Adult Tennis & Pickleball
Tennis: We provide adult group classes & cardio classes at Lafayette-Pointer Park (behind Lafayette Elementary School) in Chevy Chase, NW/Washington, DC.
AND…
Pickleball: We occasionally offer indoor pickleball group lessons at Dill Dinkers North Bethesda!
Adult Tennis Lessons
We offer group tennis lessons for beginners, advanced beginners, intermediate and advanced players. We offer Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter programs at the Lafayette-Pointer park courts. Drills cover proper stroke technique, footwork, positioning and game strategy. This is a great way to get some exercise, meet new people and hone your tennis skills. For our classses, we have a max of 4 players to a court.
Cardio Tennis
Our one-hour classes provide fun and casual group exercise for all ages, ability and fitness levels. Our sessions bring together a variety of cardio workouts, tennis drills, and games. A typical class involves a warm up featuring dynamic movement, catching/tossing skills and light hitting, followed by a variety of games and a cool down. Our coaches will also provide light coaching (strokes and footwork).
Dates: June 22 - mid August 16. Please note: This is a six-week season as we will not be holding classes the weeks of July 20 and July 27 due to the Mubadala Citi DC Open.
Classes: One-hour classes (Mon-Sunday) for beginner, advanced beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. (You can view the schedule of classes on Court Reserve here).
-Levels: We offer tennis lessons for beginners, advanced beginners, intermediate and advanced players. Our beginner classes help new players learn the basics of the game including forehand, backhand, volley, and serve. Our advanced beginner classes cover proper stroke technique, footwork, positioning and game strategy. For our intermediate classes, we focus on refining key strokes and help players improve their consistency, control, directional control, depth and variety. For our advanced classes (4.0/4.5+), we customize our class and worked on players' specific goals — depth and variety of shots, being more aggressive at the net, court coverage, footwork and strategy. For all of our classes, we had a max of 4 players to a court.
-Price: $255 for the 6-week season.
-POD Classes: If you are interested in creating a 4-person class with friends (a “POD” class), please contact us at Lafayettetennisinfo@gmail.com. Or, if you want to see if we can change the level (i.e. beg, intermediate, advanced) or time for a class you're interested in, contact us!
-Coaches: Our summer program is being taught by coaches Danielle Faucher, Syd Butler, Forrest Bankston, Will Perez and Delmas Ntcha. Check out their bios here.
-Where: Lafayette-Pointer Park Tennis courts (Courts 1 and 2) behind Lafayette Elementary School in NW, Washington, DC. Please note these are outdoor courts.
-Make-ups: For personal absences, we will offer 1 make-up class where players can attend other classes during the week. We will provide an online sign-up where players can trade slots. If we have to cancel a class due to weather, the coaches will work with each class to schedule a make up class. We are reserving the week of August 17 for make-up classes (for weather related cancellations) and will schedule on an as-needed basis.
-Questions?Contact us at Lafayettetennisinfo@gmail.com
Adult Pickleball
Coach Forrest in action!
We occasionally offer indoor pickleball classes at Dill Dinkers North Bethesda.
Taught by Coach Forrest Bankston (bio below), we offer classes for all levels (beginner, advanced beginner, intermediate) for 4-8 players.
We are not currently offering pickleball classes but will announce our classes via email. Want to make sure you’re on our email list? Click here. (If you are already registered with LTA either thru Jumbula or Court Reserve, no need to sign up!)
About our pickleball programming:
Clinic + Guided Play:
Clinic + Guided Play pickleball classes are 1.5 hours long and provide Instruction, Drills, and GuidedPlay.
Class begins with technical instruction tailored to the level of the class and individual players, followed by select drills chosen to reinforce proper technique and create muscle memory. The latter part of class provides opportunity for players to put in to practice what they have learned in actual point play. During play, the instructor will observe all players’ technique, strategy, shot selection, movement patterns, and court positioning, intermittently stopping play to draw attention to areas of improvement appropriate to the players’ skill level (i.e. Guided Play). Instructors will advise each player on specific areas of focus to best level up their game.
Pickleball camp:
We also offer exclusive 2-day pickleball camps!
Our camps are 3-hours long on Saturday/Sunday for a total of 6 hours with general and individually-tailored Instruction, drills, and guided play. Players will be grouped by skill level. Check Court Reserve for the season dates.
Pickleball Camp for Beginners: Quick Start - Learn to Play! (for Beginners to Adv.Beginners 1.0 - 2.5).. This Quick Start camp is perfect for those wanting an overall introduction to the foundational skills, techniques, strategy, rules, and scoring as they explore pickleball for the first time or are early in their journey and want expert guidance to get started on the right foot for a lifetime of success.
Pickleball Camp for Intermediates: Level Up! (for Intermediates 3.0-3.5). This camp is designed for Intermediate players looking to take their game to the next level.
For both camps, technical instruction is tailored to the level of the camp and individual players, and followed by challenging, fun, and scalable drills chosen to reinforce proper technique, create muscle memory, and set the stage to level up your game as far as you can take it.
-Where: Dill Dinkers North Bethesda (4942 Boiling Brook Pkwy, North Bethesda, MD)
About Coach Forrest:
Acclaimed player and coach Forrest Bankston is a certified pickleball professional rated at the highest UTRP level (P4 – Expert/Pro). His tournament success enabled him to attain a debut world ranking near the top 100 within four months of first picking up a paddle, and has continued to include two national titles and dozens of medals in the Virginia, Maryland and DC area. His love for playing the game is passed on to others through private lessons, clinics, camps, and programs, for which he developed a series of professionally planned specialty clinics and drills designed to develop players quickly, efficiently, and intentionally from any starting point to as high as the player strives.
Forrest’s non-pickleball background is in education, public health, and business entrepreneurship, and likes to meld these areas into pickleball by coaching others to help them level up their game (education), by sharing his enthusiasm for the sport and encouraging participation at all levels and ages towards developing habits of healthy and active lifestyles (public health), and now with us here at Lafayette Tennis Association to help lead our pickleball programming and share it throughout the community as much as possible!
As a tennis player, Forrest is also a USPTA Certified Teaching Professional and former NTRP 6.0 and Division I collegiate player and instructor with 20+ years experience, playing competitive juniors (8-18 yrs old) while maintaining high top state, regional, and national rankings in singles and doubles. He also served as a former member of the Junior Tennis Development Committee for the Georgia Tennis Association and developed multi-organizational partnerships to grow the sport of tennis through innovative programming throughout the metro-Atlanta area.