An app is not a coach. It is the tape measure between lessons.
Any product in this category that tells you it replaces coaching is selling you something. A coach sees your grip, your intent and what happens to your backhand at 4–5 in the third. A phone sees angles. The useful question is not which one wins — it is what each is for.
| FormCourt | A private lesson | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $79.99 a year, or $12.99 a month. Unlimited strokes. | Typically $60–100 an hour in the US, so roughly $3,500 a year at one lesson a week. Rates vary widely by city and coach. |
| Availability | Every session, including the 7am one you did alone. | The slot you booked. |
| Measures angles | Yes — the same checkpoint, in degrees, every single time. | By eye. Excellent coaches are remarkably good at this and still cannot give you a number. |
| Sees your grip | No. A 2D camera cannot see grip or pronation, and FormCourt says so. | Instantly, and will fix it in thirty seconds. |
| Reads intent and pressure | No. | Yes — the whole reason coaching exists. |
| Tracks change over weeks | Yes. Every stroke is stored with its numbers, per stroke, so an improving forehand cannot hide a stalled backhand. | From memory and notes. |
| Tells you what to do off court | A weekly plan built from your lowest measurements, around the days you play. | Sometimes. Rarely programmed, rarely progressed. |
| Adapts to injury | Flag an area and every drill loading it leaves the catalogue. A filter, not a medical assessment. | Yes, and better than any app. |
| Honest about limits | Marks a stroke PARTIAL rather than scoring what it could not see, and publishes every checkpoint it cannot measure. | Depends entirely on the coach. |
How to use both
The loop that actually moves a stroke
- 01
Before the lesson
Film a few minutes of hitting and bring the breakdown. “My racquet lag reads 12% of a torso” starts a very different lesson than “my forehand feels off.”
- 02
During the lesson
Your coach fixes the thing a camera can’t see, and gives you one cue to hold.
- 03
The two weeks after
Film once a week — a whole basket, one clip. The number either moved or it didn’t, and the drills that target it are already on your Tuesday.
- 04
Next lesson
You arrive with evidence instead of impressions, and you don’t spend the first fifteen minutes rediscovering the same fault.
Coaches: if you want to look at the rubric FormCourt grades against, it is published in full — the whole rubric.
On iPhone
Stop guessing between lessons.
iPhone · iOS 17 or later · free to install · three analyses a month free