NEW YORK CITY TENNIS LESSONS

Perhaps the only thing better than playing tennis is getting better at playing tennis — and then playing tennis as a better player! To that end, we're extremely pleased to offer lessons with Russ Cormier (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/members/57128202/). Russ is certified as a professional tennis instructor by the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA), and he is the sole tennis pro vetted and licensed by the New York City Parks and Recreation Department to provide tennis lessons at the Inwood Park tennis courts.

PLEASE NOTE: We apologize for the lack of formatting and readability in this event description. Meetup recently removed almost all formatting options and features formerly available to organizers. We will attempt to work around this problem and improve matters as much as we can in the near future, but for now, we needed to post this event without further delay.

REMEMBER — RUSS IS BACK AT INWOOD!

Please note that, at least for the rest of this season, Russ has moved back to the courts at Inwood Hill Park!

Social Tennis events will still happen at their usual location, but tennis lessons will be in Inwood. We realize this might be a little inconvenient for people wanting to do both, but we'll try to adjust the times to make things work as well as they can, and in the mean time, we felt it was much more important to continue offering lessons for people who want to learn to play or improve their game.

SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY RATE: $20 PER PERSON

We seriously doubt you'll find a better deal on quality tennis instruction anywhere.

As an added bonus, because Russ is licensed by the city, his students don't need tennis permits while taking lessons. For those of you who don't yet have your own racquets, he also has a number of spares you can use.

Please arrive ten minutes early — that way you'll help make sure the lesson can begin promptly at its scheduled time. Thanks!

HOW YOU CAN BENEFIT BY TAKING TENNIS LESSONS

No matter what your age or experience, Russ will bring your tennis game to the next level, and he takes special care to get beginners up to speed quickly and painlessly, without any stress or anxiety. Here's what one of our members has to say about Russ's coaching:

Russ is a knowledgeable, passionate, and skillful teacher whom I highly recommend. I'm an advanced beginner tennis player, just starting to get serious about learning the game. In just three lessons I now feel as though I understand how to properly hit both forehands and backhands, and I'm swinging the racquet with much more confidence. Equally importantly, I'm really enjoying playing tennis, and I imagine I'm more fun to hit around with as well. A fantastic teacher.  —Josh Schneck

Anyone who's hit with Josh lately can tell you that he's absolutely right — he's improved to a really remarkable degree in just a few short weeks.

Russ tailors his lessons to the needs of each of his students, but here are some of the areas he will focus on:

• ball tracking and anticipation
• balance essentials
• correct grip choices
• fundamental swing mechanics
• maintaining focus
• developing proper footwork
• tennis strategy
• eliminating bad habits and stroke deficiencies

Developing these skills is the ticket to enjoying a lifetime of tennis — the greatest sport on earth!

UPCOMING MEETUPS

We offer tennis lessons and we host social tennis Meetups every weekend, we throw several holiday BBQs every year, and from time to time we have special events. Here everything that's on our calendar as of now.

OUR ANNUAL LABOR DAY POT-LUCK BBQ / PICNIC / PARTY

As we do every year on Labor Day, we'll be mixing tennis with food, drink, fireworks, and an open flame — the perfect combination! (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/134878352/)

Cooking, eating, drinking, hanging out, making empty boasts, and fighting duels to the death over the proper scoring and tactics in a tiebreaker — not to mention forming hundreds or even thousands of excellent new friendships — generally commence around noon and continue indefinitely, with tennis and everything else woven in (and out) as everyone pleases.

So come join us on Monday, September 2nd for the best damn Labor Day ever (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/134878352/) — at least until the next one!

SOCIAL TENNIS MEETUPS

If you'd like to spend some additional time hitting around or playing matches with other tennis enthusiasts, we'll have our usual full weekend of social tennis Meetups at Fort Washington Park.

