The Story of Tennis TIP

For many New Yorkers, living happily in the city means uncovering its secret offerings. One untold secret occurs Monday nights, five stories below street level, at 68th and Lexington. Hidden down two escalators and three flights of stairs, through a purple corridor, and behind a set of metal double doors are two bright, air-conditioned tennis courts. Inside, sixteen New Yorkers run ecstatically around the courts shouting in delight and cheering one another on as their instructors feed them an endless supply of forehands, backhands and volleys.

After recovering from the initial visual shock of this throwback to childhood recess, most onlookers notice a tall, friendly-looking man wandering between the two courts. With a smile on his face he yells, “Just hit it! Don’t worry about where the ball is going. I want full swings, not paralysis by analysis!” Grey-haired and with a mysterious twinkle in his eye, the man jumps into line with his students, cheers them on, and pulls out an individual student for some one-on-one instruction. This is Brian Lutz, the founder of TennisTIP.com, and the creator of these ‘secret’ group tennis lessons that occur all over Manhattan. The story of Brian and his company is one of determination, hard work, a hurricane-induced epiphany, and lots of ‘dirty laundry.’

In the original business plan, TennisTIP was conceived as a content site that would sell subscriptions. The idea was to produce video tennis lessons for the web. This plan was scrapped due to limited broadband access throughout the United States and the high cost of producing professional, broadcast-quality video. Brian also arrived at the business-savvy conclusion that just because he wanted to see himself on CD-ROMs and online media players, the same might not be true for people outside his immediate family and local students.

The 1999 second version of TennisTIP was an e-commerce site selling customized tennis racquets and accessories. This was a spin on a golf company Brian read about in the Wall Street Journal one morning. After meeting with several consultants and industry analysts, this too was scrapped since the market appeared too small and was already loaded with offline competition. The concept faced a dual-sided market dilemma: brick and mortar tennis stores were wary of online retailers, and despite an interest in the marketplace, racquet manufacturers did not want to lose longstanding relationships with their revenue-driving mom and pop tennis stores and pro shops. Furthermore, framing, gripping and stringing racquets neither interested nor suited Brian’s core competencies.

After several years of dormant usage, TennisTIP remained mostly a teaching tool where students could view videos of various tennis strokes demonstrated by none other than ‘the founder’ himself. He quite nicely leveraged the site into a tool for growing his student base in New York City and the Hamptons. Brian continued to work for mega real estate developers and Wall Street titans such as Steven Ross (Related Companies), Henry Silverman (Cendant), Andrew Farkas (Insignia), Leon Black (Apollo Advisors), Eric Fischl (Artist) and Alan Alda (Actor).

As Brian approached middle age, he found that his body and brain were no longer as motivated to fine-tune the backhands of the rich and famous, despite his $200 an hour rate. One friend exclaimed, “How can you be unhappy playing tennis for fun while getting paid that kind of money?” His answer, “Dirty laundry” – not that of his students, but his own! The never-ending travel between NYC and Sag Harbor, constant physical conditioning, summer rentals, early curfews, broken relationships, long hot hours and actual ‘dirty laundry’ made Brian yearn for more.

The gauntlet was thrown, and Brian answered its call. At 37 years old, with a nagging back that needed constant rehabilitation, he needed a Plan B to help him focus on growing his retirement nest egg. What about TennisTIP? Should it be a mega tennis gear site or a content portal? Neither idea seemed all that interesting nor a good model in a marketplace that was a deluged with tennis news sites selling advertising with small revenue streams.

The answer was so close to him that he couldn’t see it even when it was right in front of his nose.

Then it hit him - sell tennis lessons.

And as they say, the rest was history. As Brian describes, he was always able to sell lessons, “It’s what I was good at - selling and marketing my tennis lesson services.” He often bemused that this is what made him the most ‘overpriced’ and ‘overworked’ tennis pro in the country. When Brian first broke into the New York marketplace, he tried and failed miserably at selling his services. One of his initial and comical strategies involved walloping tennis balls, lodged with flyers, into the back yards of tennis court home owners. Many of these strays were cleaned up by the butlers and housekeepers; something Brian would soon discover was a blessing in disguise.

The blessing was revealed and Brian found a way to build his clientele after spending Hurricane Bob with some service industry friends house keeping for Steve Ross. Brian’s moment of marketing clarity came as he stood on a Ross’ tennis court during ten minute calm from the eye of the dramatic storm. The answer? Befriend butlers! From that point on his charm and first serve took control of the rest.

Brian explains, “I hedged my bets during the first few years of TennisTIP. I ran the company and still schlepped back and forth to the Hamptons. I was making money but it was costing me years off my life; I was constantly exhausted!” Fast forward 16 summers of hedging his bets and we now find a middle aged, grouchy, over extended tennis instructor. Apparently, Brian was also quite irritable to anyone that was close to him which left many concerned. The fun loving pro was missing fun and love. Fortunately, as Brian describes, “within the past year, TennisTIP’s success has allowed me to focus on the business full time, fifty-two weeks a year. I am retired from teaching tennis in the Hamptons and work a limited schedule on court in the city.”

TennisTIP has thrived and remains a one of a kind service. The group tennis lessons are convenient, fun and easy to register for. Group lessons specialize in teaching beginner, advanced beginner and intermediate level students. The teaching methodology focuses on movement and self-discovery through drilling and instructional feedback. Players are encouraged to ask questions and to explore their own experiences to help them learn the game independent of instruction. Brian’s method of teaching is often a stark contrast to traditional instruction styles that focus on mimicking, which Brian dubs ‘paralysis by analysis’. One of his goals is to alleviate over-analysis (swing paralysis) by having students notice their stroke patterns in five to ten swing batches.

In a throwback to Brian’s original business idea, TennisTIP also offers free content via his blog now that video and broadband access are commodities online. The site also has promotional giveaways, endless ‘tips’ about where and how to play the game, and a database for finding partners throughout the country.

As Brian says, “One of my favorite quotes is from Bill Parcells, ‘You are what you are.’ For awhile I was an unhappy guy but now I think I have found my niche. At times it was a painful journey but I wouldn’t trade in any of my experiences. My business and I are stronger for it!”

As for all that ‘dirty laundry’, Brian now takes it up the block from his apartment each week. It is washed by two lovely Chinese ladies and he is very grateful to them each day he plops his bag on their scale.

"Creativity is maximized when you are living in the moment." Unknown