Introducing John Morton, Tennis Director at YCRC

I had the pleasure of sitting down to interview John and find out what’s behind his method of tennis teaching. First, here’s a summary of John’s background in the sport: John was 10 years old when he began playing tennis at the Yuba City Racquet and Health Club. He grew up in the YCRC junior programs and thanks to their excellent coaching, he played tennis for Sutter Union High School. John went on to play singles and doubles for the Sonoma State Men's Tennis Team while he attended college as a Sociology major. After coaching tennis in various Sonoma County tennis clubs, while also co-teaching an introduction to tennis class for Sonoma State University, John has returned to Sutter County to join the great coaching staff at the YCRC. He actually started teaching here at the club at 15 years old, where he assisted Jason Johnson and helped teach the summer tennis camp. When I asked John why he chose tennis over every other sport, he replied, “It’s what I grew up doing and then used it thru college to pay the bills. I liked it so much that I kind of kept up with it. I asked John what kind of health benefits and physical benefits tennis offers, and he had this to say, “Tennis of course offers cardio, but there’s also the dynamic stretching that’s involved, as well as the speed and power that’s involved. Core strength is huge also, so it turns out to be a full body workout.” In terms of exercises that could help a tennis player, John recommends anything strengthens your core. The club’s Body Flow classes and Tai Chi are excellent, as well as the FST stretching with Jen. Of course, anything with inside cardio is great as well, especially when it’s hot! The tennis classes that John teaches are set up to accommodate up to 8 people per coach, so it guarantees a lot of personal attention. He also teaches Cardio Tennis and Men’s Night classes. One of the main differences between regular tennis classes and Cardio Tennis is that the cardio class doesn’t really focus on technique, but rather more about moving from start to finish. In fact, he is currently working on that in sync with the Biggest Loser program. Usually, in a Tennis 1-2-3 class, a person will burn between 450-500 calories. In the Cardio Tennis class though, a person will burn between 800-900 calories-it’s similar to Insanity Tennis. Something that John finds really encouraging is to see the clients’ growth from start to finish when they take classes. Almost every time growth can be seen and measured, even if it’s little steps forward. The biggest thing is when a person comes out of that hour of training, he wants to make sure they’ve improved. The teaching philosophy of the club is that if everybody can do the simple things really well, then we can worry about the crazy technique later on. So why should you call him to check out the tennis class today? I’ll let John tell you: “It’s an opportunity to be introduced to a lifetime sport, that you can play with everybody in your family from your kids to your grandma and grandpa!” Can’t wait to see you on the court!