Cliff Drysdale Tennis

What Cliff Drysdale Tennis Really Is

Cliff Drysdale Tennis is not a single campus with dorms and bell schedules. It is a coordinated network of year round programs delivered at partner resorts, private clubs, and public facilities across the United States, with an operations hub in New Braunfels, Texas. That structure matters. Families can access high quality coaching and well run junior pathways without uprooting for a residential academy, while traveling players can pair serious training with a resort stay. The company’s consistency comes from shared training playbooks, staff development, and an on court culture designed to feel familiar whether you show up in Florida, Texas, California, Vermont, or New York.

The experience is deliberately welcoming and organized. From a parent’s point of view, the difference is practical. There are clear clinic levels, predictable weekly schedules, and coaches who teach with the same language across locations. From a player’s point of view, the difference is competitive. Live ball drills are purposeful, point play has targets and constraints, and match opportunities are woven into the calendar rather than tacked on as an afterthought.

Founding Story and Growth

International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee and longtime broadcaster Cliff Drysdale co founded the company in 2001 with partner Don Henderson. Their premise was simple and sharp. Clubs and resorts needed more than court rentals. They needed energy, teaching structure, and hospitality level experiences that made tennis the highlight of a member’s week or a guest’s vacation. In 2018, the company joined the Troon family, gaining access to broader facilities and operations expertise while keeping the Cliff Drysdale brand and coaching DNA intact. Today, the group operates one of the largest racquet sports platforms in North America, embedding tennis schools and academies inside properties that already feature courts, gyms, and guest lodging.

What has not changed is the front line feel. The coaches remain visible leaders on court, sessions run on time, and there is a clear belief that players learn best when they are engaged, moving, and competing.

Where You Can Train and Why Climate Matters

Because the academy lives inside multiple sites, climate becomes an advantage rather than a constraint. In South Florida and coastal California, training runs outdoors through winter. Texas offers long shoulder seasons ideal for match play and tournament travel. Vermont and other northern hubs create summer high performance bases with cooler mountain air, often backed by indoor courts for rainy days. For families, this means you can choose training blocks that fit your calendar instead of structuring your calendar around a single campus.

Surface choice is another quiet advantage. If your junior needs repetitions on slower clay, programs in Florida, the Hamptons, and other East Coast sites deliver Har Tru. If hard courts are the priority for high school and college events, many partner clubs run blue or green hard courts under lights. Some northern locations include indoor courts for true twelve month continuity.

Facilities You Will See

Facilities vary by site, but a typical Cliff Drysdale Tennis location includes a practical mix of resources that make daily training smooth and tournament weekends efficient:

• Har Tru hydro clay and hard courts, often with a show court for events and exhibitions.
• LED lighting for evening clinics and ladders, critical in hot or busy markets.
• Access to a partner fitness center, weight room, or resort gym for short, purposeful conditioning blocks.
• Ball machines and live ball drill courts for high repetition sessions.
• Padel and pickleball courts at selected hubs, creating racquet gardens that support agility and volley reflexes when programmed wisely.
• Indoor courts at select northern locations for winter continuity.
• Pro shops with stringing, racquet customization, and demo programs, plus a match day concierge desk to arrange practice sets.
• Comfortable spectator areas, locker rooms, and clubhouse spaces that make long junior days more manageable for parents and teammates.

Boarding is not part of the format. For destination weeks and camps, families either book at the partner resort or arrange nearby lodging. That non residential model keeps daily life flexible and costs more modular.

Coaching Staff and Philosophy

Across locations, coaching teams are trained to be high energy, hands on, and detail oriented. Sessions are built around clear themes rather than random feeding. Expect a lot of live ball work, competitive games that reinforce patterns, and specific language around decision making that you will hear repeated from site to site. A “Doubles IQ” block in Miami and a “Relentless Attack” clinic in Vermont fit inside a common framework that emphasizes court positioning, first strike discipline, and serve and return clarity.

Coaches aim for a demanding yet upbeat tone. Transitions are frequent, and dead time is kept to a minimum. Junior pathway work follows the modern color ball sequence for technical progression and court awareness. High performance groups run smaller ratios, incorporate targeted fitness, and emphasize tactical clarity that translates to Universal Tennis Rating and United States Tennis Association match formats.

