Tanglin Academy, Singapore (Tennis) - Tanglin Academy

Good

teaching old style not recommended

Great complex. Superb teacher

Best Academy in Singapore no doubt

Exelent. Only problem is not easy to access by public transportation.

Really nice courts, good coaches & very friendly staff :D They give free trials for kids. Must try for anyone with kids!

The initial experience was positive. Friendly, engaging and the opinion genuinely interested in the development of your child's tennis development. We were sold. It doesn't last long. After a couple of months, your child is just a cash machine. The tennis coaches are great, but the management are awful. They don't really care about child, offer no updates. I've heard stories of parents who have paid for the month lessons, due to bad weather lessons couldn't be instructed, no updates from the club, not that parents expect a refund / credit for the month, but at least some advice. This club, takes your money and runs.

Sharing my experience regarding TA and Elvin's team since my son joined just over a year ago. My son started pretty late, compared to other kids who normally start at 4 or 5. He joined mid-2021, starting from TA's mid-year school holiday camp, as a 7+ year-old (Grade 2/Primary 2). When he joined, he already had slightly over a year experience training tennis with me (started at 6+ year-old). With the great support of the coaching team, my son progressed pretty fast - within 7 months, he progressed from orange ball (when started in the first holiday camp), to green ball, to regular ball Junior 1 and now regular ball Junior 3. He's been at Junior 3 for for 4 months now, and I'm looking forward to him moving to Performance level soon. As of today, he's able to rally reasonably well with his team mates and with me, and had just played his first national level U10 tournament. His serves are getting better, much better than even half a year ago. He's now 8+ and looking forward to play many more tournaments next year in the U10 category (this year he's got quite a number of exams and his biggest milestone test for his martial arts). After a year my son has definitely overtaken quite a number of other children who picked up tennis earlier. Of course there is still room to improve especially compared to some other junior superstars at TA who only take private lessons. I've been through the tennis development system, albeit I started at 12 and played competitively through my secondary school. I just want my son to enjoy tennis and not quit because he was pushed too hard (honestly, I encouraged him to play another sport since 4 and did not intentionally introduce him to tennis). Consequently, we only let him join group lessons (maybe with complementary private lessons when he's a little older). With group lesson, there's alot of "fun" factor playing with others. Yes, TA is a pretty big set up. The coaches are great, they have a good system but obviously it's just tough to manage all kids and their personal development, unless kids are privately coached. Knowing that, I took the responsibility to track my son's progress against our agreed development goals/plans (he wants to be competitive and be amongst the top junior players in Singapore by 12). I also speak to the coaches regularly about his progress and encourage him to frequently seek feedback. I also help him identify his weaknesses (for example serve and hitting high balls at baseline with backhand) and encourage him to ask the coaches for tips and work these weaknesses with me whenever we play. I also track the lessons he missed and would arrange for makeup - all we have to do is to inform Elvin. Yes, ideally each kid have a report card by end of the day and to track their progress or any lessons missed or recommendations to address weaknesses. However, I don't think it's fair to expect TA to carry all these administrative burdens. Parents obviously have to do their share including managing administration matters and development and not just outsource everything to TA. Let TA do what they do best - i.e. provide a conducive environment for kids to play and coach the kids in the techniques.