P S: ★★
UPDATE: Now that I have learned a great deal more and my daugher is now training in Florida with one of the most esteemed Tennis coaches in the world, I realize now how much B.S. this JMG tennis academy is. They are selling a story and there is no such thing as an 8 year old with a 6.0 UTR. That is simply ridiculous. Perhaps these folks are good, but on its face, the entire way they dealt with me was arrogant, off-putting and the little I heard was most likely pure B.S. My advice? Go to Florida where the real tennis players all train. All the best. ---------------------- I will admit we have not trained or visited this facility. But I write this review as a cautionary note for tennis parents researching tennis academies. I will be short, but please take note of our experience. I was very excited to talk to JMG and to Joe specifically. I wrote to Joe and requested a short chat and never received any response. I was contacted by a manager of the facility and was very surprised as to how we were treated. First, at no time did this person ask anything about my daughter, her experience, training schedule, goals, or what we were looking for. I was essentially told that because of my daughter's UTR level, she would probably not be allowed to train with the high performance group. I was also told that there is an 8 year old in their midst who they say has a 6.0 UTR. I think that was said to me in order to give me the impression that their players are superior and that my daughter was of a lower level. But a 6.0 UTR for an 8-year old? What? Huh? How is that even possible? Pretty sure that cannot be true in any way. But that sort of shows the tone. As if to say "Here, we are awesome, and you are probably not good enough, so we will put you into a lower program until you conform to our ways." What an odd message to be honest. It was a very, very unwelcome vibe, and it very much was "it is our way, or the highway" message to us. No personalization seemed possible, no flexibility and clearly no interest in what we were about. Essentially, conform or don't come around. That was basically the message. Coupled with the supposed 6.0 UTR 8 year old (I honestly believe that is not only NOT possible but one of the oddest things I have ever heard from any acadmy or coaching professional in the several years of training my daughter and communicating and interacting with various top-level academies). We have, for the record, trained with one of the most well-known and respected tennis coaches in the world. He was the total opposite of what I experienced talking with JMG. They may be a great facility with some great training. But we wil never know - because the "welcome mat" was very much not put out for us. For the record, my daughter is 9 years old and is an advanced tennis player for her age with a respectable yellow ball U12 record in Canada. But of course, all of this was unimportant in my 45 minute call with JMG. I even followed up the call with some comments (in a very polite fashion) and let them know I was open to talking again, in case I just had one bad experience and in fact maybe we could try again. However, like before, no response whatsoever. Whatever. A bit offended? Yes. Frustrated and confused? Yes. Moving on, never to try again with them? You got it. Just beware when reaching out to them. You may have a totally different experience but who knows. Maybe part of their schtick is to project total superiority and total inflexibility. That way, the only folks that would train there would be pre-programmed and prepared to simply obey and question nothing. I don't know, these are just my thoughts. However, I have talked with at least 12 different very high level tennis academies and never have I felt so uninvited and unwelcome. Just keep that in mind if considering them.