In the Trenches: The Vanishing Entry-Level Teaching Pro—and the Crisis No One Wants to Talk About

If you want to understand the future of American tennis, don’t look at the U.S. Open or the NCAA finals. Don’t look at the USTA’s latest participation numbers. Don’t look at the next AI-powered racquet sensor promising to “grow the game.”

Look at who’s teaching your 10U Orange Ball on Court 17 at 4 p.m. on a random Tuesday. Chances are, it’s not a 23-year-old new coach full of energy and ambition. More likely, it’s a veteran pro pulling a double shift—or a substitute borrowed from another program—because the pipeline of young teaching professionals in this country has quietly dried up.

My dear friend and fellow columnist, Gary Horvath, has been waving the red flag for several years about a looming labor shortage in U.S. tennis coaching. The problem is no longer looming.

It’s here. It’s structural. And it’s getting worse by the month.

Where the Young Pros Went

The first thing you notice when you walk into clubs these days is who isn’t there. The 22- to 30-year-old cohort—the future head pros, future directors, future academy coaches—has thinned to a whisper. Some never even consider tennis coaching as a career. Others jump in, burn out, and sprint out of the industry within 36 months.

Why? Because in too many clubs, the compensation model still looks like it did in the 1980s.

• No guaranteed hours or crazy 70+ hours a week at 10 hours a day

• No benefits

• Splits that tilt heavily toward the club

• Pressure to fill off-peak times to “earn” prime hours

• Zero pathway to long-term stability. The clubs didn’t adjust to the modern labor market. And the young pros responded the way any rational worker would: they left!

When the Pay Doesn’t Work, Pros Look Elsewhere

The result is an underground economy of young pros “piecing together” income any way they can. That now includes squatting on Parks & Rec and high school courts to run side lessons—no permits, no insurance, no agreements.

It’s not hard to understand why they’re doing it; they’re trying to survive. But it has created real tension in cities across the country.

The legitimate concessionaires—the ones who went through the strict application processes, background checks, insurance requirements, city contracts, and financial commitments—now have to confront unauthorized coaches using municipal courts as personal courts.

The irony?

The concessionaires with good business models are actually attracting the most talented young coaches out of the clubs.

Parks operators with:

• transparent financial splits,

• reliable court access, and

• predictable hours

…are outcompeting the clubs for young coaching talent.

When a city park offers more stability than a private club, the business model is upside down.

The Lost International Pipeline

For decades, the single most reliable source of young coaching talent in the U.S. has been international college tennis players. These athletes arrive trained, disciplined, multilingual, and eager to stay in the U.S. They’ve helped fuel the coaching workforce for 30+ years.

But current immigration policies have made it significantly harder for these college graduates to remain here as coaches. Clubs want to hire them.

The industry badly needs them.

But many can’t secure the visas to stay.

That choke point alone has eliminated hundreds—possibly thousands—of potential young teaching pros from the pipeline.

Burnout Is Baked Into the System

Even when young coaches do land jobs, they quickly get ground down: early mornings, school programs, adult clinics, junior privates, evening leagues, weekend events. There’s no time for professional development, certification, mentorship, or even proper rest.

The turnover rate reflects it.

We’re burning the future of the profession at both ends.

The Hidden Crisis: No Local Apprenticeship Pathway

Unlike golf, fitness, physical therapy, or even culinary arts, tennis has no true apprenticeship culture. Young coaches are expected to learn:

• technique

• biomechanics

• programming

• red–orange–green progressions

• adult engagement

• business operations

…all through osmosis while teaching at full speed. I know it works, I have done this with 12 people in the past 10 years.

It’s not realistic. It’s not fair. Worst of all—

It’s not producing enough new career coaches to sustain the sport.

What Happens If We Lose the Bottom of the Coaching Pyramid

Every single growth lever in U.S. tennis depends on entry-level coaches:

• Public park programs

• Adult leagues

• After-school tennis

• High-performance pipelines

• Beginner pathways

• Seasonal programming

• Facility revenue models

We talk about “growing the game,” but you cannot grow what you cannot staff.

Right now, the entire sport is balanced on the backs of an aging coaching workforce and a shrinking pipeline of replacements.

What Needs to Change—Fast

Here’s what the industry must do if it doesn’t want the coaching crisis to become irreversible:

1. Modernize compensation models at clubs.

Stop treating coaching like gig labor. Guarantee base hours and benefits for full-time pros.

2. Strengthen and support quality concessionaires.

Cities that operate professionally are stabilizing the coaching pipeline where clubs are failing.

3. Build formal apprenticeship pathways. Shadowing, mentorship, and structured coaching development should be baked into every facility’s operational plan. Pair every new pro with a senior mentor. Track progress. Pay both parties for the time.

4. Address the immigration barrier for international college players.

We need a viable, realistic visa path for tennis coaching roles—without unnecessary barriers.

The Future Depends on Who’s on Court 17

If we want tennis to grow, we need to rebuild the bottom of the coaching pyramid. Because without young coaches, there is no next generation of players, no next generation of league participants, and no next generation of teaching professionals to lead the sport.

The labor shortage isn’t a side story.

It is the story.

Right now, we are losing the very people who introduced America to tennis. If that continues, the sport’s growth won’t plateau—it will unravel.

That’s the reality, down here in the Trenches.