TopCourt Review – Is It Worth It?
You have probably seen one of their ads, and you want to know what it is all about.
I’ve tested TopCourt to find out myself and I will try to give you an honest review of it.
What is TopCourt
TopCourt is a tennis video platform where you can watch tennis lessons, stories, and behind-the-scenes footage from more than 50 professional players and former legends of the game.
The website is nicely designed and you can navigate by using the header menu where you find:
- The Instruction section includes the top and trendy videos, the recently viewed lessons, and more suggestions for each shot type.
- The Drills section contains all the drills for each shot type and you can filter by the level from 101 to advanced
- The Stories section includes videos about the life of the pros speaking about their debuts, their goals, and sometimes their personal lives.
- The BTS (behind the scenes) section covers aspects like the diet, equipment, and preparation of the pro players.
- The Top Tips section highlights key tips from the lessons in short format videos.
- The Team TopCourt section lists all the professionals who contributed to the making of the platform and you can click on your favorite player to watch his videos.
The basic subscription costs $180 per year billed annually while the gold membership costs $600 per year billed annually.
The gold membership gives you early access to new content, and opportunities to win trips to the shooting of TopCourt videos or to a Grand Slam event.
What I Liked About TopCourt
TopCourt has definitely more content and options than any other tennis instruction platform out there.
There is a reason why you see a lot of publicity on the TV and on the internet to sign up for it.
Here are the main features that made me absolutely like TopCourt.
- Setup: The video and the sound quality are astounding. The videos are even in 4K! I like that all the lessons are shot outdoors on a bright day. It feels calm, motivating, and eye-pleasing for sure.
- Quality: You can find all the former legends and current high-level pros from multiple Grand Slam champions like Navratilova, Venus Williams, Brian brothers, and Chris Evert to the current top performers such as Zverev, Swiatek, Halep, Kyrgios and the list goes on. They give you their unique perspective and top-level tips with good examples.
- Quantity: Not only the quality is there, but you get access to 50+ tennis professionals giving you unique tips and instructions that only a pro can give you.
- Length: The videos are essentially between 4 and 8 minutes. This is the perfect length to show enough but not to get you bored.
- Navigation: It is easy to get access to whatever content you like.
- Examples: The videos contain lots of examples of executed shots from different angles so that you can better visualize the mechanics behind the shots and the outcome. So Topcourt is not only talk but actual concrete examples.
- Recap: This is probably the best thing I’ve liked about TopCourt. They provide a recap of the lesson in concise bullet points right before the end of each video, making it easy to remember.
- Fun: The videos are very engaging and sometimes even funny. I can easily find myself binge-watching 15-20 videos every day and still hungry for more content.
- Continuous Improvement: The TopCourt team is clearly putting a solid effort to consolidate their platforms with more videos and more players to watch. They are listening to their customer’s feedback and adding content constantly.
- Subtitles: You can activate the subtitles, which is great for non-native English speakers.
What I Didn’t Like About TopCourt
While it appears like the perfect platform to learn tennis, TopCourt has its flaws.
Here are the things that I didn’t like while testing the website.
- Yearly billing: $15/mo could’ve been better than $180/year for most people.
- Not for beginners: TopCourt is advanced-oriented. The beginners will not find a step-by-step progression program to learn the fundamentals and improve their game.
- Overproduced: Some people like raw tennis content. In some instances, the abundance of sound and the many angles with slow motion throws you off.
- Lack of structure: The lessons are difficult to learn in an organized way most of the time.
- Lack of drills: There are good enough drills falling mostly in the high-level or pro side. However, the drills section in the menu still feels empty and needs more content, especially for beginners.
- Not all pros are good teachers: Some professionals are natural when it comes to instructing. Others have a hard time explaining or find it hard to express themselves in English.
Examples of Amazing Pro Tips That I Learned in TopCourt
As I’ve said earlier, TopCourt is jam-packed with tips from professionals that you’ll never know anywhere else.
Here are a few examples that directly helped me personally:
- Chris Evert: The machine gun serving technique to improve your serve. This tip instructs you to free up your mind and exaggerate your weakness. I think this is the best serve drill I’ve ever tried. Personally, I did it alone by having 4 balls in my pockets and I would serve quickly 4 consecutive balls. I was amazed at how my third and fourth serves were powerful and precise.
- Bryan Brothers: The Japanese speed train drill. This tip teaches you how to react to a fast shot from the opponent like an overhead in the middle of the court by absorbing the pace and moving forward.
- Alexander Zverev: All his lessons are pure gold. But I absolutely loved the approach to the volley lesson. He says: be aggressive with your feet, your footwork and your mindset not only with your arms. I tried this tip the next day and I won 90% of my opponent’s services! I just convinced myself that I am going to be much more aggressive, I stepped to every shot and I moved forward much more. And this made all the difference to me as Zverev suggests. Impeccable.
Is TopCourt Worth It?
Yes, it is worth the subscription in my opinion if you don’t mind paying $180 a year.
TopCourt is like a Netflix for tennis fans. It is a near-complete instruction platform to learn tennis tips from professionals and enjoy exclusive content that you won’t find.
In addition, to all the valuable lessons and pro tips, you can enjoy amusing videos about the off-court life of the professionals, their families, and how they prepare for their matches mentally and physically.
If you mind the cost, you can have a peek at the Agassi course on Udemy, or learn from the free content on Youtube.