Dear All,

Having read many threads on topic dedicated to tennis in Switzerland and having seen common questions arising from expats who would like to either learn how to play or continue this activity on both social and competitive level both indoor and outdoor, I would like to compile some comprehensive sources of information which can serve as a guide. For those who understand basic German or French I would recommend to get familiar with Swiss Tennis terms and conditions under www.swisstennis.ch.

Disclaimer
The information provided here are based on personal experience and gathered from available sources. There might be discrepancy of rules in different clubs, varying from canton to canton but the general approach should be similar.

What is the best place to find tennis club when I arrive to Switzerland?
If you just arrived with your equipment and would like to start regular tennis sessions but have no partner, the chances are pretty high that you will be stuck for a while not knowing anyone to play with. You will most likely be left with the following options:
· Searching the forum and inquiring at work place amongst the colleagues. Normally Swiss people are known to be introvert and it might take you a while to arrange for the game. (This is my personal experience but it might vary greatly from place to place.)
· Identifying the indoor tennis centre nearby and leaving your contact details with your level of competency on the board. It is a common practice to find a tennis partner. You can get more information at the reception of any sport centre offering tennis/badminton/squash. This is very helpful in autumn/winter season.
· If it is spring/summer time you could look for the club nearest to your location and join it. The website which provides all the information, unfortunately is only in DE/FR under Club/Centre Support. Once you have identified the club of your preferences you should contact the person responsible for recruitment of new members or best president telephonically or via email. As majority of tennis players that I have met speaks English on competent level, they will reply to you (although it might take some time). Present your intentions, request to join their club briefly and to the point, without using complicated language. As the tennis season starts end of April/May you will receive a prior email with information on opening day (Apero) and thus you will get to know all the members.

Tennis courts
Basically, there are two types of tennis courts commonly used in Switzerland, which are known as: outdoor red clay courts “Sand” (Spielplatz) and indoor carpet courts “Teppich” Spielplatz. The clay is type of surface to be regularly played on in spring/summer season. There are some clubs which put up the bubble over the clay tennis courts (end of summer or beginning of autumn), and these are available till end of winter season. The carpet is commonly used in autumn/winter but weather dependent it is often used entire year round. There are also minor differences from place to place on the same surface in terms of the texture and density that results in speed and ball bounce, but I will not get into detail here. You might also come across other types of surfaces e.g. hard court as well but they are less common and mostly used for private purpose or in professional coaching centres.
It is important to notice that once you joined the club, you will be given terms and conditions booklet how to use their facilities and time schedule of the events taking place in a particular club.

General cost of tennis
Not meaning to disillusion anyone, but tennis in Switzerland is expensive. The prices of renting the tennis courts vary from place to place and they generally are more expensive in large cities than on the outskirts and again it will vary on cantonal basis. It is commonly known that the tennis courts are the most expensive indoor in autumn/winter time. The prices often are anything from CHF30 up to CHF70 per clock hour. It is the cheapest to use indoor tennis courts early in the morning (first two hours) or late at night before closing time (last two hours). Hourly rates of indoor tennis courts will be lower in summer time as most of the players will be using their outdoor tennis courts and expect the price drop between CHF10 to CHF20. If you are not a full club member meaning you did not pay entry fee of minimum around CHF500 upwards per season starting May till September or even longer (weather permitting), then you may well expect to pay CHF10 or CHF25 per hour on an outdoor clay court.

Club membership
Joining the club has the following advantages:
· You pay once off entry fee for the single club membership and get some, usually significant, discount if you join as a pair with spouse (Paar/Konkubine).
· You get a tennis player’s licence to be able to enter competitive tennis and play leagues (Interklub), club championship (Meisterschaft) and tournaments (Turnier). It costs flat rate CHF60 per annum (optionally CHF30 per half year). This will allow you to view your active status i.e. history of events entered and view the results under Wettkampf (just type your first name or surname in search engine).
· You have unlimited access to tennis courts within the hours regulated by club’s terms and conditions, which practically it means almost all the time.
· Access to the ball machines, practicing wall and other training equipment helping in making your progress faster.
· You get to know more people as you travel and play leagues/tournaments and participate in social events within the club and many more.
· You can bring visitors with you as guests upon paying a certain regulatory fee.

