My dad, Joe Dinoffer, started the company when I was very little – as an only child you could almost say that OnCourt OffCourt is my twin! I’m 27 and the company will be entering it’s 27th year in business. All thanks to game changers like you!
My dad was a tennis coach and he was passionate about helping his students learn. So much so that I realized that him just talking didn’t quite cut it and he was always looking for new ways to help bridge the gap with his students through integrating visual and kinesthetic learning.
That’s how the first OnCourt OffCourt training aid was born – the Ropezone! It was all about visual learning and target zones. Since then, we branched out to offer a wide variety of target systems – not to mention many more kinesthetic learning aids and all types of equipment and tools to support you on and off the court whether you’re a coach, player or parent.
But back to the Ropezone!
My dad knew that it wasn’t enough to offer a product without education (what he was really passionate about) so he also wrote a small drill book that accompanied every Ropezone. Little did he know that day OnCourt OffCourt was born, literally in our living room!
And yes, some of you may have seen me grow up as the little girl on the catalogs and in my dad’s DVDs. These days, when I’m chatting with awesome customers and members of our game changing family like you, I’m working on my mindfulness blog (www.MindfulKalindi.com), practicing or teaching yoga, or out in nature. (writing poetry is also a hobby my dad and I both share – you can check out his work here (https://oncourtoffcourt.com/poems-from-the-heart-a-fathers-love/)
We’ve grown a lot since then from living room packaging and teenage accountants (boy could I tell you some funny stories about what happens when you add one zero too many to an order of zballs! But I’ll save that for another day…) to now having our very own office and warehouse (not to mention also getting into pickleball and off court wellness) but we will always stay a family business at heart and in action. Customer service is of the utmost importance to us – we want to treat you how we like to be treated ourselves. 😊 Beyond that, we strive to be game changers, in tennis, pickleball and beyond.
Kinesthetic Learning and creating that game changing learning environment is at the heart of our mission. We have seen that one of the biggest pitfalls in sports coaching is too much talking! Only a small fraction of people are pure auditory learners. Most, especially those gravitating towards sports, learn better in visual and kinesthetic environments. Sadly, most coaches do not create these optimal learning environments. Kinesthetic learning is especially powerful! It is what gives someone the “feel” for how to execute a particular skill.
For example, in tennis, gaining this “magical feel” is when everything falls into place and a young player goes from frustration to excitement hitting a topspin forehand! It’s the moment when they first start to “feel” the racquet brushing up the back of the ball. In this example, they have experienced kinesthetic learning.
As coaches and parents, it is our job to bring in kinesthetic resources and tools to help our athletes “get it” and feel it as quickly as possible. As players, you too can take ownership of your improvement and use kinesthetic tools even off the court or on your own to improve. In golf and other sports, kinesthetic learning aids are abundantly popular with vast numbers of golfers using them to practice on their own to speed up their improvement. So why not tennis and pickleball? The proof is in the statistics. Numerous studies show that kinesthetic learning speeds up improvement by more than 200%! You have already joined our family of game changers and are ahead of the curve and we invite you to help spread our game changing mission and help others change the way they coach, parent and play by also taking advantage of kinesthetic learning techniques and tools.
Anyway, I know I’ve rambled long enough. OnCourt OffCourt is a family. And you’re a part of that family. So, if you ever have any questions, just want to talk about tennis, pickleball, or maybe even yoga and mindfulness, we’re here.
You can write to me directly at kalindi@oncourtoffcourt.com.
Talk soon!
Kalindi Dinoffer is trained in multiple aspects of mindfulness in life and in sports, sharing on her blog MindfulKalindi.com. She is also certified to teach yoga, fitness, reiki, and MFR. Kalindi also serves as VP marketing at OnCourtOffCourt.com, a leading supplier of tennis, pickleball, fitness and yoga training aids and equipment and has been published in Tennis industry Magazine and Pickleball Magazine, and has conducted workshops at conferences around the world. In her spare time, Kalindi plays tennis, pickleball and table tennis and enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking and biking and cross country skiing in the winter.
Kalindi:
Thanks for the welcome to your family! I love the story of you and your Dad! I was introduced to your company by Jordan Briones, formerly of PrimeTime Pickleball, to buy the Tutor ball machine.
Since your so interested in learning issues, let me tell you a giant one from my experience. When in High School in 1960, in Fort Lauderdale, my tennis coach at our small Catholic school, was also the manager/Pro of the Holiday Park Tennis center. (Those were the days with wooden rackets, white balls and wearing white on the courts being a formal requirement.) My school couldn’t afford a tennis court, so we used the public courts at Holiday Park for practice and matches.
Anyway, to placate his wife when their kids were out of school, he would bring them to work with him at the park, hand them a ball and tell them to go practice hitting against the wall. At age 6, his oldest daughter couldn’t hold her racquet with one hand, so he taught her to use a 2 hand backhand.
Anyway, she became so proficient at hitting against the wall that, when our tennis practice needed a 4th for doubles practice, he would have his little 6 year old come on the court with the macho high school team of 17-18 year olds. You literally could not get a ball past her, no matter how you tried. She was incredible!
My Coach’s name was Jimmy Evert and his little girl, Chrissy, ended going to our high school and later donated the “Chris Evert Tennis Center” at our High School, where her little sister, Jeanne, also played.
I this case, Chris’s “training” merely consisted of her practicing the strokes her Dad taught her, to absolute perfection. As you know, she went on to win all of the World’s major titles, using her non-traditional (until then) 2 handed backhand. I suspect that a large portion of her success can be attributed back to her consistent practice, simply against that wall.
None of the players on my High School team went very far in the tennis world, but whenever I think of how to improve my game (tennis or pickleball), I think back to Coach Evert and the story of little “Chrissy” and the wall at Holiday Park!
Here I am, at age 77, after 2 heart attacks and being blind in 1 eye, buying a Pickleball Tutor to strengthen my game ( and help focus on speeding balls with little/no depth perception). I now can’t wait to “Up my game” as a result.