ABOUT BANANA TENNIS

Hi Everyone!

Joel here, Founder of Banana Tennis Academy 🙂

I’ve been a coach for over 12 years and in 2016, I decided to create Banana Tennis. I want give back what tennis has given me. I want to spread our unique energy and love we have for this incredible sport that has given me and taught me so much in my journey in life. I want to make Banana Tennis Academy, the BEST beginner tennis school in Singapore.

I started as a table tennis player, Table tennis. I chose table tennis because near my HDB block was a table tennis table and that my dad said he could play with them there. A little backstory, my dad was recovering from colon cancer*, so I wanted to be able to spend more time with him. A year later, the table tennis club I joined in school shut down and I did the next logical thing....join tennis...(can’t be much different right?)...heh..Little did I know, that was the turning point in my life.

"Felt hopeless and helpless..."

When I joined the tennis club in secondary school, I quickly understood that the club coach only focused on the students that could already play. We the beginners weren't given much attention nor guidance. We were just given a few balls and sent off to a far off court to "figure things out". There was even a day when I turned up for a training and was just told to run around the courts for 50 rounds and for the whole training session I never even held a racquet. The coach obviously didn't intend to coach the beginners and was just gunning for medals. (From this experience I grew a fiery passion to help beginners, I felt hopeless and helpless through this experience)

"Didn't come from much..."

I didn’t come from much so I couldn’t afford coaching, but I didn’t let that stop me from learning as much as I could. I practiced with the wall, watched and listened when other people were receiving coaching, read books, asked seniors to practice with me whenever I could. But it was a blessing, as I had to figure many things out and understand my body better, I started to realize I had a very firm grasp of the basics.

Achievement and Transition

Fast Forward, I entered Temasek Polytechnic and that was when I met my first "real" coach. With his guidance and A LOT of practice, I managed to make the school team! We eventually went to win medals in the inter school games. YAY, for someone who had no real skills to playing a tournament.. It was HUGE for me. That was when my poly coach asked me if I wanted to learn how to coach tennis, I said yes without a doubt, I loved the sport so so much. My first love. I followed and learned the ropes, coaching different ages and different standards of players alongside with him for 3-4 years before getting my certification and started to coach by myself.

"I swore..."

I know what it feels like to go through learning without a coach and I know now that so many obstacles could’ve been avoided with proper guidance. I understood the importance of coaching after becoming a coach. I swore that I didn't want anyone to experience what I did. Having a coach that didn't care for beginners and only gunned for his "fame".

I decided to start Banana Tennis Academy to reach out to as many people as we can and share the love of tennis. With the main focus to make every beginner feel included and bring out the best in them. It isn't just tennis that you improve in, we want to nurture positive traits and character through tennis to make Singapore a better place! Here, you will be trained by professionals who enjoys teaching and being in the court with you and I stress that tennis has to be fun and enjoyable. We focus on using playfulness and humor to engage and keep our students motivated all while providing professional advice to keep pushing you to improve your game.

So if you are looking to start your tennis journey with people whom you know love the sport and wish the very best for you and striving for a common goal to make Banana Tennis Academy the BEST beginner tennis school in Singapore. We are the right place to start.

Can’t wait to see you all on court really soon:)

P.S. If you read all the way here, you are a Champion 🙂 We are constantly creating more content to help bring everyone up to the next level.

*P.P.S My dad is fine now 🙂

Yours Sincerely, Passionately,

Joel Siow