Spec Tennis Mixer

I decided to do this case study because I had run across his cool new sport called Spec Tennis.

What caught my attention about Spec Tennis was that it seemed to be a sport that was promoting tennis and showed me how Spec Tennis could help new players to learn tennis in a much quicker way.

That was important to me because I'm never really for anything that's going to promote players leaving tennis for something else. 

Personally, I was interested because I have two knees that are in bad shape. I thought that perhaps I could play Spec Tennis with my family and get the workout that I am not able to do on the tennis court any longer.

I tested it out and things went quite well, so I decided to give it a try at my club with our members.

The purpose of this case study is to have you learn more about Spec Tennis and determine if it would be something that you want to offer at your Club.

Spec Tennis can be offered as a play option in and of itself but I really think you should consider using it as a way to simplify the game for new players.

This case study features an event that I did at my club and how it went. I'll show you everything you need to know if you decide to have an event like this at your facility.

I hope you enjoy this case study. I hope you will give Spec Tennis a try.

The video below is a more generic video about Spec Tennis in general and was created by the founder of Spec Tennis, Nate Gross.

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This is a first-time event and none of our members had heard of Spec Tennis before. This was an obstacle for us in promoting our event..

This is the video created to show folks what the event looks like. We sent it out ahead of time so people would be comfortable signing up for the event. The purpose of this video was to remove any barriers or objections that may have had.

Sign-ups soared after we sent this video. That's when we learned the value of creating promo videos for our many unique and unusual events.

You'll notice the video is not super fancy of edited, it's only purpose was to quickly show people what they would be doing if the came to our event.

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This video shows how we got players down to the court quickly as they arrived.

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This is a video showing what we dis at the check-in desk when players arrived.

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Since we were doing a Mixer versus a tournament, we had a few options on what format to use and how we would rotate players in and out.

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This is a video of me introducing the rules and explaining the format on the day of the event.

Remember that all of the people that attended this event had never played Spec Tennis before and most never heard of it.

In this video, I cover all the rules and explain exactly how the Mixer will work. We also demonstrate what a match will consist of so they will know what to do when they get started.

Below the video is a link where you can download the Spec Tennis rules.

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Rather than having the on-desk plater simply waiting around, we used a warm-up court so everyone could be hitting the entire time.

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This video shows some higher-level players and most of the time they figure out that the best strategy is to come to the net quickly.

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This video shows some of our 3.0 level players. You will notice that they come to the net far less than the more advanced players.

We still like that the rallies last long so everyone gets to hit a lot of shots.

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We had 32 players come to this event and we had only six courts to work with.

This video shows how we set up the groupings and kept everyone engaged

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Lynn Bender is an avid tennis player, HS coach, and wheelchair tennis coach.

This is her thoughts after having played Spec Tennis for the first time.

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Kat Moore is an avid tennis player, that also plays some Pickleball. 

This is her thoughts after having played Spec Tennis for the first time.

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This is a video of four friends that had never played Spec Tennis before.

They talk about their experience and what they thought of Spec Tennis.

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The email scripts you write can make or break an event. This video shows you how we wrote the email copy that helped us sell out this event.

Below this video, you can cut and paste the actual email script we used.

Hello, a few months ago I discovered this cool new sport called Spec Tennis. It's a cross between pickleball and tennis.

I've been trying it with Marti, my daughter, and son-in-law and we love it. Most people that see us playing it give it a try and say they like it better than Pickleball.
 
So I decided to start offering some Spec Tennis at the tennis center. I've invested in 24 rackets and we can now have a lot of fun playing the game.
 
Watch my Spec Tennis intro video - Click Here!
 
I'm inviting a select few people to try the sport out this coming Sunday, Oct, 23 from 5:30 to 7 pm.
 
Please don't forward this email to others it's just for the ones I'm sending it to.
 
This will be an inexpensive event and we would love to have you join us by registering at the link here
 
Hope to see you on Sunday, it's going to be a blast.

