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Jorge Capestany - TennisDrills TV QuickStart vs. Full Court Many coaches, parents, and players are becoming aware of the world-wide movement towards teaching young tennis players on the proper sized equipment. In the US, the program is called QuickStart. It is being done in virtually every country, but the programs are known by different names.
Young tennis players finally have the chance to learn the game using appropriate sized equipment and courts, thus accelerating the learning process. I have been using this program at my club even before USTA had given it the name QuickStart. We have had huge success with it, and it has been accepted by almost every family at our club- Almost… There are still some uninformed critics that insist that talented young players will be fine learning the game on a regular sized court with hard balls and adults sized racquets. After many conversations with these “yet to be convinced parents,” I decided to make a video that would once and for all show the reality of what happens to a young player when forced to learn the game with adult equipment. This is that video. Other Points to Consider 1) Players are more likely to develop extreme grips when they use regular balls because the ball bounces too high for them, often requiring the first several thousands swings they take to be at a ball that is out of their strike-zone. 2) Every other sport has already concluded that scaling down the court to its youngest players gives them the best chance for early success, and thus makes them more likely to stick with the sport in the long run. Baseball has a strike-zone as well. No little league coach would want to see their young players take their first swings at balls that are above their heads and out of their strike zone. 3) Players are more likely to develop strategy and tactics on smaller equipment because they can sustain a rally sooner and those rallies will last longer than they would with a hard tennis ball. Therefore, they can learn recovery and movement skills at an earlier age than they would be able to do on a full sized court. 4) Players are more likely to come to the net and develop finishing skills when they don’t have to cover a full sized court. This will make them better and more diverse players as they become older. Some critics argue that QuickStart tennis is not “real” tennis. They rationalize that since players will eventually need to be able to hit regular balls on a 78’ court, they should start getting used to it now. The problem with this logic is that kids will not have "early success" and that is the key to eliminating the drop out rate of 57% for the nearly 2 million new young players that try tennis each year. Another common argument is that since a child can already “rally” on a full sized court with a regular hard tennis ball, they do not need to use the QuickStart format. But the video shows that we need to be careful and not just look to see if the ball is going back and forth, but how the kids are hitting the ball. Practically every young player (8 yrs old) that I have seen rally using a real ball on a full sized court is actually being pushed around the court by the ball rather being able to move the ball around the court. This should be the real measure of whether a player should be using proper equipment, not simply if the ball is going back and forth over the net.
Jorge Capestany - TennisDrills TV Jorge is the Founder of www.tennisdrills.tv - a video based website that shows more than 700 videos of tennis drills and tips. Jorge is one of only nine people world-wide that is a Master Professional with both the USPTA and PTR. Jorge is a 6-time Michigan Pro of the Year a 2-time Midwest Pro of the Year. Jorge has coached hundreds of ranked juniors including 3 national champions. |
