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 …
Does your tennis committee know what you want? Do you feel it takes too long to replace a light bulb at the courts or do your courts need resurfacing? Does the committee even know if you are working to build a new league team out of the neighborhood? In conversation with league players and tennis …