Academy Director Chris Spencer: Perfect cooperation with YONEX for two decades
Chris Spencer worked as a coach at Nick Bollettieri's academy before founding his own 'Spencer Tennis Academy'. In an interview with tennisnet, Spencer looks back on his development - raves about the collaboration with YONEX.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
May 01, 2023, 01:14 am
tennisnet : Mr Spencer. What kind of athletes are best served at the Spencer Tennis Academy?
Chris Spencer : At our academy, we cater to all tennis enthusiasts: from absolute beginners, who are maybe as young as four, to retirees. And also about professional players. I just spoke to a student of mine who made it to #250 in the WTA World Rankings.
tennisnet : How has your coaching career developed?
Spencer : I worked as a tennis coach in England but I wanted to learn more than you get in the usual programmes. So I wrote a letter to Nick Bollettieri's Tennis Academy asking if I could go and see how they work there for a week or two. The one or two weeks turned into seven years of working with Nick. I've been fortunate to be on the court with players like Andre Agassi, a very young Tommy Haas, and others. I was never their main coach. But I was able to observe and learn what makes these players special.
tennisnet : Your memories of Andre Agassi?
Spencer : I can only give the impressions of my players who have trained with Andre. And they were: What a great, down-to-earth person. He took his time for everyone, had no airs and graces. He inspired so many young players with his style. But what I didn't know was that there was so much stress between him and Nick. I only found that out from Andre's book.
"I signed my first contract with YONEX 19 years ago"
tennisnet : It's a long way from Bradenton to Düsseldorf...
Spencer : At that time, Nick had the idea of starting a Bollettieri Academy in several countries. And so they sent me around the world, also because I had already gained experience in business life: After graduating from school, I worked for a bank. So I went from Florida first to Boston, then back to Florida, and from there via a job in Austria to Berlin, where Nick has set up an academy. After seven years of very nice work with many rules, some of which were tough, I wanted to put what I had learned into my own concept. That didn't work in France at first, but then it did in Essen, where we had our academy for eight years. About 15 years ago we started here in Düsseldorf.
tennisnet : You have developed a special relationship with YONEX over the years. How come?
Spencer : I signed my first contract with YONEX 19 years ago. And there are three reasons for this: First of all, the quality of the products. I remember Lleyton Hewitt and his black and yellow YONEX racket. Several of my coaches have tried different racquets - and most have loved this Hewitt racquet. Reason number two is loyalty. YONEX has always been very loyal to me. And vice versa. I've been approached by a few other companies over the years, but I've told them no matter what you offer me, I'll stick with YONEX.
tennisnet : Reason number three?
Spencer : The products just keep getting better and better over the years. I really don't know how they do it at YONEX. The new shoes alone, which are so solid and yet light, were a revelation for me with my back problems. After all, the support from YONEX at various events was always there. We are an academy on the TG Nord facility with twelve outdoor and four indoor courts. About 250 to 300 players train with us every week with a staff of ten to twelve international coaches. YONEX supported this very actively.
#IMG2#
tennisnet : A few weeks ago your academy had a distinguished visitor...
Spencer : That's right. Alyssa Yoneyama, CEO of YONEX, and her brother Casey visited us. It was an honor for me. A lot is developing here with five new padel courts and a small pool is being built for the summer. Alyssa looked at everything here and also asked why we have been working with her company for so long. Unfortunately the weather wasn't that great that day. I promised Alyssa I'd put in a few hours of sunshine when I visited in the summer. It is noteworthy that YONEX is still a family business and that Alyssa and Casey have a leading role. Alyssa is the first woman to head YONEX, before that it was her father and his father.
“The virtual reality experience was fantastic”
tennisnet : As you can hear, your team has also had experience with virtual reality...
Spencer : A funny story: All tennis and badminton customers from Germany, Austria and some European distributors for which YONEX GmbH is responsible receive an annual invitation to take a look at the new products. This event takes place as part of the YONEX German Open in badminton at Broich Castle. This time I was totally overwhelmed by this event. We sat down before the start and I proudly showed Carsten Neuhaus from YONEX my digital business card, which you can read with a smartphone. Carsten just sat there and smiled - and I asked myself: What's so funny?
#IMG3#
tennisnet : Did you find out?
Spencer : Oh yes! A few minutes later we met for the exhibition in Broich Castle and went into the showroom. But it was empty! And I just thought: What's going on here? Until we got virtual reality glasses from YONEX. We basically walked through the company headquarters in Japan with them, saw all the new racquets, golf equipment, everything. Until last year, I didn't even know that YONEX also makes road bikes. This experience was fantastic. And kept us busy on the way home and the whole afternoon. Of course I could pack up with my digital business card...
#IMG4#