An Exclusive Tennis Academy Moves to Palmer Ranch
Posted: September 7th, 2012 | Author: Chris Jaensch | Filed under: Athlete & Artist Visas, Sarasota Immigrants | Tags: Eagleton Ferreira Academy, Ellis Ferreira, Foreign Athletes, John Eagleton, P1 Visa, Sarasota Tennis Academy | 1 Comment »Eagleton/Ferreira Tennis Academy offers intense, year-round training
John Eagleton and Ellis Ferreira seek to prepare their players for the highest levels of competition. The two coaches only accept 15 players at a time into their exclusive tennis academy. Players train 7 hours a day for a year.
Coaches Eagleton and Ferreira are disciples of the European style of play. They train their players on clay courts and teach the rotational system, which helps develop greater strength and power behind each ball. Tennis’ most successful players – Nadal, Djokovic, Federer – use this system. Coaches Eagleton and Ferreira emulate European techniques because of the success of such players. They lament the fact that the US has lost so much ground in tennis during the last decade and they attribute that to the US’s aversion to clay courts. They took great care to provide evidence for this decline when I visited them and we made a graph based on the ATP data over time.
Shocking, isn’t it?
Eagleton and Ferreira’s ultimate goal is to get more US players back into the top 100 and they are doing that through the use of clay courts and the rotational system. Eagleton/Ferreira Tennis Academy also offers full boarding. Educational programs are offered by Emerson Preparatory School.
Coaches Eagleton and Ferreira are immigrants themselves, having come from South Africa to train and teach in the United States. This makes them uniquely fitted to helping foreign athletes who want to train in the US.
Mr. Eagleton came to the US a few years before Mr. Ferreira and began playing at the University of Miami. Already ranked the #3 junior in the world before he came to the States, Mr. Eagleton became a 4-time all-American while at the U. Afterwards he played for 8 years in the ATP and went on to coach 20 professional players.
Mr. Ferreira was in the top 5 in South Africa before he came to the University of Alabama on a tennis scholarship. He turned all-American while at Alabama and went on to have a distinguished professional career, reaching number one ranking in 2000. That year he won the Australian Open and was a finalist in the US Open, and he was 30! He was world champion in 2001.
For more information on the Eagleton/Ferreira Academy, visit their website. To learn more about the P-1 Visa and its requirements visit our P1 Visa Website.
Recent Comments