Group tennis lessons for Kids

Group tennis lessons for Kids
In my last article I discussed the pleasure I get from working with young tennis players, and things to think about as far as what to think about before you sign your child up for Tennis instruction. In this Article I would like to talk about group tennis and fitness for kids. In the last article I spoke about the right age for private sessions, and I think the age that seems to me to be the most appropriate is 7-8 is about as early as I recommend for the average child from the terms of maturity and physical and psychological development for private tennis instruction. That being said there are kids that will benefit and grasp the techniques at a very early age, even as young as 3 or 4. I have seen a lot of parents through away there money, having there 6 year old taking privates lesson. It turns into a very expensive baby sitting. For kids 4 and over group tennis and fitness classes makes the most sense to me. For real young children (3-5 yrs of age) a lot of the group tennis sessions are spent doing non tennis skills, doing exercises like jumping jacks, lunges, arm circles, stretching, throwing balls etc to work on motor skills. I then would move on to mock tennis swings and only then move onto hitting tennis balls to the kids, I also tend to use soft foam tennis balls, they come in slower and if they get hit or stepped on don’t cause any harm. For the groups I like to keep the kids separated by no more then 2 years within the same group, just too much variation based on age of the players. The smaller the group the better, I like to have groups of around 3-5 kids, allows me to give each player the attention they deserve. This keeps the cost reasonable for the parent and gives the child the good degree of attention. From there is the child seems to enjoy the group lessons, and hopefully shows promise, Private tennis sessions along with group classes make a lot of sense. Have fun!