Professional development is part of the system. Coaches shadow senior staff, review standardized curricula, and use periodic video checkpoints to ensure that a forehand taught in Texas looks and feels like a forehand taught in New York. That shared standard is the backbone of the brand.

Programs and Formats

Program menus differ by venue, but the backbone is consistent and easy to navigate.

• Junior Pathway Clinics use red, orange, green, then yellow balls to track progress, with weekly cadence and clear criteria for moving up. Parents receive practical updates that focus on behaviors tied to winning tennis rather than vague praise.
• High Performance Junior Academy groups, by invitation at select sites, target tournament players and high school varsity candidates. These blocks often combine on court training, short conditioning sessions, and guided match play.
• Summer and Holiday Camps deliver concentrated blocks of drilling, point play, and fitness, with daily or week long options. Destination camps may include resort activities that keep motivation high without diluting training quality.
• Adult Programming is unusually robust. Doubles Boot Camps, team weekends, and coed retreats are built around 10 to 12 hours on court with a defined tactical theme and a social component that helps lessons stick. The same language used with competitive juniors informs adult sessions, which is why league captains book return trips.
• Private Lessons and Small Group Sessions are available at every location for technical resets, serve rebuilds, or targeted pattern work before tournaments.
• Match Play is organized through ladders, verified Universal Tennis Rating events, and local United States Tennis Association leagues, so juniors and adults can convert practice into ratings and results.

Training and Player Development

Player development is handled across five pillars, with an emphasis on measurable habits that translate to the scoreboard.

• Technical. Coaches focus on clean contact shape first, then customize grips and swing paths to the player’s style. The serve receives dedicated time, with progressions that build from toss stability to specific targets and second serve confidence. Selected sites use video for structured checkpoints rather than every single clinic, keeping attention on live ball problem solving.
• Tactical. Sessions emphasize first ball patterns, depth control, and pressure creation. In singles, players learn to build plus one forehands, defend with height when needed, and adjust to opponents who change pace. In doubles, you will hear consistent cues about gap control, middle first ball priority, and serve plus two positioning.
• Physical. High performance groups add footwork ladders, resisted movement, and court specific conditioning. Fitness blocks are short, safe, and purposeful, designed to support rather than overshadow hitting volume.
• Mental. Goal sheets, pre point routines, and between point resets are introduced early. Coaches frame matches as pattern tests rather than pass fail verdicts, which helps juniors compete with less anxiety and more intention.
• Educational. Parents receive straightforward progress updates centered on behaviors that ladder up to wins: serve percentage, depth, plus one conversion, and break point save rate. Players learn how those numbers connect to their practice plans.

A Day Inside a High Performance Block

A typical day might open with 20 minutes of mobility and rhythm work, followed by a 40 minute themed drill set tied to the day’s tactical goal. Next comes 30 minutes of point construction with constraints, then 30 minutes of competitive play. The session often closes with a short finisher on serves or returns and a debrief that assigns one or two measurable targets for the next session. Tournament weeks add match simulation and simple scouting sheets. The aim is not to create long winded classroom lessons, but to give players two or three clear ideas they can apply that afternoon.

Alumni and Measured Outcomes

This is not a factory model that markets a single pipeline of touring professionals. Success is defined by real steps that matter to families. Juniors move from color ball to full court yellow. Players make high school varsity and earn lineup spots. Tournament juniors raise Universal Tennis Ratings and, in some cases, earn college interest. Several sites partner with local high schools and host collegiate showcases or college recruiting information nights. For families who want a measured path from recreational start to competitive tennis, the structure and match opportunities are already built into the calendar.

If your ultimate goal is a residential environment that pairs academics with daily training, you can compare this network to boarding academies such as IMG Academy tennis programs or Evert Tennis Academy in Boca. If you are looking for centralized day training with deep match play calendars, it is also useful to understand how a multi site brand differs from a single hub like the USTA National Campus training hub.

Culture and Community

Because programs live inside clubs and resorts, community is a major asset. Parents can watch from shaded patios, siblings can swim or play pickleball, and juniors socialize before and after clinics. Staffs organize socials, mixers, and parent junior days that make it easier to keep players engaged across seasons. The environment is friendly without losing its competitive edge. Coaches know names. Courts turn over quickly. Players feel part of something that is larger than a single team practice.

