Terms and conditions for a tennis or golf coach

A tennis or golf coach sells a series of lessons, usually paid for in advance, delivered at a venue you do not own, in weather nobody controls. Your terms need to deal with blocks, late cancellations, junior pupils and the parent who wants a refund in November. I draft customer terms around your coaching business for a fixed fee of £995, delivered in five working days.

Who this is for

Tennis coaches, golf professionals, junior academy coaches and independent coaches working at clubs, driving ranges, schools and public courts in England and Wales, trading as a sole trader or a limited company. Most pupils are consumers, including parents booking for a child. Some bookings are commercial: schools, corporate days and group clinics. One set of terms can serve both if it is drafted to.

What matters in a coach's terms

Blocks, prepayments and what the fee covers

Most coaches sell blocks of lessons, so you are holding a pupil's money for weeks. State what the block buys, how long it stays valid, and what happens when a pupil drifts away halfway through. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats a term that lets you keep a prepayment on cancellation, without a matching obligation on you, as one that may be unfair. Say plainly what the fee includes: court hire, range balls, a green fee. Mandatory charges belong in the headline price you show consumers, because the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 bans drip pricing.

Late cancellations, no-shows and weather

Waterlogged courts, frozen greens, closed ranges and failed floodlights are part of coaching life, and so is the pupil who cancels twenty minutes before. Your terms should separate the two: what you do when you or the venue cancel, and what the pupil pays when they cancel late or simply fail to appear. A rescheduling policy with a stated notice period is easier to hold to than a forfeit. A default charge against a consumer must be proportionate, because the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats disproportionate default charges as potentially unfair, and an unfair term does not bind the pupil.

Bookings taken online, by phone or at the pupil's home

Where a pupil books through your website, by phone, text or email, or agrees it at their own home, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 apply. They require pre-contract information and give fourteen days to cancel, and if the cancellation information is not given the period can extend by up to twelve months. Running a lesson inside those fourteen days needs the pupil's express request; a pupil who then cancels pays a proportionate amount for what they have had, and one who made no express request pays nothing. Off-premises contracts of £42 or less fall outside the regulations.

Coaching juniors and who the contract is with

Junior coaching raises a question most coaches have never answered in writing: who is actually the customer. It is the parent or guardian paying, so it is the parent who agrees the terms, discloses the child's health conditions and accepts the cancellation rules. The terms should cover drop-off and collection times, what happens if a child is left behind after a squad session, behaviour and removal from a group, and written parental consent before you film a junior's swing or serve for analysis or use the footage anywhere. Your safeguarding policy sits alongside the terms rather than inside them.

Health, injury and what you do not promise

Ask about injuries, recent surgery and medical conditions before the first lesson, and put the pupil under a continuing duty to tell you when something changes. Coaching involves physical effort, and a swing or service change can aggravate a problem you were never told about. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 does not allow you to exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, and you cannot limit your liability for a service to less than the price, so a sweeping disclaimer achieves nothing. What helps is describing the service accurately: coaching delivered with reasonable care and skill, priced by the session, with no promised result.

Clinics, schools and corporate days

Holiday camps, group clinics, school contracts and corporate golf days are business bookings and belong in a separate part of your terms. Businesses argue about invoices rather than refunds, so fix the payment terms, a minimum numbers charge, and what is payable if the client trims the programme after you have blocked out the dates. The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives you interest and fixed compensation on late commercial payment unless your own interest term is a substantial remedy. A liability cap for business customers works if it is reasonable under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

What it costs

Customer or supplier terms and conditions, £995. One set of terms, customer-facing or supplier-facing, drafted around your business. Five working days.

Review of your existing terms, £495. You already have terms and want to know how much of a problem they are. Returned marked up with my amendments and an explanation of the changes. Three working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the terms and conditions drafting page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A full set of terms drafted around your business, not a template with your name inserted
• A covering note in plain English explaining every commercial choice I made and why, so you can defend the terms in a negotiation without ringing me
• Liability, payment, termination and IP provisions set at a level that will survive a procurement review
• Consumer-facing wording drafted to be enforceable where you sell to consumers
• Guidance on how to incorporate the terms properly, which is where most businesses actually fail
• One round of amendments after you have read them

What is not included

• Negotiating your terms with individual customers
• Sector-specific regulatory compliance beyond the contract terms themselves
• Website privacy notice and cookie compliance, which I quote separately
• Terms governed by the law of another country

Questions I am often asked

Do I need different terms for lessons at a club and lessons on public courts?

One set of terms can cover both. What changes is what the pupil must do to get on court: membership, a guest fee, booking a bay or a court in advance. The terms should say who books and pays for the playing surface, that the pupil follows the venue's rules and dress code, and what happens to a lesson if the venue shuts.

Can I lend pupils rackets, clubs or ball machines?

Lending equipment is common, particularly with juniors and beginners, and the terms should deal with it. Say that the equipment remains yours, that the pupil must use it as instructed and report any damage, and what you charge for loss or damage beyond fair use. Left unwritten, a snapped shaft becomes an argument about who was supervising.

I sell video analysis and online coaching plans. Is that different?

Digital coaching content has its own rule. Where you supply it to a consumer inside the fourteen-day cancellation period, you need their express consent and their acknowledgement that the right to cancel is lost, otherwise you can end up refunding a plan already downloaded. The terms should also say what the pupil may and may not do with your footage and drills.

Related guidance and services

• Terms and conditions drafting, £995, the service this page describes
• Contract review, £495
• Ask Caesar, £495 a month
• Terms and conditions for a personal trainer
• Terms and conditions for a yoga or pilates studio

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: September 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.