CT entrepreneur on the ‘Fast Track’ to making popular sport more accessible for all. Here’s how

Connecticut entrepreneur John Davey was working on Wall Street when he started to look for his next step in life.. Tennis was always Davey’s first love. He had another business he sold and was looking for his next chapter after his wife returned to work and his daughters left for college.

In recent years, Davey was working with some teams and clubs around Connecticut and came up with the idea for Fast Track Tennis, a portable training device that allows people to play anywhere inside or outside without a court, partner or ball pickup.

“My background was as a tennis player at the University of Vermont and had done pretty well there, and actually had a short stint out playing pro until I got hurt,” said Davey, the CEO and founder of Fast Track Tennis. “The natural market are people that play tennis. If you listen to the United States Tennis Association, somewhere between 15 and 20 million people that play tennis in the U.S. Those have predominantly been my customers, people who already play tennis.”

Davey knows tennis is a difficult sport and it can be expensive. His product is an alternative way to learn the game that could be more affordable.

“There’s a number of built-in barriers that prevent people from playing,” Davey said. “That’s what I’m trying to change. This is product that can be set up in a gym, maybe in a space where in a community that has never really had exposure to tennis before.”

Davey said the traditional model doesn’t foster a wide-scale adoption of the sport “because kids don’t get to really feel what it’s like to play. What I’m doing is trying to create a program where we basically simplify the learning process. We’re not teaching kids how to hit topspin or backspin or things like that, but hit through the ball, get it over the net, so it can go back and forth. … You don’t know you are going to like it until you try it. That’s what we are trying to build, and we are having success.”

Davey said his product will get players a lot of repetitions so when they get a chance to go out on the court, they will be able to hit the ball back and forth over the net.

“I taught myself playing against a wall, and there’s nothing better than getting a lot of repetitions because tennis is a very technical sport,” Davey said. “It just requires hitting a gazillion balls, so what better than to be able to put a little machine in your garage or your basement or your driveway?”

Davey also wanted a program to introduce tennis to underserved communities. He has partnered with former tennis professional Zina Garrison, who was first exposed to the sport in Houston through a free community program.

Davey said Garrison called him one day wanting to buy six units for the Houston Park & Recreation Department.

“I didn’t go looking for Zina, Zina found me. And being opportunistic, I started talking to her and now we’ve become friends, and we’ve become business partners and she’s a remarkable lady with a like impeccable tennis background,” Davey said. “She came up the hard way with no advantages, not a lot of money or resources and she reached the top of the game. She has the passion for doing what I’m trying to do,  which is to grow the game in non-traditional areas. I’m excited about the partnership.”

Davey said the perfect time for children to learn the game is in middle school because they have the motor skill capacity, ball tracking and eye tracking capability. Fast Track Tennis can be set up at gyms, cafeterias, hallways, empty classrooms, basements or other non-traditional spaces.

“If we can get into gym programs or enrichment programs after school with middle school kids and in a class that I’ve developed with 12 kids and 10 one-hour classes and get them 3,000 hits,” Davey said. “You can’t help but to get better. There’s a course here. … It’s a turnkey program that will at least get the kids out on the court and hit the ball back and forth. Some kids will take to it and want to spend more time playing, others will want to get back to French horn practice.”

Plainville High School boys tennis coach Mercurio Evangelista uses four Fast Track Tennis devices in his program. He’s also one of the founders of the Plainville Tennis Club.

Evangelista said he uses Fast Track Tennis when the team is confined to the gym due to weather.

“Normally I would have practice for two hours with the team, but indoors it’s about 15-20 minutes on a machine per kid,” Evangelista said. “He gets the same repetitions and workout. We are also able to work on the footwork. It’s helped cut my practices a little bit shorter because gym space can be tight in the spring with other sports going on.”

Evangelista said he would recommend it to other teams, “just not the ones in his immediate area,” he said with a chuckle.

“I find it a great tool to use to develop the kids,” Evangelista said. “I’m looking to trying incorporate this into our school curriculum. I’m working on that with the principal. It’s a great tool.”

Personal coaching and renting time at an indoor facility to practice on rainy days comes with a cost, Evangelista said. Fast Track Tennis, which costs e$379 with an additional $35 for shipping, will pay for itself quickly.

Evangelista said another benefit for the Fast Track Tennis is that the device engages students. He said many times they can be discouraged trying new sports and not catching on right away.

“They are actually seeing results a little bit faster ,and it keeps them engaged,” Evangelista said. “They get discouraged and it gets boring really fast, but this machine seems to keep them engaged, and it makes the game more fun.”

Hall High School tennis coach Jim Solomon said he is on board with the concept. He’s coached boys tennis at the West Hartford school for decades. He runs a no-cut program, meaning anyone who wants to join is welcome to be on the team.

“That means we can have 60-70 players on the team (as can the girls). We have been able to use Fast Track Tennis outside and inside, too, although we are blessed with a 12-court facility,” Solomon said.

“Obviously schools with fewer courts will benefit from Fast Track. It is also useful to isolate a stroke for an individual student, or for players to focus on footwork drills,” he said. “In one instance, an injured player borrowed Fast Track to help him with rehabbing an injury. … The idea is to cultivate muscle memory which occurs through repetition. When court space is at a premium, Fast Track can deliver the repetition very efficiently.”

Davey has sold more than 5,000 units throughout the world after incorporating in Connecticut in late 2020.

“At first I was making all the machines myself and we’ve kind of slowly built it up. Now we’ve got an assembly company that does it. Last year was a great year. We’re expanding and we’re selling all over the world now,” Davey said.

Fast Track Tennis has distributors in the U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia and South Africa. He said the it’s mostly a direct-to-consumer model in the U.S.

“I have a warehouse in the north end of Hartford,” Davey said. “I have three or four companies that I work with doing various things like search engine optimization, marketing, videos that are all Hartford or Greater Hartford companies.”

Davey said California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and the bulk of the Midwest have been bought the most units. He travels the country to meets with various high school tennis associations, including an upcoming event in Texas where he will meet 650 coaches. He’s also gone to Illinois, Indiana and has plans to go to Oklahoma. However, he said, the only part of the country his product hasn’t caught on is in the Northeast.

“I’m not sure why, but I tell the coaches that if you want to buy one or two of these things, the real value comes if the kids on the team have one at home. If that kid can practice for 10 minutes a day using my device in their driveway, basement or garage in that 10 minutes they are getting 200 hits. You can’t help but to get better by doing that,” Davey said.