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TennisOne Lessons Changing Court Dimensions to Accelerate Learning Tom Allsopp Mini tennis exists in many different forms under many different names all over the world. For children Mini Tennis uses smaller courts, lower bouncing balls, shorter rackets, and modified scoring to enable children as young as four years old to learn to play tennis. A full size tennis court is difficult for an adult to cover but to an 8 year old it can be similar to an under 10's soccer team playing at Old Trafford (Manchester United's ground). The problem ironically is not always that it is too difficult for young children to play on huge courts, quite the contrary. It is actually too easy to hit the ball in the court without the other player returning it — something that many adults have a huge problem achieving!
When a child can hit a ball to their opponent/partner and it is successfully returned the players are able to hit and receive more balls in a short space of time. This equates to more fun and more learning. A smaller court helps them to be more precise and develop better ball control. Bigger is not always better! For coaches and players I think it is important to recognize that the court dimensions for all ages and abilities are not set in stone, especially in practice. Not only can we achieve more rallies by changing the court dimensions but we can create problems to be solved while we target specific areas of a player’s game, both mentally and physically. Touch Tennis Adults can play games in half a court, down the line or cross-court, with alleys or without alleys. These games are relatively basic but develop great touch, good footwork, and quick decision making skills. There are many games that make changing the court dimensions more fun and interesting. One cool game I play is to divide each side of the court into quarters. We number the quarters 1 to 4 and each player can pick 3 numbers out of a hat. Your opponent must play the shots into those 3 areas; the 4th quarter is now out. The different quarters change the tactics a player should or could use. Their decision making when the rules change is what I really enjoy observing and discussing with each player. Variations: You can do this with 2 quarters or handicap players by giving them more or less quarters than their opponent. I sometimes let my pupils decide what 2 or 3 quarters they would like me to play in against them. Everyone enjoys and benefits from this game. What We Can Learn from Brazilian Soccer Futsal is a variation of soccer played in Brazil. It is said to be responsible for Brazil's success. Many of their greatest players, such as Pele and Ronaldinho, grew up playing Futsal. Pele said "It was important in helping to develop my ball control and quick thinking." The beauty of Futsal is that each player touches the ball 6 times more per minute compared to a regular game. The dimensions of the playing area are far smaller so a player's decision making, quick thinking and ball control has to be so much better than when playing on a full size pitch. Just like the Brazilians were able to accelerate their soccer development with Futsal, I feel we can use similar methods on the tennis court. With almost every client I coach I have them play competitive games in the service box. We play cross-court with no alleys. You can do ANY shot you want. The only rule I have is that you have to be aiming for the court, not the player, when being aggressive. By playing with these rules and in these court dimensions we achieve many things:
Here are some great mini tennis dills adults can play to home their games. The players in these videos make it look easy, but I assure you, it is not, so work at it and practice with purpose. Service Box Game Using the Continental Grip
Service Box Game Using any Grip
Half Court Singles Drill
Half Court Crosscourt Doubles Drill
Half Court Serve and Volley Simulation Drill
This is a great way to start any tennis lesson. It gets the lesson off to a purposeful and energetic start while helping to accelerate the player's development in numerous areas. With doubles players we can spend hours playing variations of net games to develop skills necessary for doubles play. Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Tom Allsopp's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.
Tom Allsopp is the founder of tpatennis.net, a unique website for tennis enthusiasts. He also owns tpatennis.com, where he helps parents to effectively coach their children. "Tom has coached professionally on three continents and has worked with some of the greatest coaches from around the world." Through articles and videos he hopes to share his expertise with everyone at TennisOne. |
Tom Allsopp