For Parents
Your child is in good hands.
For 51 summers, families have trusted us with their teenagers. Here is exactly how we look after them.
Supervision and safety
For fifty-one summers, the safety, health and security of our players has been our first priority. Over those years we have worked to earn the trust of Tennis: Europe families. We monitor our European locations constantly and change the itinerary if we ever need to.
Every team has one female and one male coach, 24 hours a day. Our teams are small on purpose: big enough for real team spirit, small enough that every coach knows every player's game by the end of week one. Each has two to three coaches, about one coach for every five to six players. Alongside them, Director Martin Vinokur is visiting teams on-site throughout your trip. The coaches live in the hotels with the players. Players are never allowed to go off on their own. We house two to three players per room and rotate room-mates, so everyone gets to know the whole team. Players come from all over the USA, and through tennis they get to know European juniors too. Many past players are still friends decades later.
Players and parents sign our chaperoning rules before departure. Those rules include no drinking and no drugs — a player can be sent home immediately — alongside the rest of our player handbook, which is modeled on the USTA rules for their traveling teams.
Staying in touch
Among our four pre-trip mailings you receive the club and hotel addresses and phone numbers for every location we visit. Our coaches email parents with progress updates once or twice a week. After we return, every parent and player receives a detailed written review of their player's game to share with their home coach, with our suggestions for what to work on next.
Illness and emergencies
We ask your doctor to complete a medical check-up form, which we carry throughout the trip and share with European doctors. We have played many of the same tournaments for years, so we know the local hospitals — and a coach always accompanies an ill player to the emergency room. Many of the clubs we play at have doctors among their members, available on site for a first opinion. If an illness or injury warrants it, we telephone you, and your child's doctor at home.
When is my child ready?
We generally recommend traveling with us as soon as possible — and looking back over the years, players are coming to us younger. The sooner they come, the more years they have to use the benefits they gained on Tennis: Europe. If your child is trying out for a high school team a few weeks after returning, they will arrive at that tryout with more confidence and more mental toughness.
If you want the Tennis: Europe credential for a college application, join us before senior year. We also take graduating seniors preparing for college tryouts, whether for varsity or club tennis.
Our teams carry several players of each age and grade so they can enter different age groups at each tournament, which reduces the chance of team-mates meeting in early rounds. Europe uses a January 1 age-up date, so your child's 2027 age group is 2027 minus their year of birth.
Listen · from a parent
A mom of two past players.
Max Spillerman, a 2024 player, and his mother, Dorothy, join Martin on the ParentingAces podcast to talk about what the summer was like, from both sides.
The next step
Twenty minutes, parent to parent.
No pressure and no pitch — we will tell you honestly whether this is the right summer for your child.