We always look for ways to improve our games. I have come across an interesting coaching platform for that. Here is our Coachlife Review.
Coachlife is a platform featuring video lessons from famous coaches of the top pros. Instead of letting the pros do the work in a shorter format, like in our TopCourt review, Coachlife focuses on longer, in-depth videos from the coaches themselves.
The platform went live with hundreds of videos from 21 coaches. According to the co-founder, ex-pro Peter Clarke, more content will periodically be added, so you are definitely getting value for your money.
Talking about money, a yearly subscription is 180 dollars. You get a free one-week trial to try and see if it is for you. If you decide to sign up, use our discount code TENNISNERD10 to get 10% off.
Coachlife Coaches
This is the current list of Coachlife coaches:
Adriano Fuorivia: who coached Denis Shapovalov.
Piotr Sierzpitowski: Shelby Rogers, Iga Swiatek
Misha Kouznetsov: Frances Tiafoe
Robert Landsdorp: Pete Sampras, Maria Sharapova, Lindsay Davenport
Robert Lindstedt: Denis Kudla, Ajla Tomljanovic
Gary Stickler: Pat Rafter, John Millman, Jason Kubler
Guy Fritz: Taylor Fritz, Coco Vandeweghe
Sly Black: Coco Gauff, Sloane Stephens, Sachia Vickery
Dave Bailey: footwork and fitness coach to 21 Grand Slam players
Peter Smith: Steve Johnson, Sam Querrey
Anthony Ross: Ash Barty, Bernard Tomic
Stanford Boster: Mardy Fish, Andy Roddick
Michael T. Joyce: Maria Sharapova, Jessica Pegula, Victoria Azarenka, Sofia Kenin
Justin Sherring: Jack Draper, Joe Salisbury, Johanna Konta
Glenn Weiner: Kei Nishikori, Michael Mmoh
Dean Hollingworth: Genie Bouchard, Elena Vesnina
Erika Villalobos: Nutritionist to ATP and WTA players
Diego Moyano: Tommy Paul, Reilly Opelka, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe
Todd Larkham: Nick Kyrgios
Michal Kaznowski: Iga Swiatek
As you can see, this is quite a serious list of coaches and player names. Still, you might not relate to all of the coaches and you will most likely find certain favorites that resonate with you and that you can learn from. I am keen to hear from you in the comments of this Coachlife review, if you have tried the platform and what you think of it.
Coachlife Topics
At the moment, there are 333 videos on the platform. The topics are tagged for easy search and covers things like:
Serve, Volley, Drills, Strength and Conditioning, Footwork, Slice Backhand, Return, Forehand, Backhand, Nutrition, Psychology, Strategy, Drills, Parental advice, Coaching strategy and more.
What I enjoy more with Coachlife over TopCourt is that the videos are longer and more in-depth. The production levels are good on both platforms, but the top pros are not always the best at giving instructions, and sometimes the format on TopCourt is too abbreviated. You can argue that some of the videos could be edited more or shortened on Coachlife, but you can easily jump around in the videos or in between videos.
Another nice feature is that Coachlife offers Key Points in bullet point lists for every video, which makes it easier to follow the most important ideas in each video.
Coachlife pros and cons
Everything has pros and cons, but I have personally enjoyed the value that Coachlife provides. The platform already covers a lot of ground and I look forward to more content being added.
Pros+
Easy to use and navigate
Lots of content
Different coaching styles
Cons-
The content could use some more structure in terms of progressions of certain strokes, but it is perhaps not easy to do since there are many different coaches on there and they have different approaches to delivering insights.
It would have been nice just to pay monthly instead of signing up for a year. I don’t think 15 USD per month is too much, considering how much content you get. Many tennis coaching platforms are more expensive and offer fewer videos.
Can you learn from video coaching?
When I wrote this Coachlife review and went through many of their videos, I started thinking about an important point to video coaching platforms like this. Can you learn from video coaching?
Yes, I think so. But you need to approach it with a serious mindset and I think it helps to write down the takeaways and points you want to work on in your own game.
It is easy to watch a lot of tennis coaching videos and get overwhelmed by all the information. My advice is to focus on improving one thing at a time. That usually involves getting a few ideas on things to work on for a stroke or an element of the game, write them down, bring them to the court, get a ball machine or a hitting partner and film yourself working on them. Improving in tennis requires loads of repetition and instilling good habits into your muscle memory. You need patience and discipline to improve, especially on your own.
But it is possible. Platforms like Coachlife and TopCourt have inspired and helped me improve my game. Tennis is a deep and difficult game where you never stop learning and through these videos you get new ideas to bring to the court, the next time you play.
Coachlife Review Summary
In short, I find Coachlife to be an excellent platform for learning new concepts and improving your tennis. You need to watch actively and think about what you are watching to be able to really ingrain the ideas into your game, but overall, the platform is well laid out, the videos are of solid production quality, the coaches are overall excellent and I think the value for money is there. Again, use our discount code TENNISNERD10 to get 10% off your Coachlife subscription.
Like with TopCourt, I would have preferred a monthly commitment over a yearly one, but I appreciate the 7-day free trial. If you do sign up, let me know in the comments what you think of the platform and who your favorites coaches and lessons are.
Ps. They also offer consultations and video analysis, but I have not yet tried those features. Let me know if you do. Ds.
