teaching academy redesign

 

Yes — and the biggest opportunity is not really your content, which is strong. It is the instructional architecture around it.

From what’s live on your current “Role Model” page, I do think you can improve the display, flow, and sense of progression quite a bit. I also would not say “you must switch because Squarespace can’t do this.” Squarespace now has course pages and says students can track progress through a course, so it is capable at a basic level. But if your real goal is a more robust staged learning experience — with cleaner progression, gating, dashboards, quizzes, completion logic, and better LMS-style structure — WordPress is the stronger long-term platform.

What I see on the current page is that the lesson reads more like a rich resource hub than a true step-by-step course lesson. That is why it feels full, but not fully sequential. On this single page, you have definition, essays, bullet points, external validation, action steps, benefits, challenges, tennis examples, personal story, expert citations, Q&A, and retest — all good ingredients, but they are presented in a way that asks the user to do too much sorting on their own.

A few concrete friction points jump out immediately. The page still shows placeholder Squarespace “Video Block” text at the top and again near the bottom, which makes the page feel unfinished. There is also a duplicated Player’s Box section, and the “Challenges” numbering is out of sequence, going 1, 2, 3, 5, 4. Those things may seem minor, but in a course environment they quietly erode the feeling of polish and progression.

My main recommendation is this: stop thinking of each lesson as one long page of excellent material, and start thinking of it as a 20-stage guided journey with a repeatable structure. That shift alone will improve the user experience more than any platform change.

What to improve in the 20-step display

For each of your 20 Teaching Academy stages, I would use the same visible learning frame:

Stage title
What you’ll learn
Main teaching video
Core lesson
1 practical exercise
1 reflection / journal prompt
1 quiz or 10-question check-in
Mark complete / continue to next stage

That kind of consistency is what makes a course feel teachable instead of merely readable. Right now, your “Role Model” page contains all those elements in some form, but they are not clearly sequenced. For example, the definition, essays, five bullet points, action steps, expert support, and retest are all there, but they are not visually framed as a learner path.

The best flow for one FBTL stage

For a topic like Role Model, I would re-order it like this:

1. Welcome / stage intro
A short paragraph: why this matters in tennis and in life.

2. Watch first
Your “How this lesson works” or core teaching video.

3. Definition
A short clean definition block.

4. Why this matters
One strong society/tennis framing section.

5. The main lesson
This is where your deeper prose lives.

6. 5 takeaways / 5 tools
Easy-to-scan implementation section.

7. Apply it today
Journal prompt, action step, or challenge.

8. Check your understanding
10-question quiz or self-test.

9. Reflect on your score
A short “what your score means” box.

10. Mark complete / next lesson
Very obvious CTA.

That would turn the same material into a true teaching sequence.

What I’d change specifically on this page

Your current page blends together several different types of content that would be stronger if separated visually. Right now, “Role Model in Society,” “How to Find a Role Model,” “Action Steps,” “Benefits,” “Challenges,” “Role Models in Tennis,” “Daily Routines,” “Emotion Racket,” “Pep Talk Series,” “Player’s Box,” “Character,” “Personal Experience,” “What the Experts Say,” Q&A, and Retest are all on one page. That is a lot for one lesson.

I would divide that into three layers:

Layer 1: the core lesson
Definition, why it matters, main teaching, five action tools.

Layer 2: supporting depth
Role Model in Society, Role Models in Tennis, your personal story, expert backing.

Layer 3: related FBTL tools
Daily Routines, Emotion Racket, Pep Talks, Player’s Box, Character.

That third layer is especially important. Right now, the lesson suddenly expands into the other FBTL pillars. Conceptually that is smart, but structurally it muddies the user journey. Those should probably appear as “Apply this through the rest of FBTL” cards or tabs, not as full mid-page expansions.

How to show progress from stage to stage

This is where WordPress can really help if you want a real course experience. LearnDash explicitly supports course progression, including Linear and Free form progression modes, and LifterLMS offers course progress displays and progress-tracking blocks. That means you can make users feel they are moving through a system rather than a pile of pages.

