Teaching your child tennis can be one of the most rewarding and valuable experiences in your life, and theirs. You are granted the joys of watching your kid play, run, learn, and succeed; while your child is granted knowledge that will last him a life time. Unfortunately, most parents simply do not have enough knowledge as a tennis player or an athlete, to really help their kid succeed nor enjoy the sport enough to continue playing tennis as a hobby. To put it bluntly, this article will help; it will teach you the fundamentals of teaching your kid tennis, so you can teach the fundamentals of tennis to your kid.
Here is the most important thing a parent can do before putting their kid on the court, or in any athletic setting for that matter. Stretch your kid out. You want to stretch your kid for at least 5-10 minutes. Not only well this help prepare proper athletic habbits for them in the future, but it will prevent them from injuring themselves on the court. Make them run as well. Get their heart rate up, get them energized to play tennis. If they don't want to run, make it a game--chase them, race them, gie them incentives to run. At the same time this can be used conversly and you can threaten them by taking away certain privledges they have on the court. Here is a disclaimer: make all threats and incentives tennis related--dont include your home life on the court. Also be weary about using threats on the court, use them as a last resort--you want your child to think tennis is fun.
Teach them about tennis rules, but just teach them the basics at first. Show them where the baseline is, the singles line, the service line, the net, the center line. Tell them the ball has to go over the net. Like I said, the basics. You can include more rules such as foot faulting, where to serve, and other things of that nature, but for now the basics are appropriate because its easier to remember. At first they may not remember these rules, but if you continue to go over them before you get on the court, they will eventually learn them. You can also quiz them for prizes or other incentives depending on how many they get right. Incentives should always be tennis related-- such playing games at the end of practice
Next on the agenda, is the grip. The grip is vital to their learning experience. If you teach them the proper grip they will make better contact with the ball more often and simply succeed more. Here is how: first hold their racket by the head, and turn it on the side so the strings are not facing the floor. You should not be touching the grip. Tell them to "shake hands with the racket". That is the grip they should use, it is called the continental grip. As you progress your child and teach them in more depth about topspin, you may want to change their grip to a semi-western--to do this you turn the racket face so it becomes "closed". However, that is another article.
To further help them succeed more in their first few practices, conduct hand-eye coordination workouts. This should be fun for your kid and it will help them make better contact with the ball sooner. To begin your hand-eye coordination workouts, have them bounce the ball on their rackets, or dribble the ball with their rackets on the ground. The ball in either drill should not be bouncing very high at all. Do this before every practice. Try to make it fun for them, make a game out of it. Bet them they can't make it up to a certain number, and have them try to reach it. Kids, in their playful nature, will gladly take you on. If your kid already has good hand-eye coordination, or has improved since your workouts started, have them move on to more advanced bounces. Have them turn the racket face 180 degrees per bounce (the ball should hit both sides), have them put a spin on the ball while bouncing, or my personal favorite, have them bounce the ball on the frame of the racket. If your kid is struggling with the basic exercises, start out by just bouncing the ball and catching it with their hands, or throwing the ball up and catching it with their hands. Give them lots of praise, as confidence is key.
Now you are ready to hit with your kid, but before you do, teach them the ready position. The ready position is where you are facing forward shoulders parallel to the net with your knees bent. The racket should be up and both hands should be on the racket. They should be in this position before they hit any ball.
Once they master the ready position, have them come up to the net for volleys. The reason we do volleys instead of groundstrokes first is simple: volleys are easier than ground strokes at this level. Have them stand close to net, and tell them to make a "stop sign" with their racket. What this should mean is "put your racket up". The racket head should be well above their wrist. Tell them to watch the ball when they hit, and to try to hit the logo on the center of the racket (the big P on prince rackets). Try to phrase it like "Hit the big P for a Perfect shot!". Emphasize clearance over the net. In other words tell them to "make a rainbow over the net with the ball" Yeah, these lines are cheesy but it will get through to them. Also instruct them to step forward with their opposition leg (if their forehand is their left side, they should be stepping with their right and visa versa). When they step their body should be turned so their side is facing the net. When they are about to hit tell them to yell a fun phrase like "Splat!" at contact. Stand on the other side of the net, and toss them balls on the forehand side. This drill helps them watch the ball, and works on their hand-eye coordination. If they have trouble have them hold the ball and hit it over the net themselves until their hand-eye is better. Once they master the forehand volley have them move on to the backhand volley. The grip on the backhand volley is tricky, it will be the same grip you use on the back hand. You want your kid to have two hands on the racket. Have them hold the racket in continental grip with their strong hand. The weak hand goes on top of the strong hand. Make sure the weak hand is turned correctly. The palm should be on the flat of the grip. To see if your kid is holding the racket right, look at their strong hand' s knuckles, it should be facing the opposite direction the weak hand knuckles are, more or less. Do the same drill you performed with the forehand volley. When your kid gets good, have them stand in ready position and throw them balls to either the backhand or forehand without warning. This forces them to get back into ready position after each hit. With both step 6 and 7, make this fun for your kid. Give them encouraging words like "Nice Shot" etc. Also, if you get hit, pretend it hurts, it lets them laugh and gives confidence they are hitting the ball hard like on t. v. Try making a game out of it, tell them to get 10 in a row. Or begin feeding with a racket, or volleying back their shots (if your volleys are good enough to give them a nice easy hit).
Now they are used to hitting the ball, have them hit some groundstrokes with you.All grips on both the backhand and forehand are the same as well as the stepping motion. When they hit a ground stroke, tell them they should either be "Making a C" or be "bringing their racket from low to high". Both encourages and forces your kid to hit with proper topspin. I like telling your kid to make a "C" with the racket because it helps them learn to bring the racket back and prepare for the shot. What making a C means is when they bring their racket back, the motion should resemble a C. Emphasize the contact point. The contact point should be around the abdomen just a little in front your kid. You still want to emphasize making a "rainbow over the net", stepping into the ball, and hitting the logo on the strings. Instead of saying "step/hit", now the kid should say "Bounce" as the ball bounces in front of them and "Hit" when contact is made at the contact point. Have them drop the ball in front of them and hit the ball. Once they get the hang of that, feed them balls from across the net. again make games with them to keep the lesson fun. Give incentives for doing well, and encouragement if they struggle. When your kid get good, start feeding with your racket, and start rallying with them (don't spin the ball however). When you start rallying with them play "Beat the pro (or parent in this case)" where you kid tries to take a point off you. Give them a prize every time they win, like you doing push-ups or something. However, that's up to you!
Now comes the hard part: serving. First have them practice their toss by tossing a ball up above their head in front of them. Keep practicing until their toss is good enough for them to not move and still be able to catch the ball. As for serving, tell them to put their racket behind their back like they are "scratching their back". This is how they should start serving every time. Have them extend their racket above their shoulder so they are reaching up as high as they can. This is their contact point for the serve. End the service motion there. Tell them they should be hitting the ball when they toss at the highest point they can with out jumping. They should still be hitting the logo, and be making a rainbow. Start at the service line with the goal of just getting it over the net. Work your way back to the baseline as your kid gets better. Serving is a hard thing to grasp for a kid. You want to be encouraging so they don't get discouraged, because they will at times. Make sure you focus on clearance over the net, nothing else, and your kid will get better--that's the time you talk about direction, placing, spin, etc.
All these tips, however, mean nothing if you don't shape their attitude towards success and failure. This is why I cautioned you earlier to be weary about incentives and threats. You want to shape their attitude towards tennis to be fun, but at the same time they need to realize its not free time. This way they will continue to strive to improve through practicing and drills, but enjoy it at the same time.
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