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Teaching Tennis to Younger Kids: Philosophy and Application

David Brouwer 

Introduction

As the parent of three daughters, ages six, three, and two, I'm amazed at the learning capabilities that young children have. Over the past year, I've had the privilege to work with over fifty children, ages 4-6 on the tennis court and it has given me a deep passion for teaching these youngsters.

In this series, I'd like to share some of my personal philosophies on teaching 4-6 year olds as well as some warm up games and stroke games that work well for me. As a disclaimer, let me say also that there is nothing new under the Sun. Many of these games were "borrowed" from friends of mine who are top notch Little Stars teaching professionals. First, a couple of thoughts on teaching this age group:

Fun and Discovery

There's no doubt in my mind that the number one thing we need to offer Little Stars is fun. Some of this comes from the success of hitting the ball over the net, but much of it comes from the games that you can play with these kids and the environment that you create for them. It is important to realize the process of discovery that each child goes through on the tennis court. I have found (surprisingly enough) that the more information I give them, the worse they do. However, if I show them myself and then let them experiment to their heart's content, they pick up on things very quickly. This theory is summed up wisely by one of my mentors who says: "There is no teaching, only learning."

The Why and the When of teaching Little Stars?

Parents these days are bombarded with opportunities for their children from the time they are born. Our clubs offer swimming lessons for kids as young as 12 months, soccer for 3 year olds, stroller aerobics classes for babies, and the list goes on. None of my six year old daughter's friends have ever played in an organized tennis lesson. They all play soccer or t-ball. So my philosophy on bringing little stars onto the tennis court is simple: Get them early! Other sports are relentless in their marketing to young children. Why shouldn't tennis?

Also, I would guess that 75% of the little stars that I teach in a week have parents that bring at least one of their younger children onto the court during the lesson. This is also a great reason to have classes offered for 4-5 year olds at clubs. The 1-3 year olds help pick up the balls, they love the suckers at the end of class, and they develop a relationship with the coaches well before some of them can even form sentences! Then, guess who makes up your Little Stars class in two years? You've got it, the young siblings.

I believe that 4 years old is the perfect age to begin kids in tennis. Most of the little stars that I teach are 4 and 5 years old and they are physically strong enough to strike a depressurized ball with a shorter racquet. Most of them are also in preschool, young 5's, or kindergarten. This makes a huge distinction between them and 3 year olds because they have experience being attentive to an instructor and following simple directions.

Ratios and optimum teaching conditions

My daughter's kindergarten classroom has 18 children in it to one teacher. Many schools in our area have up to 27 children to 1 teacher. Obviously, this is a less than ideal learning environment, but it is what kids get used to in most schools. On the tennis court, I believe that the maximum number of Little Stars that one instructor should have is five. I've run classes with ten plus me, and they were good classes. But the atmosphere gets so crazy that it's quite hard to control. We actually run our classes with more of a 3:1 ratio because we believe that this is our most important class to pay individual attention to the students in.

Depending on the teaching aides you have, more kids can be handled on the court. However, I've found one major issue in having more than 5:1 is safety. The first thing I teach all my little stars is that when I say "freeze," they all hug their racquet immediately.

What to expect from kids at this age

First, let me say that boys and girls are different and I often separate my classes by boys and girls. The boys swing faster, their physically stronger, and generally are bouncing off the walls more. Safety is much more of an issue with the boys in class.

The girls are generally more giggly, want to be with their friends more, and pay very close attention to directions. Also, you need to spend twice as much time with the girls on throwing because they simply are not learning how to throw at a young age like boys are. There are far more distinctions to be made than these, but it's just good to be aware that you cannot treat the two genders the exact same on the tennis court.

Secondly, I've noticed that kids this age really need consistency and continuity. Our instructors rarely change at this level. The attachment is simply too high from the students and the parents and younger siblings to be rotating instructors too often. I believe that one of the fastest ways to lose young tennis players is to be inconsistent with your lesson plans. They simply need routine in all areas of their lives.

