Many parents believe they must pay a professional to help their young children learn the sport of tennis. For a child to hit a moving ball with a tennis racquet, spatial awareness of where the ball ‘is going to be’ is as necessary as the hand-eye coordination to physically swing the racquet. And since most …
As I discussed in the Tennis for Children: Bounce-Catch article, having a child catch a ball is probably the most basic way to introduce spatial awareness. This introduces ball tracking and the hand-eye coordination responsible for much of the skill set a young tennis player requires. As we move on from “bounce-catch” to “bounce-hit,” the …
One of the easier concepts for a young Ankle Biter to learn (however difficult to remember) is to stand facing perpendicular to their target. A good phrase to help the child remember how to stand in preparation for “bounce-hit” is “Point Your Toes.” This is a simple transition from the initial preparation for “bounce–catch” which …
The last game we play with preschoolers each lesson is called Frozen. This game is like desert after a meal for kids. You can’t show the kid ice cream before they have eaten their dinner or the ice cream is all they will want. Here is how it works: First, they have to collect all …
We have a game we play first and foremost before we ever get started with our lesson plans in the preschool tennis programs. This game is called “Tornado!” All we had to do was, one time, video the children playing the game and play it back for them in a ‘time lapse’ scenario and they …
Advice for Children Article Series Now, offering this advice allows quite a few different ways to interact with the kids including teaching them new words like: “permission,” which many preschoolers don’t know yet. But this also is good advice for children to avoid the misunderstanding of when they offer their help to a classmate but …
Tennis for Children: Smash! Transition Game Many of the compliments we have received from other teaching professionals have to do with the transition timing we have built in to our lesson plans. We have developed a few games for children (and adults who like to improve their game) can play after emptying a basket of …
Tennis for Children: Catchy Bug Formerly: “Smash the Bug” Do you remember when you were young and having the coordination to ‘pat your head and rub your belly’ was a wonderful achievement? Well, learning the service motion, for a young child still building their coordination, is much like asking them to ‘pat their head and …
Tennis for Children: Balance the Ball. Don’t Let it Fall! A wonderful way to teach a young tennis player the relationship between the racquet and a tennis ball is to have them balance the ball on the racquet strings. This builds strength, coordination and understanding of the “ball and stick” relationship. Many young children can …
Tennis for Children: School’s back, serve’s up, kids! Parents are often more excited and apprehensive than their children about this time of year. We ask ourselves the truly important questions: Are they going to make friends? Will they like their new teachers? How is the two handed backhand developing? At Ankle Biters Tennis we meet …