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Developing Serve & Return Skills For ½ Court Players (5-7 Year Olds)

Wayne Elderton

We are currently in a series about developing 5-7 year old players using balls and courts scaled down to the size of children (Called Progressive Tennis in Canada).

In the last two installments, we started our exploration of the ‘Silver’ level of skill development which is split into 4 Skill Blocks:

• Groundstroke Development
• Net Play Development
• Serve and Return Development
• Tactical Decision Making

In our last installment, we looked at Block #2: Silver Net Play development. The main key was to develop the volley skills from the concept of a ‘catch’ to increase ‘feel’ and ‘touch’ right from the beginning.

We will now look at Block #3: Serve and Return Development. All tennis points start with a serve and return. Players who learn how to initiate a point from the first shot can gain an advantage quickly. Even with starter players, the majority of points are won or lost on the first four shots of a point (Serve and first shot, and Return and first shot).

Serve Development

In ½ Court tennis in Canada, we have elected not to divide the service boxes. Players are able to serve anywhere on their opponent’s court provided the ball lands in front of the singles sideline (which acts as the serviceline in ½ Court tennis).

We feel this benefits the player because he or she has more chance of success with a bigger target area. As they improve, they can explore initiating points by moving the ball around with many possibilities (which helps their ability to direct the serve). Players are also encouraged to ‘go for it’ and not constrain and ‘bump’ their serve in order to get it into a small area (which hurts their technical development).

In regards to technical development, the serve is built from an overhead throwing motion. Shaping the serve from an overhead throwing action is far more successful than ‘chaining’ the serve together by teaching the pieces (e.g. ‘down together, up together, scratch your back, etc.). Transferring from throwing to serving is a much more natural process and many subtle movements and skills can be transferred to the serve by taking this approach.

During competition, players are encouraged to serve underhanded at the beginning. Now, I can hear a number of coaches saying, “players should serve overhead for real tennis!” Don’t misunderstand, encouraging underhand serves doesn’t mean the player shouldn’t be practicing overhead serving constantly.

There is a short developmental phase where building a well linked overhead service action can be retarded by the player needing to get the serve in consistently. In other words, because they need to put the serve in, they abandon their good throwing action for a ‘mutated bump’ of the ball.

The player should still compete during this phase however, the goal is to develop the overhead serve action enough that, when they serve, it is with good linkage. An underhand serve allows them to compete with full tactical intention until their overhead serve is ready to be unleashed properly. Even after they are serving overhead, ½ Court players will typically serve underhand as a 2nd serve.

It is a good idea for players to practice placing their underhand serve. For serving underhand, the rules of tennis apply in that the ball must be taken in the air and not bounced before it is hit. Players need to place the serve to both forehand and backhand sides. The Silver ‘Tactical grid’ can be used to identify the areas to serve into.

Once they have appropriate overhead serve linkage, they can practice placing the serve to various areas of the court in order to start a point in-charge. The same target areas that were used for the underhand serve can be used for overhead serves.

Return Development

Since players are able to serve nearly anywhere in the court, returners need to be able to use both forehand and backhand to place it anywhere. Starter players should be looking to simply keep the ball in play however, Silver level players need to be able to direct the return down-the-line as well as crosscourt.

To practice, the same Tactical Grid can be used. It is also a good idea to incorporate a server (rather than feeding from a basket) to keep things realistic. Right from the beginning, Silver level ½ Court players are taught appropriate tactical intentions to be a successful returner:

• Neutralize the server (when receiving a strong serve) by placing the ball deeper and higher (to gain recovery time).

• Put the server at a disadvantage (when receiving a weaker serve) by adding precision (e.g. placing it into a corner) or power.

Technical Foundations

We can use the same 5 technical fundamentals introduced in the Bronze level to mold Serve & Return skills

Grip

• For Serves: The continental grip is recommended. This allows players to get a better elbow/wrist linkage and start forearm pronation. It is possible to accept a forehand grip at first however, the longer it is used, the more ingrained the grip becomes.

• For Returns: An Eastern forehand and backhand is recommended. For two-handed backhand, an Eastern forehand on the top hand, and a Continental on the bottom is recommended. The return action is pretty much the same as the groundstrokes at this stage.

Impact Point

• For Serves: Ideally, the ball should be hit with the arm at full upward extension. If the player is standing in a clock face, they should toss the ball at 12 or 1:00.

• For Returns: The Impact is the same as the regular groundstrokes. Players should attempt to impact the ball at waist level, slightly out front, and at a comfortable distance from the body.

Set-up

• For Serves: Players should be in a sideways stance and the toss should be coordinated with the hitting arm. The toss should be placed slightly above as high as the racquet can extend upward.

• For Returns: Since the serve can be placed almost anywhere in the ½ court, this is a good time to reinforce a well timed split-step and an early ‘unit turn’ (prepare the body and racquet together). As the serve pace increases, the player must learn to make the racquet preparation more ‘compact’ to allow easier timing of the impact.

Hitting Zone

• For Serves: The hitting zone is small for a serve and a ‘push towards the target’ action should be discouraged in favor of a ‘hitting’ action as part of a throwing motion.

• For Returns: The racquet should move towards the target for an extended distance to make directional control easier.

Recovery

• For Serves: The goal is to have players ready for the next shot. Training recovery is easier when the players are serving against a returner.
  

• For Returns: Just like a groundstroke exchange, players must recover:
  • In the correct ready position
  • In the appropriate location
  • At the appropriate time

During theses drills, coaches need to relentlessly maintain good technical fundamentals. This is much easier if the coach sets-up players cooperatively serving and returning to each other. The coach is free to circulate around and give feedback to all players.

Conclusion

Developing 5-7 years olds in a Progressive Tennis format is recommended by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). Their world-wide Play & Stay initiative (and the USTA Quick Start Initiative in the US) will help more players get better faster.

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

Wayne Elderton

Wayne is head of Tennis Canada Coaching Development & Certification in British Columbia. He is a certified Canadian national level 4 coache as well as being certified by both the PTR and USPTA. For two consecutive years he was runner-up for Canadian national development coach-of-the-year out of nominated coaches from every sport. Wayne has also been selected as Tennis BC High Performance Coach-of-the-year and was the 2007 Canadian Tennis Professionals Association Coaching Educator of the year.

Wayne is currently Tennis Director at the Grant Connell Tennis Center in North Vancouver. He has written coaching articles and materials for Tennis Canada, the PTR, Tennis Coaches Australia,Tennis Corporation of America and the ITF. He is an international expert on the Game-based Approach.

For more resources, you can visit Wayne Elderton's website at www.acecoach.com

New Progressive Tennis DVD

Wayne Elderton and coach/videographer Neil parker have just completed a new DVD for Tennis Canada on ½ Court Tennis for 5-7 year olds. It contains some of the most up to date methodology found world-wide. The clips in this article are taken from that DVD. It is available on Wayne Elderton’s website: www.acecoach.com.