SPOKE TENNISA tennis survival app

About SPOKE

Tennis is hard to play: hard to learn, and hard to organise. SPOKE helps parents and adults find their way through it.

Why SPOKE

Tennis runs on an old set-up. Clubs, associations, booking sites and coaching programs each do their own thing, and none of it is built around the person who just wants to play, or the parent trying to work out if their kid’s lessons are going anywhere.

Meanwhile pickleball and padel are making it easy, and they’re taking over courts and tennis centres. Tennis has to get easier to play, or it loses. SPOKE is a tennis survival app: on the player’s side, and about keeping tennis going.

What SPOKE does

• Reads the weather for tennisNot just whether it’ll rain, but whether your court will be playable, when it’s too hot, where the shade is, and what the radar says about the next two hours.
• Finds your local courtsHours, prices, shade, how to get in and how to book, and when they’re likely to be booked out, with a less busy court nearby.
• Helps with coachingSay what you’ll spend a term and when suits, and we pass it to a local coach. Every coach is ID verified, holds a current Working with Children Check and a coaching qualification.
• Straight advice on pathwaysFor parents: what lessons should look like, what things cost, and where it all leads. Straight, not a sales pitch.

Who’s behind it

SPOKE is based in Neutral Bay, Sydney, and owned by Ronan Glennane. I’ve got a real interest in the sport, and I could see an opportunity to help people find the right set-up for them: the right court, the right time, the right coach. It’s a small, local outfit, and you can reach me directly.

On the ground

The courts in SPOKE aren’t scraped off a map. I’ve walked most of the courts across Sydney’s north and east, and I go back when a place changes: Sydney Olympic Park has been rebuilt, so I went and checked every court again. A club’s courts only go in once I’m sure which court is which number. We don’t put them in unless we’re sure.

The weather comes from the Bureau of Meteorology, the rain radar (read every 10 minutes) and the NSW Rural Fire Service. The rules that turn it into tennis are written from what happens on these courts, not from a weather office. We’ll never nail the weather, nobody does, but we aim to be a bit more reliable than the forecast, and we keep score to check. When we get one wrong, tell us.

What we don’t do

• We don’t sell your detailsOr give them to anyone else to market to you. Privacy
• We don’t take your court bookingBookings stay with each club. We point you to the club’s own booking page.
• We don’t vouch for what we can’t checkCoaches are checked for ID, WWCC and qualification. After that, it’s between you and them.

Open SPOKE

SPOKE Tennis · Neutral Bay, Sydney, Australia · hello@spoke.tennis · Privacy · Terms