How to schedule tennis lessons as an independent coach

To schedule tennis lessons as an independent coach, settle three questions once and for all: how students book, what happens when a lesson falls through (rain, court unavailable, student absent) and how you get paid. The rest is your craft: technique, progression, match play.

As long as those three points are handled by message, they come back every week and eat into your evenings. Once they are written down and automated, a lesson gets booked in seconds and you keep your energy for the court.

This article is for the tennis coach who works for themselves: private lessons, small groups, camps, sometimes across several clubs or on courts rented by the hour. You manage your own students, schedule and payments.

It is not for the club that has to manage court occupancy, several instructors, yearly memberships and tennis-school enrolment. Club management software exists for that, and Grix is not one: Grix organizes a coach's business, not a sports facility.

What is specific to tennis is the court. A lesson only exists if a court is available, and that court often depends on the club or on a reservation system you do not control. The sound method is to offer students only the slots for which you really have access to a court, and to block the rest.

Then set a standard length (one hour for a private lesson, for instance), allow a buffer between lessons to change courts or refill the ball basket, and enter the club or court as the session place: the student finds it in the confirmation and in the reminder. If you teach at several clubs, one booking link per place avoids any confusion.

The biggest time saver is letting students pick their own slot from your availability. With booking software, you share a link (by message, on Instagram, in your email signature) and the student books from their phone, with no account to create.

In Grix, a private lesson arrives as a request you accept or decline in one click: that is the right moment to check the court is free. If you do not respond within 72 hours, or by the lesson start time at the latest, the request expires and the slot is released. A group lesson, on the other hand, is confirmed immediately while spots remain, with a waitlist once it is full.

Create one link per format: one-hour private lesson, trial lesson, lesson for two or four. Each link carries its own duration, price, place, minimum notice and how far ahead students can book.

Outdoors, weather is the first reason for rescheduling. Decide in advance what happens: free reschedule if you cancel because of rain, rescheduling possible until a set time if the student cancels, lesson due after that. The problem is not the rule, it is improvising it every time.

An example rule to adapt: “If rain stops the lesson, I reschedule at no cost. If you cancel less than 24 hours ahead, the lesson is charged; earlier, we move it.” Show it before booking and apply it the same way for everyone.

In Grix, you move the lesson by dragging it in the calendar, or you cancel it, and the slot becomes bookable again. On Plus and Pro, the student gets a reschedule or cancellation email; on the Free plan, you let them know with a pre-filled text or WhatsApp message from your phone. The evening before, the student already receives an email reminder with the place, Google Maps, Waze and Apple Maps links and, on Plus and Pro, a second reminder about an hour before. When a student does not show up, you choose whether to charge for the lesson or waive it.

Many tennis coaches sell programs: ten lessons over the year, a holiday camp, tournament preparation. For a weekly lesson program, Grix creates every session at once as a series. You can mark the series as paid when you collect the whole program; Grix does not, however, automatically count down the remaining lessons of a prepaid pack.

From one season to the next, what saves you time is each student's record: their level, their goal (move up a ranking, get back after a break, prepare for a tournament), a three-line note after each lesson. In September, you pick up where you left off instead of asking everything again.

Two models coexist: the student pays at every lesson, or pays for a program upfront. The second secures your cash flow and cuts down on chasing; the first is easier to accept for an occasional student. It depends on your clientele; what matters is that every lesson carries a clear payment status (paid, unpaid, waived, refunded).

Grix does not take payments online and charges no commission: the student pays you as they do today (cash, bank transfer, card on your own terminal) and you mark the lesson as paid when the money arrives. The dashboard shows what has been collected and what is still due. On Plus and Pro, you chase an unpaid lesson in one click, by email or with a pre-filled text or WhatsApp message.

Grix brings together the booking link, the schedule, email reminders, each student's record and payment tracking. The Free plan covers 10 active students and 2 booking links, with no time limit and no credit card; Plus (€7.99 a month) raises that to 25 students and opens group lessons of up to 10 people; Pro (€19.99 a month) has no student limit and allows groups of up to 50. Plus and Pro can be tried free for 21 days.

Grix does not book courts in place of the club, does not manage court occupancy or a calendar shared between several instructors, does not send automated text messages and does not take payments online. If you run a club or tennis school with several teachers, club management software will fit better.