Thanks, Jorge

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We think there are several options for running a Spec Tennis event and below are the financial breakdowns for each scenario:

Keep in mind that we had an initial one-time investment in buying Spec paddles which cost roughly $50 per paddle.

SCENARIO 1: SPEC TENNIS INTRO MIXER

This is the first event type we did. The purpose of this event was simply to introduce our members to Spec Tennis to assess if they would like to have more opportunities to play. Therefore we made it very inexpensive and easy to attend this first event. We charged only $15 for members and $18 for non-members to attend a 1.5-hour introductory mixer.

Revenues:

32 players x $18 = $576

Expenses:

We did not have any expenses in the scenario = $0

Net Revenues = $576

SCENARIO 2: SPEC TENNIS FULL MIXER

This is the next event we will do. Now we have a buzz at the club and amongst our players for the event. Many of the players that attended the first "intro" mixer have been taking their friends and asking for this next event. We know we will sell out again just like we did for the first event we held. 

We will now charge more and run a 2-hour event, 30 minutes longer than the first one we did. We will also add some Cake and refreshments at the end of this Mixer to also for players to socialize after the event.

We will charge more... $24 for members and $30 for non-members to attend a 2-hour mixer.

Revenues:

32 players x $28 = $896

Expenses:

Cake & Punch = $40

Players & Forks = $20

Net Revenues = $833

SCENARIO 3: SPEC TENNIS TOURNAMENT

We're not sure we will offer this type of tournament format, but we are considering it. We like the current Mixer format because it's much more social and not so competitive.

However, for certain clubs and clientele, this tournament option might be a better fit.

If we run a tournament format, this is how we would do it:

1. We would offer doubles only.

2. We will schedule the divisions to be held in 3-hour increments so the players would know exactly when they start and when they finish.

3. The entry fees would be $30 per person or $60 per team.

4. We will use a compass draw or other non-elimination format so everyone gets to continue playing even if they lose.

5. We would play normal Spec Tennis scoring which is two out of three short sets (to 4) to determine the winner.

6. We would take a maximum of 8 teams (16 players) per division.

7. We would offer the divisions listed below:

Men's 6.0 (combined) all played Sat from 1-4 pm
Men's 7.0 (combined) all played Sat from 1-4 pm
Men's 8.0 (combined) all played Sat from 1-4 pm
Men's 9.0 (combined) all played Sat from 1-4 pm

Women's 6.0 (combined) all played Sat from 5-8 pm
Women's 7.0 (combined) all played Sat from 5-8 pm
Women's 8.0 (combined) all played Sat from 5-8 pm
Women's 9.0 (combined) all played Sat from 5-8 pm

Mixed 6.0 (combined) all played Fri from 6-9 pm
Mixed 7.0 (combined) all played Fri from 6-9 pm
Mixed 8.0 (combined) all played Fri from 6-9 pm
Mixed 9.0 (combined) all played Fri from 6-9 pm

Assuming we sell out each division, the financial breakdown is below:

Revenues:

12 divisions x 16 players = 192 players x $30 entry fee = $5,760

Expenses:

Trophies = $150 

Munchies & Refreshments = $200 

Net Revenues = $5,410

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I stumbled upon Spec Tennis on the internet. When I checked out their website I noticed they had several prominent tennis coaches touting it's benefits, especially for teaching new tennis players.

I ordered four paddles for myself and started playing with my wife, daughter, and son-in-law and we had a lot of fun.

I quickly realized it was something I could do without pain given I have two bad knees.

We decided to offer some Spec Tennis at our club and people I liked it very much.

We even had many Pickleball players attend our events and told us that they like it better than Pickleball because the rules are closer to tennis, there is no kitchen, and the scoring is much simpler.

It's all so much quieter so you could play Spec Tennis next to an actual tennis match and it won't be annoying for the tennis players.

We plan to offer Spec Tennis social events and also use the paddles and balls to help teach new players to rally quicker so they can enjoy the game.

Spec Tennis has its own website and you can learn more at the link below.

Spec Tennis -Click Here!

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