Tennis ranking
In Swiss Tennis (Schweizerischen Tennisverband), the players ranking system is defined as “Regional” and “National”. The regional classifier stands for amateur tennis players starting from R9 (amateur beginner) to R1(amateur expert), whereas national classifier stands for N4 (lowest rank professional) to N1(top rank professional) and e.g. R.Federer and S.Wawrinka are classified as N1 type players (you can check yourself their history of tournaments as it is given in there).
If you joined the club, as a new member you will usually start at the bottom of the ladder and climb up as you go along and play the competitive tennis. If you are already playing tennis on certain standard you can demonstrate it to the president of your club (or designated body responsible for organizing licences) and they will unofficially evaluate you and decide to put you in more-less right category before you even enter the competition. Then once you started playing leagues/tourneys and beat the higher ranked opponents than yourself, you will get the points and promoted in ranking. However if you loose against lower ranked players than yourself, you will get demoted because you loose the points. I will not get into details how it exactly works, there are the formulae which calculate your weighted coefficient, risk factors and etc. You are welcome to read it yourself (DE/FR) under the Rules and Regulations and Reglemente which seem to be updated every year. There are some changes made in terms of rules so I would strongly recommend checking the new link: Reglementsänderungen 2010. In general it is fun and being classified it allows you to enter the tournaments all year round, obviously within the right category, so go there beat higher ranked opponents and score more points while making it up to the top.

Competitive tennis
If you are the N-class type of player you don’t need to read this sticky as you will be better informed due to the nature of your profession. The tennis tournaments for amateurs falling under R category are played regularly throughout the entire year and are more fun orientated. The purpose of these tournaments is more serving to improve ones skills and monitor progress via accumulating points in ranking rather than being prestigious. However it is a starting point for very young players on the long road to enter the professional tennis career as well. For us it’s just merely “Verbesserung” as it is more about fun and your hobby, so please do not take the downfalls too seriously. The detailed information on tournament calendar and venue are provided in the link Turnier. General rules to enter apply as, you need to be classified in the category R9…R1, posses a valid player’s licence, and importantly you must enter few weeks in advance so that the organizing commission can verify your details and make a tableau (singles's draw). There is usually closing time given for the entrants and few days prior the actual tournament you will be posted the Tableau with exact time of your match and opponent’s name and his Rangliste so that you can check whom you are dealing with. There is always an entry fee (e.g. CHF68 or more) paid at the reception prior to the tournament starts and non-refundable. If you do not show up your match will be concluded as "Z" walkover but you do not loose pointsas you haven't met your opponent on battlefield. Only you loose the match if you played at least one game and retired being unable to play anymore. Then it is W.O. (walkover) and you loose the points as well. The tournament results will be updated within the next week on www.swisstennis.ch. The symbols of results are as follows: "S" (Sieg) winner, "N" (Niederlage) defeat, "W" (Sieg w.o) winner walk-over, "Z" (Niederlage w.o) defeat walk-over.

Purchasing equipment and restringing the rackets
Unless you have good contacts with coaches and sponsors within the country, the cost of tennis rackets, strings, accessories and restringing is more expensive in Switzerland than outside. The average cost of restringing can vary anything from CHF25 to CHF35 per labour not including the string and with strings it is much higher. There are many places that restring the rackets and sale similar equipment. Here is an exemplary list of the most popular locations in Switzerland:

www.bespannungsservice.ch
www.mrs-tennis.ch
www.tengo.ch
www.vitis.ch
www.sportworld-baregg.ch
www.manosport.ch
www.jelmoli.ch
www.tc-weesen.ch
www.appenzellerlandsport.ch

General rule of thumb, search for shop nearby your location that specializes in ski equipment as well as tennis. Ask in your local club the coaches and instructors or amongst your tennis partners who can also do such job part-time.

Provided that you know what you are looking for, my personal advice is to use one of the internet shops that sell the same equipment in Germany, Austria or France. You will save on the costs even after paying the customs. Here are two on-line shops worth checking:

www.keller-sports.de
www.tennis-point.de
www.arfaian.com


The shipment to Switzerland is usually cost free and I second their services are very reliable.

If you are a serious string-breaker, I would recommend purchasing your own restringing machine (Bespannung/Besaitung Machine) thus you will save a lot of money and possibly even make some money from restringing to get your initial costs of investment back soon. For example, last year I managed to break strings c.a. 15times and it cost me about CHF600. For this price you can already get an electronic restringing machine and reel of polyester string 200m. Needless to say how much it will save you in a long run.

Tennis lessons
In general, forgive me if I sound like a broken record again, the tennis lessons in Switzerland are very expensive. I had an opportunity to meet and play with professional tennis instructors here and I got information first hand how it all works. The costs of individual lessons can be a major deterrent for those who are willing to start with this activity because one has to pay for the court and the lesson separately. I met many people complaining about it but the reality is if you are looking for a licensed instructor it will set you back a lot, as he also needs to make a living from a hard work. The squad (group) trainings are quite popular as they significantly lower the costs but mostly they are catering for children. You can check for coaching in your local clubs but it most likely will be in German or one of the official languages. If you are interested in private tennis lessons throughout the season, it refers me to the link: Tennis lessons during summer and winter season.