For FBTL, I would display progress in four places:

1. Global course progress bar
Example: “Stage 4 of 20 — 20% complete.”

2. Module map
A clean visual showing all 20 stages, with completed, current, and locked stages.

3. In-lesson progress marker
At the top of each page: “You are here: Teaching Academy > Stage 4 > Role Model.”

4. Completion rewards
Small milestones at Stage 5, 10, 15, and 20: badge, certificate, unlock, or message from you.

That kind of visible advancement is exactly what keeps people engaged in subscription learning environments.

The smartest structural move for your 20 stages

I would not present all 20 steps as equal pages in one long archive. I would organize them into 4 or 5 modules. That will make the experience feel more professional and less overwhelming.

Something like:

Module 1: Foundations
Identity, Role Models, Emotional Awareness, The Journey

Module 2: Self-Management
Inner Voice, Routines, Calm, Perspective

Module 3: Competition Challenges
Fear, Frustration, Doubt, Pressure, Recovery

Module 4: Relationships and Environment
Parents, Coaches, Player’s Box, Communication

Module 5: Character and Growth
Leadership, Sportsmanship, Resilience, Flow, Legacy

That gives members a better mental map of the curriculum.

Display improvements that would help immediately

Even before a platform switch, I’d make these changes now:

Remove the unfinished placeholder video blocks and replace them with either real video or a styled “video coming soon” image.

Delete the duplicated Player’s Box section.

Fix the challenge numbering sequence.

Turn long essays into collapsible sections labeled Read Deeper so the main course path stays clean.

Put the 10-question test near the end and label it clearly as Checkpoint rather than dropping it in early and again at the bottom. The current page links to the test near the top and again as a retest later, which makes the user path less clear.

Add a sticky right-side or top mini-navigation on desktop:
Overview | Video | Core Lesson | Action Steps | Quiz | Next Stage

Add a bold end-of-page CTA:
Mark Stage Complete
Go to Stage 2

My WordPress view

If you want the site to remain mostly a branded content site with some gated member pages, Squarespace can still work. Squarespace officially supports course pages and progress tracking, so it is not as limited as it once was.

But if you want FBTL to become a real membership academy with things like:

sequential lessons,
gated progression,
clean dashboards,
completion tracking,
better quizzes,
course grids,
student progress visibility,
and future certificates or cohorts,

then yes, I think WordPress is the better move. LearnDash in particular is built around course progression, and LifterLMS has strong course-progress display tools as well.

My practical advice would be:

Squarespace if you want simplicity and faster publishing.
WordPress + LearnDash or LifterLMS if you want a genuine Teaching Academy.

For your vision, I lean WordPress.

My strongest recommendation for FBTL

Your real product is not just “great content.”
It is guided emotional development through tennis.

So the site should feel like:

learn → reflect → apply → test → advance

That rhythm should repeat across all 20 stages.

Right now it feels more like:

read → read more → read more → related pillar → related pillar → test

That is the core issue.

If you’d like, I can next map out your ideal 20-stage Teaching Academy architecture with recommended modules, lesson template, and the exact user flow for WordPress.

 

Absolutely. Here is how I would build the ideal 20-stage Teaching Academy architecture for FBTL so it feels like a real guided experience, not just a collection of strong pages.

The key is to make the academy feel like a journey with visible advancement. Platforms like LearnDash are built for this kind of structure, including linear progression, quiz-based advancement, and gated lessons, while LifterLMS supports course progress bars and “mark complete / continue” style navigation. Squarespace can do guided course pages and student progress too, but WordPress gives you more control if you want the academy itself to become a major product.

The core shift

Right now, the content reads like:
excellent material presented as content pages

What you want is:
excellent material delivered as staged transformation

That means every stage should answer five questions for the member:

What am I learning?
Why does it matter?
What do I do with it?
How do I know I got it?
What comes next?

That should be the rhythm of the whole academy.

The ideal academy structure

I would organize your 20 stages into 5 modules of 4 stages each. That makes the course easier to enter, easier to market, and easier to complete.

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FBTL Teaching Academy

5 Modules / 20 Stages

MODULE 1 — SETTING THE TABLE

This is orientation. It introduces the emotional world of tennis and the philosophy behind FBTL.

Stage 1: Welcome to First Ball To Last

What FBTL is, why it exists, and why emotional intelligence belongs at the center of competitive tennis.