WEEKEND OF SEPTEMBER 7th - SEPTEMBER 8th

• Saturday at 8:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137481982/) • Saturday at 10:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137482022/) • Saturday at 12:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137482082/) • Saturday at 2:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137482152/)

• Sunday at 8:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137482192/) • Sunday at 10:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137482242/) • Sunday at 12:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137482272/) • Sunday at 2:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137482322/) • Sunday at 4:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137482352/)

LABOR DAY WEEKEND, AUGUST 31st - SEPTEMBER 2nd

• Saturday at 8:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136252152/) • Saturday at 10:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136252182/) • Saturday at 12:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136252232/) • Saturday at 2:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136252262/)

• Sunday at 8:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136252302/) • Sunday at 10:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136252332/) • Sunday at 12:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136252372/) • Sunday at 2:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136252422/)

• Labor Day (Monday) at 8:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/135058062/) • Labor Day (Monday) at 10:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/135058092/) • Labor Day (Monday) at 12:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/135058122/) • Labor Day (Monday) at 2:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/135058162/) • Labor Day (Monday) at 4:00pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/135058182/)

These two-hour Meetups are the perfect way to either warm up for your lesson or begin locking in the skills and refinements to your game you've just worked on. We look forward to seeing you on the courts!

GROUP TENNIS LESSONS — NOW AT INWOOD HILL PARK

In addition to our regular social sessions meant for hitting and playing, we're extremely pleased to offer group lessons with our friend Russ Cormier (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/members/57128202/), a USPTA-certified tennis pro licensed by the New York City Parks and Recreation Department to be the sole provider of tennis lessons at the Inwood Hill Park tennis courts.

SEPTEMBER 7th - SEPTEMBER 10th

• Saturday, September 7th at 11:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137482392/) • Sunday, September 8th at 11:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137482452/) • Tuesday, September 10th at 6:30pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/137482502/)

AUGUST 31st - SEPTEMBER 3rd

• Saturday, August 31st at 11:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136081122/) • Sunday, September 1st at 11:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136081052/) • Labor Day (Monday), September 2nd at 11:00am (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136081242/) • Tuesday, September 3rd at 6:30pm (http://www.meetup.com/nyc-tennis/events/136081322/)

These lessons are fantastic opportunities to improve your game and get even more out of your time on the courts in the future.

INSTRUCTOR BIO

After a stint on the Indiana State University tennis team with former USPTA president Joseph Thompson, Russ Cormier started teaching during the "tennis boom" years with Hank and Pat Fenton in Central Park and then continued during the '90s with Burt Kahn at Tower Tennis. As a USPTA member for twenty-eight years, Russ regularly attends USTA Tennis Teachers Conferences to keep up to date.

Since 1980, he's taught tennis to thousands of New Yorkers in Central Park, Riverside Park, Inwood Hill Park and in many private venues throughout New York City. He is an experienced teacher of groups and students from Buckley, Chapin, Dalton, Dwight, Horace Mann, Marymount, Ramaz, Sacred Heart, and Spence. Off the court, he is an avid painter and opera buff.

DIRECTIONS

It's actually quite simple to get to the Inwood Hill Park tennis courts.

Take the A line of the subway all the way to the Inwood — 207th St. stop. The front subway car will let you out at Broadway and Isham St., and the back car will let you out at Broadway and 207th St.

If you exit at Broadway and Isham, walk two blocks northwest along Isham to Seaman Ave. Cross Seaman, enter Inwood Hill Park through the entrance that's right there in front of you, and head in to the tennis courts, which you should see on your left. If you exit at Broadway and 207th., walk two blocks northwest along 207th to Seaman Ave., cross Seaman and enter the park. You should see the courts ahead of you on your right. Russ will be on court #9.

That's it!

Please do be sure to check for service advisories, though, because the MTA has been suspending some lines for track and signal work lately, usually on weekends, and running shuttle buses between certain stations.

Subway Service Advisories (http://www.mta.info/weekender/servicestatus.html)

And if you do have any difficulties, please don't hesitate to call Russ at 917-968-5597.