Tennis centres
It will be difficult to make an exhaustive list of all sport centres with tennis courts (squash and badminton) in Switzerland and perhaps it will be good idea to search nearby your location. The most popular locations around Zürich area are:

www.vitis.ch
www.lengg.ch
www.sfcs.ch
www.tscs.ch

and close to Baden:

www.sportworld-baregg.ch

Please feel free to forward your suggestions to add more places to this list if you know of any other good centres worth trying.

I hope this post will give more information and help to answer commonly asked questions on the EF about tennis in Switzerland and it will motivate more people irrespective of the age group and physical predisposition to take up this fantastic activity. If you find some information ambiguous or irrelevant please do not hesitate to put more personal input and feedback so that I can elaborate this post. If there is some content outdated please correct me.

I would suggest viewing the link www.swisstennis.ch which offers the detailed information on the above and provides many more.

Kind regards,

Jacek

__________________
🎾That's what we do to help English speaking expats community in Switzerland:
General Information About Swiss Tennis
Tennis Lessons Summer Winter Seasons
🎾🎾Our charity organization to help unprivileged kids to realize their dreams:
FMTF Supports Tennis For Children in Southern Africa

Nice post Jacek. I don't know much about tennis but enjoy watching it on TV if it happens to be on.

Question for you or others: My son, who is 5, has expressed interest in wanting to play tennis this summer. I have no idea if he is serious about it or not. What age do kids typically start playing tennis?

He's currently skiing, playing ice hockey and doing gymnastics. We were thinking about either football or tennis this summer. What are your thoughts regarding tennis for him?

Great idea to put this all together. A load of helpful stuff.
However, at the moment, as far as I can see, it isn't a sticky. Only Mods have this sort of glue! Have a word with Scott or Nathu and see if they will make it into one for you.
Keep up the good work.

Hi Patxi,

I asked my girlfriend who is a professional tennis coach (you might have seen our previous posts) and she has been working with kids age groups between 5 and 17 for past five years in South Africa and currently she gives the tennis lessons in Switzerland to the local kids in a similar age range.

The major key to success is interest shown by a child to start one new activity or the other. This can only be observed after few lessons if the child is really serious about it. Just example, there were situations when she was giving lessons to entire family with kids 5,7 and 14 years of age. The 7 and 14 were doing well and always happy to come to the tennis courts on Saturday mornings, however the youngest one didnt show much interest and had to be almost dragged by his mum. It was more like parents wanted to enforce this activity on him and it didnt sound good.

But from what you said your 5 year old son is willing to learn how to play tennis which is already a good sign. As he has already tried other sports requiring effort and he has got experience with skiing, ice hockey and gymnastics it is all the better. Learning tennis in this age is more about patience. He will have to demonstrate his ball skills how to catch and pick up the balls, toss, move and run on the court, learn step by step how to make coordinated movements with timing to the ball, learn how to swing and basic grips, play fun games and mini-tennis and many more. As this is the right age when kids learn the fastest, is very important to introduce them to correct technique. Normally kids do not get tired from such activity quickly at this age and once they are happy with exercises they will surely want to come back to repeat them again.

But like I say the best is to see the child how he reacts during the training. If you would like to try the idea of tennis for him, we can make a contact and my girlfriend can answer more of your questions.

Kind regards,

Jacek

BTW: I saw an interesting website showing how kids progress to play in different age groups http://www.tennisplayandstay.com/#Progression.

__________________
🎾That's what we do to help English speaking expats community in Switzerland:
General Information About Swiss Tennis
Tennis Lessons Summer Winter Seasons
🎾🎾Our charity organization to help unprivileged kids to realize their dreams:
FMTF Supports Tennis For Children in Southern Africa

TENNIS SEASON SPRING/SUMMER 2012


Dear All,

The tennis season will start soon. In preparations for winter and summer training I would like to invite all of you who are interested in private tennis lessons to our club. Please find more details below: http://www.tcwettingen.ch/tcwmain.html

Kind regards,

Fadzai

jacek, now you started to be very active in the forum, probably you'd like to take in charge the tennis events during the 09 season ?

In most of the clubs the tennis season will start end of April where Eröffnungsapéro innitiate events and provide information for new members. Its time for socializing and making new contacts for next half a year of outdoor tennis fun. We would love to help anyone interested to improve their tennis skills on any level. We can assist you with the drill, tennis workout and hitting sessions on beginner, intermediate and advanced level. Please let us now when you are available

There are two clubs in our location close to Baden: www.tcneuenhof.ch and www.tcwettingen.ch

__________________
🎾That's what we do to help English speaking expats community in Switzerland:
General Information About Swiss Tennis
Tennis Lessons Summer Winter Seasons
🎾🎾Our charity organization to help unprivileged kids to realize their dreams:
FMTF Supports Tennis For Children in Southern Africa

