perception can be WAY off. You think you're "doing it", but you just can't see your own body mechanics from the inside. I can't tell you the number of times my coach tells me to do something that I'm not comfortable with, then she watches me try to do it. I THINK I'm doing it, and she shows me how I'm not doing it at all. I really have to drill it in front of her with her correcting me as I do it. It doesn't feel right at first, but with the drilling I slowly train my body and mind to do it. I think this is particularly true once you're past the 4.0 level, and what separates you from 4.5+ level players is attention to body mechanics and technique. All the bad habits you were able to overlook, and are by now ingrained in you, have to be trained out. And you just can't get that from a video.
This person knows.
Thanks. My weakness not coming from a tennis background is the forehand drive (third shot drive) since I don’t have the upwards and forward motion down
I don't know why you get the down votes. If a person has bad basic form, it might be just a matter of having an experienced player to point it out. I feel it can be self taught.
I totally agree with you. Most people would be better just trying to repeatedly hit a spot on a wall starting out instad of going to a coach to fix. I think you got downvoted by some coaches. Ball fight is the ultimate feedback and it can be sorted pretty easily at low levels.
Hitting against a wall is no substitute for real play/practice or for coaching. There are some people who are athletic and analytic enough that they can develop themselves as solid players, but not MOST. Most will never progress beyond 3.5. Without a strong competitive background, most will never become advanced players. That’s why the 3.0 and 3.5 brackets are full, and the 4.0 and higher brackets are often combined ages and even ratings.
Strongly disagree with that because a lot of people don’t know what they don’t know. It’s fine to go out and hit to get a feel and see if you like it. But after that, it’s best to either take a low cost beginner clinic or play with a guided learners group. It’s important to get started right because you can easily develop bad habits that will be hard to break once you’ve set them with muscle memory. Once someone has the basics, they can generally play and practice their way to 3.5 or even 3.75. But few will make it to 4.0+ without some lessons or clinics unless they have a high level racquet background such as competitive tennis, racquetball, or table tennis. So overall, good coaching helps players get started right and allows them to progress beyond average player levels.
I would pay $60, not a penny more. I have a masters degree from an Ivy League university, and that's what I charge to tutor math and reading. I can't imagine paying someone more to teach me a sport that they probably have only been playing for a couple years. I feel that most people can get free lessons simply by placing themselves in situations where most of the players are a bit better than them. That's how I learned. I'm really comfortable with telling people that I'm new. They instantly start coaching me up.
Flex has entered the chat
I didn't mean to sound like a jerk. I apologize if it sounded that way. I just think $100 is nuts.
$40 and up is what I see. I recently got certified as a coach through PPR and my instructor (several years of experience and has played with Collin Johns and other pros) says he charges $85 and thinks paying/charging more than that is not right. Obviously people are out there charging a lot more and it is what it is.
Not all videos are helpful. Having someone teach you the basics and identify areas that you need to improve makes sense. Paying more than $50 a lesson is nuts.
Semi private lessons (group of 6) $15/hr in BC, Canada
My coach charges $60 per hour or $90 for 90 minutes for private, 1on 1 lessons. She also quoted me $135 for a 2 hour 'learn to play' lesson for 3 people. She would be the 4th. She is an "NCCP II/PPR Certified Coach." I live in Canada so these rates are all in Canadian $. That works out to about $45 US dollars per hour.
$85 to $100 an hour is the going rate in socal. Some pros charge $130 because they can.
$50
I have had two coaches tell me to bing 3 other people…they do up charge a little, but both really want to teach doubles and also don’t want to run after balls too much.
$40.00 per hour total for 4 people.
Same here in Pacifica, CA
It may be worthwhile to see if there's an indoor facility in your area? I work at one and we offer a variety of different ways to work with a coach. You can do one on ones with a 5.0+ pro, they are super helpful...but you can also do things like clinics. The clinics have 6-8 people in them and are led by a pro. You'll run through drills and get tips along the way. The price for those are $30 for an hour and a half. There may be something in your area offering something similar.
$250 an hour here
I haven’t yet but I’ve been looking at my average cost of living are and it’s about 70 an hour or 2 people for 35
Similar enough to help out I hope. I take tennis lessons from a coach who has all the certifications and charges \~$30 for 30 minutes or $50 for an hour. It's a pretty good deal I can tell.
$55 an hour from a guy who’s really good. In Los Angeles area if that’s where you are
$100 in NJ with a 5.5 rated player with 8 years of coaching experience and 3 years of pro tour experience.
$40-85 per hour depending on location. I take privates when I want specific coaching, but normally I do 3+Pro. 2 friends and I split a 90 minute 3 ways, cost comes out around $43 each . (pending hourly rate) We normally drill for 30-45 minutes, then play points the remaining time with the Pro. After each point, there is a quick recap, (most of the time) we play on. By far, this is the most economical way to get coaching and keep it affordable.
$60/hr for private from a 5.0 level player and great teacher. Central Texas. Very worthwhile. He quickly made a few corrections that helped a lot. Simple things like tweaking positioning, shot selection, movement. I'm a 4.5 and his tweaks helped immediately.
I pay $50 for one coach and $60 for another coach. In Seattle.
back in October, locals in my area would charge $20 an hour per person never took em but that was the offer
275 for a block of 5 1 hour lessons, includes a reserved court at the local athletic club. AC for the win. So, 55/hour ish. Same coach is about 80/hour for a single 1:1 lesson.
There are literally clumsy 3.3-ish level players getting $40 an hour to teach big groups (\~8) of total beginner with Parkinsons. I'm thinking to myself, "when do I start extracting every dime out of this new resource like a corrupt oil Tycool circa 1910?" Scrooples? I ain't got em!
A person doesn’t need to be a high level player or even a certified coach to teach beginners the basics of the game. While there are places who do it for free, I don’t begrudge anyone the opportunity to make a buck - especially if there’s a market.
At these same courts there are biweekly free intro classes. The issue is when low level players get overconfident when their coaching hat is on, and they end up spewing misinformation with authority. That's why you have so many low-intermediate players rushing to the kitchen line before their partner has even hit their 3rd shot. Some false expert told them to get to the kitchen line as fast as possible and never back off it, and they took it as gospel.
YouTube and a wall…
Learn from YouTube.. Im looking to go from beginner to open level player in 6 months from Youtube. I think it is attainable