The United States Professional Tennis Association Accredited Professional Coach classification, its newest membership classification that includes mandatory education, provides added benefits to members with the APC designation including opportunities for career enhancement through a commitment to tennis and tennis education and demonstration of expertise, and building the image of tennis-teaching professionals and tennis as a profession overall.

The competency exam to become eligible for this classification is available to members through the USPTA's Learning Management System. In addition to being certified at the USPTA professional level, members must also take the Professional Tennis Coaches Academy I and pass a competency exam at the 80th percentile or higher. Those who have already taken the PTCA I and scored 80 percent or higher do not need to retake it.

The competency exam is made up of 20 questions and members will receive immediate feedback on their score through the LMS. You must first take the online PTCA I Course that you can purchase for $50. Upon completion of the course you are assigned the exam through the LMS.

This classification is open to Professional 1, 2 and 3 members and Master Professionals. USPTA Professional members are required to take continuing education in order to earn and maintain APC status.

APC is earned by accumulating 20 APC credits within a two-year period. The designation is maintained by continuing to earn 20 APC credits over every two-year period. APC credits can be earned in a variety of ways including attending the USPTA World Conference, USPTA division conventions, USPTA specialty courses, USTA High Performance education, viewing DVD seminars, and more.

The opportunity to earn credits at USPTA World Conferences and division conventions will require members to fill out a form for credit at the beginning of the seminar or specialty course (that is collected at the end of the seminar), in order to verify attendance for credit. For more details regarding qualifying credits, e-mail education@uspta.org.

Once members achieve this distinction, their certificate and member card will have an expiration date and the designation will be added after their professional rating. The documents are available online to print from the member management area of www.uspta.com, where members can log in with name and member number.