I think given the distant location Mythenquai in Zurich where you guys usually play is a little bit too far for us to come regularly and make to the social events. I think the way you were organizing last year SL was excellent to introduce the people to tennis and of good quality. We were quite busy setting up our interclubs here last year to be able to come more regularly. As far as Schlieren is concerned whenever it rains Fadzi and I would like to come and help you out with tennis groups. Lets keep in touch regarding these events though

__________________
🎾That's what we do to help English speaking expats community in Switzerland:
General Information About Swiss Tennis
Tennis Lessons Summer Winter Seasons
🎾🎾Our charity organization to help unprivileged kids to realize their dreams:
FMTF Supports Tennis For Children in Southern Africa

History & Development of the Wheelchair Tennis Sport
Originally it started in the year 1976 in the USA and than wheelchair tennis caught on in France in 1982 and spread throughout entire Europe. In 1985 the European Wheelchair Federation (EWTF) was founded, to realize championships throughout Europe.

In Switzerland wheelchair tennis surfaced for the first time in the east part of Switzerland, which was influenced through the contact with France in the eighties. In the German speaking part of Switzerland the first wheelchair tennis trainings took place in 1987, and during the same year the Swiss championship (SC) and inter club championships (SIC) took place. Considering these activities soon thereafter the TK Tennis as national association for wheelchair tennis was founded subordinate to the umbrella organization of the Swiss Paraplegics Association (SPA).

Read more here...

__________________
🎾That's what we do to help English speaking expats community in Switzerland:
General Information About Swiss Tennis
Tennis Lessons Summer Winter Seasons
🎾🎾Our charity organization to help unprivileged kids to realize their dreams:
FMTF Supports Tennis For Children in Southern Africa

You can organise it wherever you find better. you'll have a continuous flow of tennis players (and lesson candidates )

I will be posting regularly and checking for replies. Hopefully close to the official opening dates we can get more tennis enthusiasts and we will come out with some plan to orgainize social events and perhaps tennis clinics and similar. It will be dedicated to serve everyone's tennis needs

There goes my playing tennis for 15 years...:-(
In the USA we have several free courts on walking or biking distance.
I doubt I will be able to afford playing in Switzerland once I move there :-(

And apparently not much (any at all?) racquetball either.
:-(

I know what you mean. We lived in the security complex with tennis court and swimming pool right behind the window. We used to play everyday for 30-45min to keep up in a good shape. Most of the modern townhouses around Johannesburg suburbs are equipped with such facilities. The tennis clubs in South Africa are widespread all over the place like MIGORS and COOP shop branches in Switzerland (if this comparison can be relevant at all). But these times are gone for us and reality is that we still want to stay in agood shape throughout the season.

Prices of tennis seem to be relatively high at the first glance but translated in terms of salaries they're still affordable. Especially if you organize a group of people playing together and you share the costs. So my advice would be to do some research around your location and do not give up on this wonderful activity Anyway, good luck with your settling down in Switzerland.

__________________
🎾That's what we do to help English speaking expats community in Switzerland:
General Information About Swiss Tennis
Tennis Lessons Summer Winter Seasons
🎾🎾Our charity organization to help unprivileged kids to realize their dreams:
FMTF Supports Tennis For Children in Southern Africa

Dziekuje, Jacek!

Of course it goes down to priorities. But also income. Your point on the latter can be only partially true - our income will be 70% down (compared to here), while our expenses at least 120% up (looking only at the rent and food). So we may or may not play tennis. But since you had a similar experience, you know what I mean - just walking to a court and play whenever you want, for as long as you want etc. It's not just the money thing.
Still might see you on the courts :-) e.

Often asked question by parents: Where one can get more inforamtion about tennis for children? Here is a link (unfortunately only in German and French for those who read in English) kidstennis.

There is a cool site with wallpapers and other fun stuff: http://www.tenniswallpapers.net/Switzerland/

While riding my bike yesterday I noticed that some of the tennis clubs are already open near Baden so if you cannot wait I would just advice to check out for availability in your area

Today I received from Arfaian a restringing machine DROP WEIGHT STRINGING MACHINE type. It is a simple manual machine but very economic and relatively easy to use. For those who would like to get some more information about restringing go to this site: Stringing Tennis Rackets. I would recommend to watch the following three videos below:

Tennis Racquet Stringing 2: Preparing The Strings

Tennis Racquet Stringing 4: Stringing The Mains

Tennis Racquet Stringing 5: Stringing the Crosses

Average club player past 50, looking for tennis parter in Zug/Baar area. Prefer weekdays 1-2 times/week (job/travel permitting). PM me if interested.

Regards
Chris

Some news for those who might be interested in Swiss tennis unfortunately only in German/French. Here is a link to Swiss Tennis Booklet.