TENNIS

Francisco Ruiz is an (ITF) International Federation High Performance Coach which is the highest ranking certification offered to coaches. A respectable accomplishment and a gratifying journey, Francisco strives to share the knowledge gained to train nationally and world-recognized players. Francisco has also been the traveling coach for many ATP and WTA professionals, where he picked up the subtle nuance that he takes to the courts, furthering his already accomplished training technique. He served as the Director of the Mexico City Multicultural Exchange Program and was the first Latino to be on the USTA NorCal Board of Directors in 2006. In 2004, he was awarded the Diversity Leadership award for his outstanding coaching, and in 2010 he was presented with the prestigious Trailblazer award for his lifelong service in the minority tennis community. Francisco has been playing tennis for over 50 years, competed in USTA tournaments and has made USTA champions and tournaments champions. For over 35 years, he has been a dedicated coach across the Bay Area and has established branch academies in Santa Clara (new branch in Kona Kai) and Mountain View (we serve the entire South Bay Area – San Jose, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Mountain View, Palo Alto, etc.) the home for some of the top ranked players in Northern California. His interests include his family, teaching his two sons tennis, and attending the US Open every year. His coaching philosophy embodies the belief that the path to professional-level competition takes 10 years of committed effort and a cumulative 10,000 hours of practice. This framework also applies to the journey of elevating a recreational player to a 3.5 NTRP level, requiring approximately 1,000 hours of dedicated instruction. In practical terms, if a player dedicates one hour per week to lessons (accounting for 52 weeks per year), achieving the goal would span 20 years. Francisco’s guidance to those he has coached emphasizes consistent engagement in tennis activities, ideally three to four times a week. This approach, he suggests, is a realistic strategy for an individual with average talent to attain a low intermediate level within a timeframe of 5 to 6 years.