Senior manager Jamie Anderson is peppering them with queries about their play. “How many long rallies did we have?” That’s his segue into a mini-lecture on tennis strategy. He lays out the handy concept of shot tolerance—the willingness to hit ball after ball without getting too aggressive or messing up—and describes a new drill intended to build their resolve. One kid takes a noncommittal swing; the ball flops into the net. “Accelerate, accelerate!” chirps Anderson. The kids get feedback on the micro and macro level; some New Yorkers would, and frequently do, pay hundreds of dollars for this degree of attention and care every week.

No tennis clinic is complete without some conditioning. Hit a few balls, then jog a lap. “To be more consistent, you need to have better preparation, you need to move your feet faster, you need to put your best effort into every shot,” says Anderson. There’s a lot of unglamorous work that goes into quality tennis; almost all of that has to do with feet. As much as I and every other tennis scrub wish that weren’t true, there’s no disputing it. The kids get the message, though. They set down their racquets and line up along the baseline, then sprint up the service line, hit a clean stop, backpedal to where they started. Then they do it all over again. And again. “This is what actual tennis feels like,” Anderson informs them. To hit the breezy stylish winners they all want to hit, they’ve got to have fastidious footwork.