IMG Academy

More than 40 years ago, Nick Bollettieri gathered up the young juniors he’d been coaching at the Colony Beach and Tennis Club and relocated them to a patch of farmland in Bradenton, where he established the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. Over time, the facility would become famous as the launching pad for a host of world-ranked professional tennis players, among them Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova, Andre Agassi, and Jim Courier.

Given the Academy’s reputation for producing superstars, it inevitably attracts those who dream of becoming one of them, and in the past the Academy did little to discourage those dreams. It was disparaged as a “factory” that processed huge amounts of raw material looking for the gold of incredible talent. But today, it encourages more reasonable goals. “The Academy used to be about going pro,” says the current tennis director Jimmy Arias, himself an early pupil of Bollettieri’s. “Now it’s about doing at least a few years of college. The main thing is you’re competing against yourself, not against other people.”

The parents who delivered their children into the Bollettieri staff’s hand, eventually spawned a program designed for them. It attracts mainly 3.0-4.0 singles and doubles players looking to improve their strokes, develop some consistency by hitting hundreds of balls, get a good workout, and have fun while doing it. Led by a cheerleading Roger Blackburn—his often repeated mantra is ‘Fired Up’—the five-hour-a-day program is intensive but not exhausting. Blackburn and his solid staff complement their enthusiasm with demonstrations of how to hit the various strokes and personal attention to the issues each of us had. “We want to give you simple tips, one for each stroke,” Blackburn said of their approach. Nowhere is that more evident than in the daily video sessions, shot with Blackburn’s phone on a tripod and larded with appropriate advice. On my last visit, for example, he had four of us each hit more than half a dozen forehands and backhands giving each of us an appropriate—and easily remembered—tip for making it better. “Catch it with your left hand,” he repeated each time I hit a forehand. “Throw your Frisbee” on my backhand. Later in the day, that video showed up on a CoachNow app we’d been asked to download so we could review those tips at home as useful reminders of Blackburn’s advice.

All of this takes place at what is now IMG Academy, a sprawling, 500-acre campus that claims to be the world’s largest sports complex. That scarcely seems like an idle boast, for within its grounds are training facilities for golf, baseball, basketball, soccer, football, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, volleyball, and track and field. Like the tennis, these other disciplines attract both aspiring amateurs and professionals with both short term and year-round programs and the option to stay and live on campus. As impressive as all of this is, what appealed to me most as an adult tennis player was the option to stay on campus at The Legacy hotel. Built at a cost of $28 million, the 160-room lodge near the entrance to the sports complex has a restaurant and bar, swimming pool, fitness center, and spa. Bedding down there affords an opportunity to get together with your fellow campers off court, something that had not been easily possible before the hotel’s construction. The rooms are very comfortable, outfitted with a queensize bed, desk, two-person convertible sofa, a Keurig coffee maker, and walk-in shower. The menu at the restaurant, which is just off the lobby, runs to pasta, fish, steak, salads, sandwiches, tacos. There is one communal table framed by tables for two, four, or six and a six-stool bar that serves beer, wine, and specialty cocktails. The hotel and all its amenities round out the camp by adding a social dimension—and a very relaxed one. The tennis has always been good, but now a stay at the IMG Academy feels less like a boot camp and more like a vacation—at least as long as hitting tennis balls for five hours a day is your idea of fun. It is mine.

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