“Clinic” is a slightly clinical word for what’s actually a fairly relaxed, ninety-minute session. Here’s what it looks like in practice, for organisers trying to picture it before booking.
The opening ten minutes
Everyone gets a racket if they don’t have one, a quick safety and etiquette rundown (mostly: watch for balls from other courts, don’t stand too close to someone swinging), and a very short explanation of grip. No one is lectured for long. The goal is contact with a ball within the first few minutes, not a seminar.
The middle of the session
Small rotating groups work through simple drills, hitting a stationary or gently fed ball, then a short rally exchange. This is where most of the ninety minutes goes. It’s active the whole time, nobody is standing around waiting for a turn for more than a minute or two, which matters for keeping energy up in a group that didn’t necessarily choose to be there for tennis specifically.
The closing stretch
Most clinics end with a light, low-pressure game format, often simplified doubles, so people leave having actually played a point rather than only drilled in isolation. This is usually the part colleagues talk about afterward.
What it isn’t
It’s not a fitness bootcamp and it’s not a technical masterclass. Nobody needs to be sore the next day, and nobody needs to remember specific technique terms afterward. The bar for success is that people who’d never touched a racket had a genuinely good time and got the ball over the net more than a few times.
Group size and courts
Clinics scale from around eight people up to forty or more, the constraint is simply how many courts are available to run in parallel, more courts means smaller groups per coach-led station and more actual swings per person.
If this sounds like the right fit for your team, corporate clinics has the full breakdown, including how group size affects the format.