Andy Fitzell
Director
USPTA Professional 1
Andy, a Southern California native, has been teaching tennis professionally for over 11 years, with more than 8 years as a professional at the Vic Braden Tennis College. In recent years, Andy has been coaching and traveling with top sectional and national ranked juniors, collegiate players, as well as touring pros. He is certified by the USPTA as a Pro-1 and has been a member since 1998. Andy is also a certified USTA High-Performance Coach. He has served as Secretary and 2nd Vice President on the USPTA Intermountain Board of Directors. In 2007, Andy was awarded USPTA "Touring Coach of the Year" for the Intermountain Section. He has been a featured speaker at various coaches' workshops and conferences including the USPTA World Conference.
As a player, Andy was a top sectional and national ranked junior in both the Southern California and Intermountain regions and played division I collegiate tennis for Weber State University, where he competed at #1 doubles and #2 singles. He has been ranked as high as #2 in both singles and doubles in the Men's Open division for the state of Utah and remains as one of Utah's top Open players. Andy has also competed successfully on the USTA and ITF Pro Circuits and is looking forward to competing in USTA National 30's events.
Following in the footsteps of friend and mentor Vic Braden, Andy has also entered the world of sports research. For the past 5 years he has assisted Vic at the Pacific Life Open filming the top pros for 3-dimensional studies on stroke mechanics and injury prevention. Using special computer software, he has digitized and analyzed the biomechanics of top professionals such as Federer, Nadal, Roddick, and many others. Andy has been featured on Tennisone.com, MVN.com, ESPN.com, and AnaIvanovic.com.
Even when off the court Andy's tennis skills are in demand. In 2003 and 2004, his strokes were motion captured for the top selling Microsoft X-Box video games "Topspin" and "Topspin 2."
Andy is co-founder of Court Think, which specializes in tennis program management for clubs and resorts, and research, study and development of athletic motion and training in all sports.
Andy is fluent in the Spanish language and is currently studying Russian to become multi-lingual. In his spare time, Andy enjoys watching movies, golf, reading, rock climbing, and playing the guitar.