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The Coach Behind The Method15 years on the court taught me one thing: build the human first, and the game follows.
Founder & head coach of Team Blue Tennis.
Coach Amani Mitchell is the founder and head coach of Team Blue Tennis — a youth tennis program built on confidence, movement, discipline, and family connection.
With more than 15 years coaching young players, Coach Amani has worked with beginners, reluctant athletes, developing players, and families who want tennis to become more than just a sport. His coaching style is patient, structured, encouraging, and focused on helping each child believe, "I can try this."
He understands that not every child is ready for traditional sports right away. Some children need a slower start, more encouragement, and a parent who can model the first step at home. That is why he created the parent-first approach. Through Team Blue, he uses tennis as a tool to help children build confidence, focus, healthy movement, and positive habits — one small win at a time.
You go first. They grow next.
How the parent-first method was born
I was a good coach who kept losing the kids who needed me most.
Early on, I taught tennis the way I'd been taught it — mechanics, drills, win the point. The confident kids thrived. But the nervous ones, the shy ones, the ones glued to a screen at home? They'd freeze on the court, or never show up at all. I was teaching a sport and missing the child.
Then I noticed who actually stuck around.
It was the kids whose parents were in it with them — not in the stands, in the corner. When a parent learned a little themselves and modeled it at home, the reluctant child softened. The pressure dropped. They tried. That was the whole secret hiding in plain sight.
So I flipped the order. Parent first.
I borrowed an idea proven across child development — train and support the parent, and the child gets more chances to practice, engage, and grow at home. I built a simple at-home routine for parents to learn first, then bring to their kids. No public court, no crowd, no pressure. Just small wins a child could feel.
It worked — and it changed the whole family.
Screen time turned into swing time. Arguments turned into a shared routine. Parents kept telling me the same thing: "It's not the tennis — it's that we're doing something together, and my kid is finally moving."
Today, families don't come for lessons. They come for the change.
A confident kid. A healthier home. A sport they can play for life — tennis is linked to nearly a decade of added life expectancy. That's the better world I want for your family: not a trophy shelf, but a child who believes in themselves and a family that moves together.
The bottom line.
You go first. They grow next. Build the routine, model it, and the child — like the rest of life — follows. That's Team Blue Tennis.
A few minutes a day, togetherEvery child can win at movement.
Not every kid will be a champion player. Every kid can become more confident, more active, and more connected to their family. Tennis is just the best classroom I've found for teaching it — one swing, one small win, one family at a time.