Safety Guidelines For Tennis Clubs During COVID-19

While the coronavirus carries on affecting our country in various ways, we can still keep our tennis clubs open. We just need to make sure that we’re all following the relevant state and local guidelines. Below, you can find a variety of regulations that you should implement in your tennis club including how to prepare your facility, some checklists to hang up around the courts, and so much more.

Ready to ensure your tennis club stays fun and healthy? Let’s get right into the details.

Tennis COVID-19 Guidelines

Court Access and Facility Guidelines

There are so many things to consider about your facility now that COVID-19 has turned the world upside down. While we’re sure you can think of the main ones, we’ve included some lesser-known rules below to help your club flourish.

Ensure you have a supply of disposable face masks for people who forget to bring one.
Ensure people stay 6 feet apart and wear face masks when they’re not actively playing on the court.
Encourage players to monitor their bodies to ensure they’re in the right state to play.
Do not allow court access to those without the right PPE.
Display health and safety signage around the courts and facility (see our handy quick-glance checklists below).
Put hand sanitizing stations throughout your facility.
Make sure your ventilation system is working effectively (if you’re inside).
Remove benches to ensure nobody sits too close. Tell players to bring their own chairs.
Set the limit for people allowed at the club at one time during these times.

Tennis COVID-19 Guidelines — Game Play

When players change ends, do so on opposite ends of the net. This avoids walking too close to each other.
Return balls from other courts without touching them. Use the racquets instead.
One-to-one coaching is ideal.
Players should bring their own balls to serve.
Players should not touch their opponent’s balls with their hands.

Equipment Guidelines

In a perfect world, all the players would bring their own equipment and be hunky-dory. However, we’re fully aware that this does not always happen. Below, you’ll find some ways to limit the risk when situations like this occur.

Players shouldn’t be touching coaching equipment.
Players should bring their own racquets. Where this is not possible, the equipment will be thoroughly sanitized before, during, and after use.
No one, including coaches, should pick up tennis balls without sanitizing their hands or washing them with soap and water.
Coaches should avoid sharing equipment with other coaches.
Only the coaches should clean, disinfect, and sanitize the equipment.
While water should be supplied, players and coaches should bring their own, full water bottles to the court. This limits touching taps and water fountains.
Players and coaches should bring their own hand sanitizer.

Tennis COVID-19 Guidelines — Administrative Requirements

The coronavirus has brought new and unrelenting challenges to sports venues and clubs like ours (and yours). We’ve found that our admin team has been incredibly stressed and flooded with extra work thanks to the social distancing regulations.

Thankfully, there is a way to combat this. How we hear you ask? By using an online reservation system!

This nifty plugin makes it easy to plan for increased levels of staff, communicate expectations, stagger your court bookings, provide information to all your members, and so much more. All of these things are more important than ever before so we can work together to stop the spread.

During these unprecedented times, your tennis club does have the power to run smoothly!

Health, Safety, and Hygiene Tennis COVID-19 Guidelines

As a tennis club owner, you should be thinking about how to properly regulate hygiene standards and provide the best cleaning possible. The easiest way to do this (in our opinion) is to employ dedicated cleaning staff who are trained in enhanced cleaning.

This will ensure that your facility has:

Sanitized high contact surfaces.
Procedures in place for cleaning uniforms and other training fixtures.
Used EPA registered disinfectants.
Been cleaned, disinfected, sanitized, and ventilated properly. The ventilation side of things is less important if you’re playing outdoors.
Followed all CDC guidelines for using COVID-19 disinfectants.

The Quick-Glance Tennis Covid-19 Guideline Safety Checklists

While everything we’ve discussed so far is incredibly important, you will need something easy-to-digest and eye-catching to put up in your tennis club and around your courts.

So, use the text below to do just that! We’ve set everything out helpfully in three sections — before play, during play, after play — to encourage adherence.

However, you might also want to put a little paragraph about when not to play as well. Something like this will do:

Do not play if you are showing symptoms of COVID-19 or if you have been in contact with a person who tested positive with COVID-19 in the past 2 weeks.

Before Play

Wash your hands with soap for 20 seconds (longer if you can). Alternatively, use hand sanitizer if you can’t access soap and water.
Bring tissues with you.
When you’re not playing, make sure all facemask conditions and PPE regulations are followed.
Use your upper sleeve or a tissue to cough or sneeze into.
Don’t touch the court gates, fences, or benches if possible.
Bring a water bottle, already full, with you. This ensures you don’t have to touch the water fountain or taps.
Arrive as near to your timeslot as possible.

During Play

Don’t touch other players.
Stay at least six feet apart from other people.
Hand washing procedures should be followed when touching tennis balls.
Use your towel and water bottle only.
Don’t share food.
Don’t touch the net.
When you’re changing ends of the court, keep six feet apart.
If you’re playing doubles, coordinate with them to adhere to social distancing guidelines.
Make use of hats, towels, headbands, and wristbands to ensure you don’t touch your face with your hands.
If you’re playing indoors, you may need to wear a mask.
If you’re not active on the court, wear your mask over your nose and mouth.

After Play

Don’t congregate after the match is over.
Don’t participate in other social activities after it’s over.
Don’t use the locker or changing room. Instead, use the shower at home.
Wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds (or longer) as soon as you come off the court. If this isn’t possible, use hand sanitizer instead.
Leave the premises as soon as you’re finished playing.