Randy Pate never planned to teach tennis. Yes, he was somewhat of a prodigy in high school, and the sport earned him a college scholarship, but he wasn’t supposed to be an instructor. He had dreams of turning pro, not teaching future pros. However, while a student at the prestigious Nick Bollettieri Academy in Florida, Pate suffered a rotator cuff injury that eventually forced him to quit playing competitively.

“After that, I thought I’d teach a few lessons until I could find a real job,” he says with a smile. “I really didn’t know what else to do.”

More than two decades later, Pate has become quite the teacher. He heads up the Randy Pate Tennis Academy, which moved from its original home in Statesville to Winston-Salem in 2008. With four full-time instructors and a handful of part-time instructors, the academy offers a full range of programs and services for any age and skill level.

Pate himself has trained countless professionals and scholarship athletes. In fact, every young person who’s completed his top-level junior program has been awarded a college scholarship. “That’s probably what we’re most proud of,” he says, “having a hand in these kids’ success stories.”

We sat down with Pate at Hanes Park, home of his academy, to get the basics on getting started in the sport.

What’s the biggest piece of advice you can give beginners?
If you really want to give tennis a shot, you need to talk to a local instructor or pro. We hear some people say, “We tried to play, but it just wasn’t fun.” Well, if you can’t hit the ball back and forth with a friend, it’s really not fun. But if you get an instructor to point you in the right direction and show you how to hit the ball, you’ll be surprised how much fun it can be.

What are some of the first things you teach beginners?
Grip and contact point are the first things. If you get those two down, the rest of the stuff becomes much easier. From there, we’ll work on finishing and follow-through; how to get into the ball and finish the stroke. Once they’re reasonably good at contact, we go into the footwork drills.

Can you give us some advice when choosing a racket?
For a beginner, I would not spend a lot of money at first. The technology is such now that you can find something that’s the right grip and right weight for relatively cheap. A lot of times, people have really expensive rackets collecting dust in their closets.

Weight-wise, you want to use the heaviest racket that still allows you good dexterity. The more weight on the racket, the more accurate your shot will be. Grip-wise, 4 3/8 covers 75 percent of people. You can go up or down depending on if you have really large or small hands.

Where’s a good place to get equipment?
We have a pro shop here (at Hanes Park) with a full line of equipment for juniors on up. Other than that, Ski and Tennis Station on Stratford does a real good job. Tanglewood also has a good pro shop at its tennis center. Buck Thomas is the director up there, and he does a great job helping folks.

Is there any age limit for tennis?
For kids, it really depends on where their hand-eye coordination skills are. For instance, if you toss your kid a balloon and they can actually put their hands on it, they can probably play. If not, you’ll probably want to help them develop those skills before you hand them a racket. On average, though, a kid can start around 4.

On the other end, tennis is really a lifetime sport. If you’re in relatively good shape, you can pick up and play at any age and have fun. If you want to give it a shot, call down here or out at Tanglewood, and we’ll work with you. Whether you want to get competitive or just want to find someone to hit the ball around with, we can help.

Can you talk about clinics and lessons offered?
Our private lessons range from $40 to $75 depending on your instructor. That can either be a one-on-one lesson, or you can split the cost with a friend (or friends). Between us and Tanglewood, you can take a lesson almost any time—evenings, mornings, weekends—seven days a week. The length can also be negotiated. Some stronger players might want a two-hour lesson, where a young kid might only be up for a half-hour lesson.

As for the clinics, we’ve been charging $18 for one or $65 for a bundle of five. Traditionally, the clinics are the best deal. We try to keep the student-teacher ratio at 4 to 1. The schedule is being updated for the fall, so call or check the site for more information.

For info on clinics, lessons, court rentals, and training programs, call 336-727-2137 or go to randypatetennis.com