What online tennis coaching is
The term covers three different things, and it helps to know which one you are signing up for:
- A structured video curriculum. Lessons in a deliberate sequence, covering technique, tactics, movement and the mental side, that you work through at your own pace. This is the foundation, and the part that travels: one clear explanation can reach any player, anywhere.
- Feedback on your own footage. You film yourself, and a coach reviews the clip and tells you what to change and why. This is what makes it coaching rather than content.
- Live sessions. Video calls or group Q&A sessions where you can ask about your own game, last weekend's match or your child's schedule.
Some programs offer all three; many offer only the first. Neither is wrong, but a library on its own is closer to online tennis lessons than to coaching. The difference is whether anyone ever looks at you.
How video analysis works
Video analysis is the engine of remote coaching. We use it with the players at our academy in Davie as well, because a camera catches what the eye misses at full speed. It comes down to three things.
What to film. Real hitting, not posing: a few minutes of rallying on one stroke, a set of serves, and above all some points from a practice set or a match, where your habits under pressure show up. Keep each clip short and label it with the date and what you were working on.
Which angles. Side-on for groundstrokes and the contact point, directly behind you for the serve and swing path, and a raised view from behind for footwork and court position, always with your whole body in frame. I go through camera setup in detail in how to learn from tennis training videos.
The feedback loop. Good remote coaching runs in cycles. You film; the coach picks the one or two changes that matter most and explains why; you work on them with specific drills for a couple of weeks; then you film again from the same angles, so the before-and-after comparison is honest. A coach who sends twenty corrections after one clip is overwhelming you. One who sends a single correction and the reason for it is coaching you.
Here is what one cycle can look like. An adult league player sends two minutes of forehands filmed from the side, plus a set of points. The coach sees contact happening beside the body instead of in front of it, mostly when the incoming ball has pace, and gives one correction: turn and prepare earlier, grooved with short rallies at moderate pace. Two weeks later the player films again from the same spot. If contact has moved forward, the next cycle moves on to something new. If it has not, the coach changes the drill, not the goal.
What makes it effective
- Consistent filming. Same angles, same distance, every cycle. Change is only visible against a stable baseline.
- A specific goal. "Get better" cannot be coached remotely. "A second serve I trust by the spring season" can.
- A coach who explains why. Remote players practice alone more than anyone, so they need to understand each correction well enough to coach themselves between reviews. Instruction that only says what to do falls apart the first time the player is on their own.
- Context from you. Tell the coach your level, your goal, how often you play and what broke down in your last match. The footage shows the swing; you supply the rest.
- Credentials you can check. A remote coach should be open about their record. Mine is set out on my coaching background page: former world No. 48, Director of High Performance Coaching Education at the USTA, author of Maximum Tennis. Expect the same openness from anyone you are considering.
The limits
Remote coaching has real limits, and anyone who pretends otherwise is not someone to trust with your game. There is no live feeding: nobody can feed you a ball through a screen, adjust the next feed when you struggle, or move your racquet into the right position. You still need a hitting partner, a clinic, a ball machine or at least a wall, because a correction only becomes yours through repetitions on court. And the camera sees only what you film. Send your best day and you get coaching for your best day.
The honest picture is that online coaching multiplies good court time rather than replacing it. It is how I describe my own program:
There is no online training site that can replace good, old-fashioned training. Our goal is to come alongside parents, players and coaches to provide the edge that maximizes results and confidence.
Nick Saviano
Juniors versus adults
Adults often make ideal remote students. They can follow a curriculum on their own, film themselves without fuss and fit the work around a job. For an adult playing twice a week, a structured library plus feedback every few weeks can keep improvement steady for a long time.
Juniors need more than a screen. A developing player needs coached court time, regular competition and a coach who sees them in person, and remote coaching should support that coach, never compete with them. It works best when a parent helps with the filming and makes sure the online advice matches what the junior's coach is teaching. For juniors aiming at college, the work has to show up in match results, which college coaches look at closely; what UTR you need for college tennis explains how they read those results.
Saviano Online: start free, go deeper later
My own program starts where every good remote program should, with the curriculum. Saviano Online is free to start, with no credit card, and gives instant access to 250+ training videos organized by technique, tactics, movement and the mental side, along with podcasts, articles, note taking, Q&A sessions and courses. When a player is ready to go further, premium membership adds the full library, the courses and 1-on-1 sessions. It is built for players at every level, for parents and for coaches.
If you are not yet sure remote coaching is for you, that is the right place to begin. Join Saviano Online free, work through one concept for a month using the filming setup above, and see how much changes before you commit to anything more.