How a Tuesday night tennis clinic runs itself now

Will has coached beginners tennis for about six years. Every Tuesday at six he runs a clinic for adults at his local club, the kind of session where people who have not held a racquet since school come to give it a proper go. Six players, two courts, an hour of drills and a good laugh. It is the best night of his week. The booking side of it used to be the worst.

The old Tuesday

Here is how it worked before. Someone would text him on Sunday to ask if there was room. He would scroll back through the thread trying to count who had already said yes. Somewhere around the fourth name he would lose it and just guess. He kept a running list on a folded bit of paper in his kit bag, and half the players paid in cash, so he was forever carrying twenty-dollar notes and trying to remember who still owed him. Then, every single week without fail, two or three people would text at half past five: is it still on tonight? The sky looks a bit grey.

He would look out the window, make a call, and message everyone back one at a time. If he had to cancel, the players who had already paid ahead needed sorting out later. It all worked, sort of. It just ate his Sunday evening and a decent chunk of his Tuesday, and none of it was the coaching he actually loved.

One clinic, set for six, six spots

Now the Tuesday clinic lives on his booking page as a group session. It has a date and a time, six o'clock, and a limit of six spots. When five people have booked, the page shows one spot left. When the sixth books, it shows full, and there is no way to squeeze in a seventh. Will does not count anything anymore. He opens the page and sees exactly who is coming.

Because it is a standing Tuesday thing, he set it to repeat. Next Tuesday's clinic is already sitting there ready to book, and the one after that, so his regulars can grab a spot a few weeks ahead. A couple of his keenest players now book a month at a time, which means Will can watch his Tuesdays filling up before the week has even started.

He sets the price per session too. A normal week is twenty dollars a head. When he brings in a second coach for a bigger group or a match-play night, he sets that session to twenty-five, and the page shows the right price for the right night. Everyone pays online when they book, so the cash and the folded list are gone for good. He turns up on Tuesday and the money is already sorted.

The venue is the club, not his lounge

The clinic does not run at Will's house. It runs at the club, which has its own address a couple of suburbs away. So the session carries the club's address and a directions link, and a first-timer who has never been there can tap it and drive straight to the right car park. Will was surprised how much that one small thing helped. People simply stopped texting him to ask where it was.

The best part is a thing that no longer happens. Nobody texts to ask if it is on, because the page has already told them.

The little weather forecast that answers the grey-sky question

Tennis is an outdoor sport, and Auckland weather has opinions. This is where a small feature turned out to matter more than Will expected. Each session card on his booking page shows a live weather forecast for that date and time, with a little animation. A bit of sun when the week looks clear, cloud or rain when it does not. So when someone is deciding whether to book Tuesday, they can see that Tuesday looks fine, and they book with confidence. The half-past-five is it still on text more or less stopped, because the page had already answered it.

When it actually rains

Auckland being Auckland, some Tuesdays are a write-off. When the courts are underwater, Will cancels the session from his phone in one go. Everyone who booked gets their money credited back automatically, along with an email letting them know. He is not sitting there refunding six people one by one, and nobody is left wondering whether they will get their twenty dollars back. He can add a quick note to say see you next week, then put the kettle on.

If you run anything on a set night, a beginners clinic, a squad night, a weekly kick-around, a bootcamp in the park, it can work the same way. Set the day, set the time, set how many people fit, put a price on it, and let people book and pay themselves in. You just show up and coach, which was always the part you wanted to do anyway.