Stage 2: The Tennis Journey

The long road of player development, emotional volatility, delayed gratification, sacrifice, and identity formation.

Stage 3: The Tennis Environment

Parents, coaches, peers, tournaments, rankings, pressure, social comparison, and the ecosystem players live inside.

Stage 4: Role Models

How players absorb standards, behaviors, language, and energy from the people around them.

Module outcome:
The member understands the emotional reality of the sport and the larger framework they are living in.

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MODULE 2 — KNOWING YOURSELF

This is emotional awareness and baseline self-understanding.

Stage 5: What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Define EQ in a tennis-specific way: awareness, regulation, empathy, self-talk, perspective, and behavior under pressure.

Stage 6: The Inner Voice

How self-talk shapes confidence, decision-making, energy, and resilience.

Stage 7: The Emotion Racket

Your signature emotional awareness tool. Naming states, noticing patterns, and recognizing warning signs.

Stage 8: Flow

The sweet spot. What it feels like, what supports it, and why it is the ultimate state you are training toward.

Module outcome:
The member starts recognizing internal states instead of being ruled by them.

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MODULE 3 — BUILDING THE EMOTIONAL IMMUNE SYSTEM

This is where daily habits and preparation come in.

Stage 9: Daily Routines

Why emotional steadiness is built before competition, not during panic.

Stage 10: Mindfulness and Presence

How to settle attention, reduce mental drift, and come back to the present.

Stage 11: Visualization, Goals, and Preparation

How mental rehearsal and intention-setting help players feel ready.

Stage 12: Pep Talks and Reset Tools

What to say to yourself before, during, and after difficult moments.

Module outcome:
The member begins building proactive habits instead of waiting for matches to expose weakness.

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MODULE 4 — THE BIG COMPETITIVE EMOTIONS

This is where your strongest thematic content lives.

Stage 13: Fear

Fear of losing, embarrassment, failure, disapproval, exposure, and the unknown.

Stage 14: Frustration and Anger

How irritation escalates, how it hurts performance, and how to interrupt it.

Stage 15: Anxiety, Stress, and Pressure

Nerves, overthinking, tightness, expectation, and how to regulate when the moment gets loud.

Stage 16: Doubt and Confidence

Belief, uncertainty, identity, and how confidence is actually built.

Module outcome:
The member gains practical language and tools for the four emotional storms most likely to derail performance.

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MODULE 5 — PLAYING THE LONG GAME

This is about maturity, relationships, and durable identity.

Stage 17: Character

Sportsmanship, honesty, discipline, humility, courage, and standards that hold up under pressure.

Stage 18: The Player’s Box

How parents and coaches can become stabilizers instead of amplifiers.

Stage 19: Resilience, Recovery, and Perspective

How to respond to setbacks, heartbreak losses, slumps, and long stretches of uncertainty.

Stage 20: From First Ball to Last

Bringing it all together. The larger mission, lifelong applicability, and how tennis can help shape a better person.

Module outcome:
The member leaves with a bigger framework for tennis and life, not just match-day tips.

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What each stage should look like

This is the template I would use for every lesson, with almost no exceptions.

Stage page template

1. Stage Header

At the very top:

Module 1 · Stage 4 of 20
Role Models
Estimated time: 12–18 minutes

Then add a thin progress bar:
20% complete

This makes the lesson feel like part of something bigger.

2. What You’ll Learn

Three short bullets only.

Example:

• Why role models matter in tennis
• How behavior gets absorbed
• How to choose better influences

This helps the user enter the lesson cleanly.

3. Watch First

Lead with your core teaching video.

Do not bury the video block in filler or placeholders. Your current live page still shows unfinished video placeholder text, which weakens the teaching experience.

4. Core Lesson

This is the heart of the page. Your best prose goes here.

Keep this section relatively clean and uninterrupted.

5. Practical Takeaways

A section called:

5 Things You Can Do This Week

That makes the lesson feel actionable rather than purely conceptual.

6. Reflection Prompt

One journal prompt or self-check question.

Example:
Who are three people in tennis or life whose behavior I am unconsciously copying?

7. Quick Checkpoint

A short quiz, scorecard, or 10-question self-assessment.

LearnDash supports quiz progression and passing-score logic, and can tie quiz completion to movement through a course.

