Kirk Orahood

Kirk Orahood

I first became aware of Kirk Orahood when my mom actually saw him in the hospital. My mom was checking his leg because he had a blood clot and she asked if he was a tennis coach and he was one. So I went to play with him the following week and I was very impressed with how he taught. One reason he is my hero is because he is a good coach and he teaches how to win. I have been with Kirk for about a month now. I am very impressed with my tennis results from the lessons he has given me.

What my coach does is he teaches players how to win mentally and physically. The reason he does that is because when I go to tournaments, I want to win and get a higher rank. The way you become a tennis coach is that you have to be a licensed coach and you have to be a or used to be a pro. The salary of a tennis coach is $35.000 a year. The education is optional because all you have to be is a good player and be licensed. The duties of a tennis coach are not just to teach a player about the basics of the game, but to do everything he can to improve the player in any way.

My tennis coach came to this career by getting a scholarship and also getting a license for being a coach. Kirk Orahood has been teaching tennis in Orange County, CA for 25+ years; formerly at Mesa Verde CC in Costa Mesa for 16 years; before helping open a golf/tennis resort in the Telluride, CO area. Kirk has a large contingent of former graduates who played collegiate tennis across the country, and has traveled to Wimbledon with one of two of his ATP protégés. He followed this tennis player named Evan Lendle for about his whole tennis career.

Kirk helps others by helping them achieve their best expectations and trying to be a professional. The opportunity that he gives is that if he teaches you all the tennis forms and the mental thinking, by the time you get to the end of high school, you will probably get a division 1 scholarship. While Kirk is proud of having developed two students "from scratch," to become Wimbledon participants, he enjoys working with all ages, from his 4 yr old Quick Start kids up through more mature players, playing tennis to remain young at heart and fit for life. The main thing that Kirk has helped me with is that since my first tournament I haven't won a tennis match. Recently I have won four games in a row. So that means when Kirk coaches me, I have been improving in my tennis tournaments.

My high school goals will probably be the number one player on the team and try to get a scholarship into a good university. My college career will probably be to try to make the professional career and try to be also the number one player and play very competitively. I want to be one of the 15,000 college tennis players at NCAA colleges. Since I have been with Kirk, he has brought me to the level of playing high school tennis. I have made the junior varsity in my freshman year. I practice for about four days a week and they are not easy workouts. They are practices of conditioning and a lot of running.