REGARDING EMAIL EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

As many long-time members know, this group generates a lot of announcement emails. Through hard experience, we've found it necessary to send out all those announcements because of the nature of the Meetup platform and the activities we host, but we also understand that the volume of email can be frustrating for some people who'd like to join us for events from time to time but who don't want to deal with all the email the group generates.

Strategies like using a separate email account for Meetup that you don't check on all devices or setting up filters or rules that will automatically move all announcements from the group into a dedicated folder are as useful as ever, but Meetup recently introduced a new feature that should address your concerns if you want to opt out of receiving these announcements entirely. It's an imperfect solution, but it's far better than nothing, and it's also not burdensome to us, unlike the only previous potential solution, manually building and maintaining a separate opt-in mailing list, which proved completely infeasible due to the size of the group. If you want to opt out of announcement emails, please drop us a line and we'll send you instructions.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT SLEAZY MARKETING MESSAGES

It has come to our attention that someone has been spamming members of the group recently. We don't know how many of these messages have been sent, but there appears to have been a substantial campaign. Unfortunately, this sort of thing does happen occasionally. New York City Tennis is the largest tennis Meetup group on Earth, and that makes it a tempting target for unscrupulous people looking to cash in on other people's hard work. If you receive any emails advertising any products or services (or other groups) sent through Meetup to you as a member of New York City Tennis that aren't from us, the organizers of New York City Tennis, please forward them to us so that we can address the issue with Meetup HQ and deal with the spammers. It also helps Meetup if you click the "Report" button created precisely for this purpose. Thanks!

WEATHER AND POSTPONEMENTS

Here's the National Weather Service's Detailed 7-Day Forecast (http://www.crh.noaa.gov/forecasts/NYZ075.php?warncounty=NYC047&city=New+York).

If bad weather forces us to postpone the lesson, we'll let you know by email as early as possible, but almost certainly not until the day of the lesson. Forecasts have been very unreliable of late, and many days that were supposed to be rained out instead wound up being dry, often even sunny and pleasant.

RULES AND ATTENDANCE POLICIES

We must ask that you observe our most important rule:

If you sign up and then find you cannot attend, change your RSVP at least 24 hours in advance!

No-shows and cancellations less than 24 hours in advance are tremendously unfair to everyone on the waiting list and anyone else who might be interested in attending. They're also unfair to us — we put a great deal of time and effort into offering these lessons, and as we're sure you can understand, we don't want it all to go to waste.

It only takes a moment to change your RSVP or even to send the organizer a quick text or email, so please, don't blow off the lesson if you've signed up.

If you break this rule three times in a season, we'll have no choice but to kick you out of the group.

We know, it sucks, and we hate to do it, but it sucks even worse for us and for people who want to take lessons when other members just don't show up. Of course we'll make exceptions to the three-strikes policy for genuine emergencies and bad weather, but short of that, all you have to do is to change your RSVP at least 24 hours before the lesson.

If you break this rule, we ask that you pay Russ for your missed lesson the next time you attend.

Russ is a professional. Please respect him and the commitment he makes to provide these lessons to the group. Of course we'll also make exceptions to this requirement for genuine emergencies and bad weather, but again, short of that, all you have to do is to change your RSVP at least 24 hours before the lesson.

Thank you for observing these rules and helping make the group and these lessons work for everyone. We look forward to seeing you on the courts!

NYC Pickleball and Tennis

Sports & Fitness

Tennis

Outdoor Tennis

Sports and Recreation

Recreational Sports

Young Professional Singles

Racket Sports

Cardio Tennis

Fun Times

Pickup Tennis

Outdoor Fitness

Tennis For Beginners

Competitive Tennis

Women's Fitness

Fitness

Exercise

Are you interested in specific lesson topics? And if so, what aspects of tennis — whether broad or narrow — would you like other lessons to focus on?

Would lessons at other times during the week or on the weekend be more convenient for you? If so, when?

Sunday Morning 1-Hour Group Lesson with Russ Cormier at 11:00am on 9/1

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Sunday Morning 1-Hour Group Lesson with Russ Cormier at 11:00am on 9/1

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