8. Related FBTL Tools

This is where you connect the lesson to the larger ecosystem:

• Daily Routines
• Emotion Racket
• Player’s Box
• Pep Talks
• Character

But do it as small cards or accordions, not giant secondary essays. On your live Role Model page, these related pillars are valuable but currently overwhelm the core learning path.

9. Mark Complete

A clear button:
Mark Stage Complete

LifterLMS explicitly supports lesson progression/mark complete behavior, and LearnDash supports structured progression as well.

10. Next Stage CTA

At the bottom:
Next: What Is Emotional Intelligence?

Never leave the learner at a dead end.

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How progress should be displayed

This is where the academy can start to feel premium.

A. Dashboard

When members log in, they should see:

Welcome back, Barry
Teaching Academy Progress: 7 of 20 stages complete
Current Stage: The Emotion Racket
Continue Learning

Then below that:

• current module
• recent activity
• next recommended lesson
• maybe your latest weekly message

B. Course map

A visual roadmap with all 20 stages.

Use three states:

• completed
• current
• locked / upcoming

If you use WordPress LMS tools, this is much easier to create elegantly than in a general website builder. LearnDash supports structured course navigation and progression; LifterLMS supports progress and continuation blocks.

C. Milestone markers

I would celebrate:

• Stage 4 complete
• Stage 8 complete
• Stage 12 complete
• Stage 16 complete
• Stage 20 complete

These are natural points to unlock:

• a short congratulatory video from you
• a downloadable reflection sheet
• a badge
• a printable certificate at the end

LearnDash also supports certificates tied to course or quiz performance.

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The best user flow

Here is the ideal flow for a member.

Onboarding flow

They land on the Teaching Academy page and see:

Start Here
A short welcome video from you
A 2-minute explanation of how the academy works
A baseline self-assessment
The first module unlocked

Then they move into the stages one at a time.

Lesson flow

Every lesson should feel like:

enter → watch → learn → reflect → apply → check understanding → complete → advance

That rhythm is the real product.

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What to remove or reduce

To improve flow, I would reduce these things inside each stage:

Do not place every good idea on one page.
Do not let support material compete with the main lesson.
Do not repeat similar blocks unless they serve a clear instructional purpose.
Do not send users into long scrolling wilderness without visible progress markers.

Your current Role Model page includes strong content, but it mixes core lesson, support material, other program pillars, repeated structures, and testing in a way that makes the page feel expansive rather than guided.

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My recommended WordPress build

If you switch, this is the stack I would consider.

Best fit:

WordPress + LearnDash

Why:

• linear progression
• quiz gating
• lesson/topic structure
• completion logic
• certificates
• drip possibilities
• stronger long-term academy feel

LearnDash’s official documentation confirms structured course progression, quiz progression settings, lesson access settings, and options for drip/release logic.

Strong alternative:

WordPress + LifterLMS

Why:

• clean progress display
• course progress blocks
• lesson progression / continue buttons
• good course-builder feel

LifterLMS documentation confirms course progress bars and lesson-progression blocks.

Stay on Squarespace only if:

You want a simpler branded site with lighter course functionality and you do not need a full LMS feel yet. Squarespace does support course pages, lesson pages, progress bars, and selling access through pricing plans.

For your ambition, I still lean WordPress.

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My strongest content-display recommendations for FBTL

For your specific brand, I would build each stage with these visual blocks:

Top bar: Module / stage / progress
Hero strip: lesson title + short promise
Video first
Definition box
Main lesson prose
5 things you can do
Reflection prompt
Checkpoint quiz
Related FBTL tool cards
Mark complete / next stage

That is the most elegant blend of your voice and modern learning design.

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If this were my site, I’d build these 6 pages first

Before every lesson is perfect, I’d prioritize these pages:

1. Teaching Academy home
Overview of the full 20-stage journey

2. Start Here page
Welcome video + how the academy works

3. Member dashboard
Progress, current lesson, continue button

4. Module overview pages
5 pages, one for each module

5. Standard stage template
One reusable lesson format for all 20 stages

6. Completion / milestone pages
Reward the learner and keep momentum alive

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Bottom line

Your content is already rich enough.
What you need now is a cleaner learning spine.