Hi, I am John Debnam, a tennis coach based in Los Gigantes on the beautiful Canarian Island of Tenerife. I have been a tennis coach on the island for the last 20 years.

Most of my own training skills have been learned via the USA, but the great thing for me about teaching in Tenerife has been to experience many different teaching methods, not only from here in Spain but from other European countries too.Five times Tenerife and Canary Island Champion, I also have experience of playing at competition level, and I am the only British citizen to hold a National Spanish Veterans tennis title. 

I do not want to run the standard theme of tennis holidays, where the brochure lists the standard lesson about basic tennis shots: forehand/backhand/serve etc. I want this tennis holiday to cater to your needs. The training will be geared up to your particular personal requirements. If you are a singles player then the course will be focused on your singles skills, for example the use of the drives to open up the width of the court. If you mainly play doubles, then that very important net game and positional skill will be worked on, not forgetting those drop shots and angled volleys.

The tennis course will be decided by you,but usually 5 x 2 hour sessions over the week are advisable.

Fitness, of course, is a big part of tennis, and so ball machine drills can be used to groove those strokes and also improve your movement patterns. Can you do the 30 second speed drill as fast as Nadal? How do you fair on the 50 ball machine drill?

A typical course design agreed once we meet and discuss what you want to achieve from the lessons:

1. After deciding your specific need, for example some work on the forehand drive
2. Discuss the grip – what works for you and is it advantageous for your game?
3. Footwork pattern – depending on where you are in the court.
4. The correct follow through – which is the basis of your control and placement.
5. Dead ball drills – where balls are fed to you to groove the points to be worked on.
6. Live ball drills – putting the shot into a game situation.
7. Ball machine drills – more to see how your stroke holds up under a bit more pressure.

The cost per hour of the tennis lessons,including the court is 35€ for the hour up to 10 hours booked.
Any bookings of more than 10 hours and the cost will be 32€ per hour.The price is also for either 1 or 2 persons sharing.

The cost per hour for 3-4 persons sharing is 40€ for the hour  All prices include the cost of the court hire.

All persons booking a tennis course are also made members of the tennis centre's sunbathing and pool area.

We can also arrange matches once you are here against other players based upon your current level of ability. Extra court hours can be booked at the normal club rate of €10 per hour.

For example Johnny E came to Tenerife wanting to work on his backhand. He was a singles player but wanted to start playing singles. So I suggested to him that we work on using the stroke to open up the court, and so set up a volley or use the drop shot. He also wants to play so I hooked him up with some of the locals in the afternoon. I also saw that his speed needed work so we did some movement drills to help him improve his match fitness.

Some of our happy pupils

And above is a quick slide show of some of the players who have come here for tennis with tenniszoo.