of direction, balance, flexibility, speed, strength, agility & footwork. At what age can a junior start learning tennis? Some kids are ready to have fun and learn as young as age three. Many are ready by five, and almost all are ready by seven-eight, assuming tennis has any appeal to them. The main requirement for a lesson with a professional is the ability to pay attention and follow simple directions. And for group lessons, knowing left from right is very helpful. How much attention is required for taking your kid out yourself depends and probably end up not liking tennis. What type of lesson is the best for your child? Some kids need other kids around in order to have fun and for them, group lessons are clearly better. For younger beginners, the games in a group lesson are more fun, too. If a kid is comfortable on his or her own with a pro, private lessons will yield the quickest improvement. Semi-private lessons are sometimes an ideal compromise, but for most kids - it's important that the lesson partners have comparable abilities, because if one kid constantly has more trouble picking up new skills than their partner, they are likely to get discouraged, even if they are progressing quite well. Kids with above-average talent making great progress can think they're doing bad because they're comparing themselves to a partner with unbelievable talent. When is a junior ready for tournaments? At a bare minimum, the main technical requirement for beginner tournaments is the ability to serve well enough not to lose more than the occasional service game to double faults. Excessive double faulting isn't fun for either player. Once the serve goes in, the kids will get the feel of really playing, and they're likely to have fun. A first tournament can be a lot of fun, but it can also sour a kid on tennis, so parents should not be in any hurry. If a kid expresses an interest, a tournament with players of similar ability, especially if it uses a fun format, can increase a kid's excitement about tennis. The best formats for first tournaments are round robins and compass draws, because the kids keep playing, win or lose, and they usually end up with a mixture of wins and losses. An elimination tournament can be quite discouraging, especially if a kid has an unlucky draw and gets blown out in the first round, but some kids go in truly understanding that this is likely to happen, and they don't mind. Others think they're ready for getting blown out, but they end up not playing much tennis after that. |
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