For traveling families, the retreat format makes it simple to turn a training block into a short vacation without losing practice quality. A morning of Doubles IQ can be followed by match play after lunch and family time by the pool in the afternoon. That rhythm keeps motivation high and burnout low.

Costs, Access, and Scholarships

Costs vary by site and program type. After school clinics are priced per session or per month and tend to be comparable to other high quality club programs. High performance academies charge more for longer blocks and smaller ratios. Summer or holiday camps range by duration and whether lunch or extras are included. Adult Doubles Boot Camps and destination weekends are often bundled with lodging at the partner resort, which simplifies planning but raises per person cost.

Scholarships and financial aid are limited and handled locally. If cost control is a priority, look first at your nearest club location for recurring clinics and match play rather than destination packages. Many families build a smart budget by combining weekly clinics, occasional private lessons for technical touch ups, and a planned calendar of tournaments that are within reasonable driving distance.

What Makes It Different

• Network strength and continuity. You can train under the same coaching language in multiple states. That is rare and helpful for families who move or travel.
• Resort integration. When a player needs a spark, a destination week with great coaches and a fun setting can be exactly the reset without committing to a full relocation.
• Doubles expertise. Adult and junior doubles receive real tactical attention. The Boot Camp framework, refined over years, translates well to junior teams that need role clarity and movement patterns.
• Surface variety. The network gives access to both Har Tru and hard courts, and some sites add indoor courts for winter continuity.
• Multi racquet growth. Padel and pickleball options at certain venues provide agility and volley repetitions that support tennis reflexes when programmed carefully.

How It Compares

Families considering boarding academies like Rafa Nadal Academy or Mouratoglou Academy will notice immediate differences. Cliff Drysdale Tennis does not offer centralized boarding or an on campus school. It trades the immersion of a residential setup for flexibility, broader geographic access, and the chance to integrate training into normal family life. If your junior needs daily homeroom to court structure, a boarding model may be a better fit. If your player thrives with strong coaching, regular clinics, targeted high performance blocks, and frequent match play while staying in their home school, this network is built for that.

It also differs from single site training hubs. A centralized campus can deliver a dense sparring pool in one place, but it limits surface variety and travel flexibility. By contrast, families in this system can choose clay heavy weeks before a specific tournament or hard court blocks during high school season, then stitch together competition plans across multiple states.

Practical Planning Tips

• Ask for a level assessment to place your player in the right band on day one. It saves weeks of mismatched drilling.
• Request the current month’s training theme so private lessons dovetail with clinic goals. Alignment accelerates progress.
• Map out match play. Use the club’s ladder, local Universal Tennis Rating events, and appropriate United States Tennis Association tournaments to create a six to twelve week competition plan.
• Clarify coach to player ratios in high performance blocks and what fitness components are included. Ratios drive both cost and quality.
• For destination weeks, compare resort packages to independent lodging plus a la carte court fees to balance convenience and budget.
• Build rest into the schedule. One day off per week keeps players fresh, particularly in hot markets.

Future Outlook and Vision

With Troon’s footprint and the rising popularity of racquet sports, continued growth in facilities and offerings is the logical path. More sites are adding padel and refining pickleball calendars alongside tennis, and several hubs are expanding tournament calendars to include verified Universal Tennis Rating events. Expect tighter integration between clinics and competition calendars so that players can move from themed work on Tuesday to targeted match play on Thursday, then to bracketed weekend events with clear scouting goals.

The company’s next chapter likely leans into technology that supports coaching without removing the human element. Video checkpoints will remain episodic rather than constant, allowing players to stay immersed in live ball problem solving. Data shared with parents will stay simple and actionable, focusing on serve percentage, depth, and conversion rates rather than drowning families in dashboards.

Is It For You

Choose Cliff Drysdale Tennis if you want serious coaching without the boarding commitment, if you value a consistent teaching language you can find in multiple states, and if you like the idea of pairing training with travel when the calendar allows. It suits juniors climbing the pathway toward varsity and tournament play, families who prefer to keep academics and home routines intact, and adult players who want refreshers or focused doubles upgrades. It is less suitable if you are seeking an all inclusive residential school with built in academics.

For most families, the appeal is simple and durable. You get reliable coaching, clear progressions, ample match play, and the flexibility to build a development plan that fits real life. If that is the mix you are looking for, this network deserves a serious look the next time you plan a season or book a tennis trip.