How Do I “Get Things Going”?

Written by Brent Johner on October 3, 2009 – 11:01 am

Brent Johner is a certified tennis, squash and badminton coach
Network players often email me asking “How do I get things going for my network?”

Regardless of the location or the sport, my answer is always the same: start small.

Step 1 – Use our search tool to create a list of players in your area.

Step 2 – Start contacting these players one by one.

Figure out who is serious about playing and who joined just because they were curious.

Step 3 – Find a few players who are committed.

Like most clubs, 10 to 20 per cent of our members are frequent players. These are people who like to play at least once a week.

Start by activating this group in your local network. They are most likely to say yes and to follow through on a regular commitment to play.

Step 4 – Start playing regularly and entering your scores through the website.

As your results appear on our scoreboards, new players will be attracted by the activity and your network will begin to grow.

Racquet Network now has several groups playing at different facilities across North America who all started this way. They all started with one frequent player who dedicated himself to making something happen for his favourite racquet sport.

Some of these networks are now big enough that they are joining inter-club leagues or hosting their own tournaments.

In every case, it took awhile to build things up. But the players and organizers all agree that it was worth the effort.

Brent Johner is a certified tennis, squash and badminton coach in Calgary, AB, Canada. He is also Racquet Network’s founder and Executive Director. He can be reached at brentjohner@racquetnetwork.com