TennisOne Staff

Brent Zeller

Brent grew up in southeastern Pennsylvania and took up tennis at age 14. He played number 2 on his high school team behind the top ranked player in the state. He won over 90% of his high school matches. Brent played many local and regional tournaments while in high school, receiving rankings both in Central Pennsylvania and the Middle States. His tennis prowess enabled him to get into the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He played varsity singles his freshman year and then started working at the tennis courts at the world famous Williamsburg Inn. He started teaching tennis there in 1974. In 1975 he took Dennis Van der Meer’s teacher training course and passed the USPTA test. In 1976 he graduated from William & Mary with a B.S. in Geology.

Brent stayed with tennis and got a job teaching at the Tides Inn in Irvington, Virginia. In the fall of 1977 he moved to the Annapolis Racquet Club in Annapolis, Maryland. Brent started playing tournaments again and started teaching junior and adult players. This is when he first hooked up with Bobby Bayliss, then coach of the Naval Academy tennis team, now head coach at Notre Dame. Brent began his interest in psychology and philosophy in 1978, an interest that led eventually to the formation of his non-competitive learning system. In 1979, after playing many regional tournaments, Brent went off to Europe to play tennis. He returned to the Baltimore/Washington area and started teaching at a club outside of D.C. He was there for 2 years before returning to Europe in 1981. He played 13 tournaments in 12 weeks, mostly in France, with the one exception of the Czechoslovakian National Championships in Bratislava.

In January of 1982 Brent went to New Zealand to try his hand on the satellite tour. At age 28 this was more as a chance to see what it took to play at a world class level, and learn these things for his teaching. Returning to the Baltimore/ Washington area he taught at another club and continued playing regional tournaments, getting rankings in both Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic region. In 1983 Brent worked with sports psychologist Dr. Jim Loehr, taking his Mental Toughness Training Workshop. Brent coached many ranked juniors during this time, as well as continuing with playing tournaments. He did this until he moved to the Bay Area in September of 1985.

Brent began teaching at Baywood Canyon Riding & Tennis Club in Fairfax, CA and stayed there until 1992. In 1987 he founded Effortless Tennis. He worked with the Drake High School Boys Tennis team from 1988 until 1991. He helped the team go from 1-13 to 14-0 and county champions in 1991. In 1992 he moved his operation to Dominican College in San Rafael and removed all competition from his program. With this non-competitive approach he helped Tarrin Dougery win the county girls championship as a sophomore and junior in 1997 and 1998. In 2001 Tarrin went undefeated as a freshman at Santa Rosa Junior College, finished second in the Northern California championships, lead her team to the Northern California team championship, and won the state doubles championship for Junior Colleges. Although Brent’s program is based on non-competitive education, he is aware that for it to be accepted, it has to work in competition. He feels that over the years he has proven this to be the case.