As an example, my daughters are used to having a "bed snack" before they go to bed at night. Sometimes, if the night has been busy, we'll eat dinner at 7:30 and finish around 8pm. Since bedtime is 8:30, you'd think that dinner would suffice until the morning, right? Wrong. They all still need that "bed snack!" Little stars are the same way. They want to know the names of the games and drills, they want to know what the red dot means, and they want to know who their instructors are.

Lastly, some pros think that instruction is not that important at this age; that it's not about tennis, but rather just fun. I disagree. However, I never instruct them in a way that an adult would understand. For instance, all of my little stars know that they need to "back scratch" on their ground stroke follow-through. They don't know why or how, they just know that when their done with their swing, it needs to be so far over their shoulder that it hits them in the back. Therefore, I'm teaching them racquet head speed and follow through without ever mentioning anything of the sort. Another example is on the serve. We spend a good portion of our class time throwing things. This sets up their throwing motion on the serve, but they don't know that.

There is such joy in seeing children hit a depressurized tennis ball with a 20 inch racquet over a 2 foot net into a court set up of rubber spots. They love it! And these are our future high school and college players. And who knows what beyond that! Now, onto some games and their uses.

Warm up games for Little Stars

Little kids love to move. Following are some of my favorite games to get them warmed up and get their hands, eyes, and feet working:

• Find that line: Introduce them to the different areas of the court. When you call it out, they hustle to it. Try to trick them once in awhile. This game has two major purposes and they are: to get their heart rate up and to get them to know the different areas of the tennis court.

• Caterpillar: Kids line up in a single file line and spread their feet. Pro rolls a ball to one side or the other and they shuffle to that side. If the ball goes between their feet, they're safe. If it hits their foot or goes to the outside of their foot, they go to the back of the caterpillar. The goal is to keep the caterpillar together. This game is a great beginning or ending to class and teaches the invaluable skill of shuffling side to side – an obvious tennis specific movement.

  Click photo: Drill 6 - Skipping, galloping, and hopping

• Gladiator (not shown) : Kids line up at the baseline. Using soft balls, the pro yells "go!" to the first kid in line. They have to run to the net and back to the baseline without getting hit with a ball off the pros racquet (hit softly, of course). This game is great for movement, quick change of direction, and general mayhem.

• Catch: point the ball at your partner, cut the cake (imaginary birthday cake at their side and the ball is their knife), scratch your back, and throw. This is something I do in every class. It's especially helpful for the young girls who generally are not good at throwing yet.

• Fill it up: Use empty ball cans, cones, or boxes, based on kids' ability and hand-eye coordination. When they come to class, have them spend a few minutes tossing the ball into the air and catching it in the cone, can, or box. They toss and then "fill it up!" This game is a lot of fun, it gives the kids a sense of accomplishment when they fill their cone, and it works on their hand-eye coordination.

• Skipping, galloping, and hopping: Many 4-5 year olds don't recognize the difference, so have them practice while going to specific areas of the court. When we play "find that line," I usually make the kids use all their different movements to get around the court.

• Click photo: Drill 7 - One, two, three bounce catch

  One, two, three bounce catch: If you ever want to see a kid watch the ball and move their feet at the same time, do this game. The idea is that on one bounce, most kids come close to catching the ball. But on two and three bounces, they have to "get behind" the ball and move their feet into position for the catch. You toss it high and watch them watch the ball and count as it bounces "one," "two," "three," catch.

Every class period, we spend the first five minutes or so doing any number of these games. They're great fun and they really focus on hand-eye coordination, racket skills, and tennis specific movement.

In my next article, I'll introduce you to some more of my favorite warm up games as well as a series of games to teach the strokes to little stars. Until then, if you have any good warm up games that I can steal, please email me at dbrouwer@charter.net. Grow the game with little ones!

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about David Brouwer's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.

David Brouwer, USPTA is the Director of Tennis for three major health clubs in Grand Rapids, MI.

David was voted the USPTA Michigan Professional of the year in 2002 and has won two USPTA Outstanding Education awards.

David has been a speaker at the USPTA Midwest and National conventions and is the Director of the West Michigan Tennis Academy.

David coaches USTA league players of all levels and finds great joy in coaching strategy and tactics to build smarter tennis players.