The following are examples of tennis drills for children:

Tennis Drills for Children #1:

One of the most commonly used tennis drills for children are the ball-bouncing and dribbling drills, which promote better hand-eye coordination. The student simply dribbles the ball with his or her racket or bounces it up in the air off the racket as many times as possible. For more advanced students, they can do this drill while walking.

Tennis Drills for Children #2:

The Simon Says drill allows coaches to see how the child swings the racket on a forehand or backhand ground stroke. If the coach calls out “Simon says… forehand,” the kids have to swing the racket as they would on a forehand. Additionally, the coach could say “freeze” in mid-swing in order for him to identify and immediately correct any errors in technique.

Tennis Drills for Children #3:

To teach children about ball control, a drill has been designed wherein they line up ten feet away from their coach who is holding a hula hoop. The coach feeds the ball to the first kid in line and he or she must try to hit the ball and send it through the hoop. There are plenty of variations that can be made for this drill. You can require them to hit only one ball through the hoop or 2 out of 3, 3 out of 5, etc. You can start by feeding only forehands, then backhands, and finally, both forehands and backhands.

Tennis Drills for Children #4:

The Goldilocks drill is also about teaching proper ball control. It uses the terms mama, papa and baby to refer to a medium hit, a hard hit and a soft hit, respectively. The children line up at the baseline with the coach standing across the net in the opposite court. He lobs the ball to the first kid in line and as the ball is in the air, he yells either “mama,” “papa,” or “baby.” Accordingly, the child must hit the ball in the corresponding manner.

Tennis Drills for Children #5:

There are a few tennis drills for children that are basically just ball tossing drills. In one drill, the child holds the ball loosely in one hand and stands within the service box. All he or she has to do is to toss the ball to the service box across the net. Alternatively, the toss can be made diagonally or cross court to the opposite service box. Another player can be made to try to catch the tossed ball. These drills also develop directional control.

Tennis Drills for Children #6:

The follow the leader drill is a footwork drill where the students try to walk on their toes as quickly as possible while staying on the lines of the court. They form a line and walk along the perimeter formed by the baseline, service line and side lines. More advanced students can try walking backwards. This develops balance and helps them learn the cross-over steps that are sometimes used in the sport.

Tennis Drills for Children #7:

The Bunny hop drill is another footwork drill. This promotes learning of the split step and forward movement to the net. The children start at the net and hop all the way to the baseline. They turn around and run to the service line where the split step and jump onto the line. Then they continue on to the net where they repeat the same kind of footwork. Once up at the net, they turn around and hop all the way back to the baseline to repeat the entire process.

Tennis Drills for Children #8:

The Rolling and Racing Drill is a speed drill where the children are made to roll a ball from the baseline to the net. They have to chase after the ball, bend down low using their knees, pick up the ball, turn around and do the same things again back to the baseline.

Tennis Drills for Children #9:

Relays are also great tennis drills for children that can take the place of shuttle runs. Two teams form and line up behind the baseline. The first kid has to run to the net and back to the baseline to tag the next kid on his or her team, who then has to run and do the same thing. The first team to finish wins the game.

Tennis Drills for Children #10:

The Bomber drill is a lobbing drill where the students try to hit lobs that land on specified targets on the opposite side of the net. These targets may be a basket, chair, hula hoop or even a person.

Tennis Drills for Children #11:

The tag team drill requires the formation of two teams. Each time will line up behind opposite baselines. The first kid from one team drop-hits the ball to the opponents’ court and runs immediately to the back of the line. The first player on the other team will try to return the ball and run to the back of his or her own line. The next players up on the court will try to continue the rally. Points are scored when the other team fails to return the ball. The first team to score 7, 11, 15 or 21 wins.

Tennis Drills for Children #12:

Champion of the court is a tennis drill that designates one player as the champion and the other students as challengers. The champion serves the ball to the first challenger and they play a point. If the challenger wins the point, he or she must run over to the other court to assume the position of new champion. If not, he or she must go to the back of the line of challengers. The next challenger will get his or her chance.

Quick Start Tennis – More Great Tennis Drills

In 2008, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) introduced the Quick Start Tennis Play Format for children aged 10 and below. This has since been renamed 10 And Under Tennis. It is a variation of the game of tennis that makes use of larger, softer and slower balls and a smaller court.

For those below 8 years of age, the court they use is only 36 feet long. This means that a regular sized tennis court can be divided into four mini courts for these kids. For children 8-10 years old, the court they play on is 60 feet long. The children also use shorter junior rackets.

This format of the game makes tennis easier and more enjoyable without compromising the development of the skills of each player.

In 2012, the USTA will adapt the rules of 10 And Under Tennis for all 10 and under age group tournaments. The various tennis drills for children can also be used for this format of the sport.

Important Reminders in using Tennis Drills for Children

There are several things to remember about teaching children. First, you have to ensure safety. When doing drills, do not leave balls lying around the court. Kids are always running all over the place and may trip over these balls. Second, be flexible and adaptable with the drills that you teach.

Change it up from one session to the next to keep things interesting. Third, always explain and demonstrate clearly how each drill will be performed.

Make sure each kid has understood all instructions before you proceed with the drill. Fourth, try to be as patient and as level-headed as possible with them.

Children are sometimes too boisterous and inattentive. But you should never resort to name-calling or belittling them with ridicule. Instead, always try to be positive and encouraging. Allow each child to learn and develop at his or her own pace.

And finally, listen to the children if they have any suggestions. Kids love to invent their own games. You can never run out of fun new activities for teaching them how to play tennis if you pay attention to your students.

Learn to Hit a Forehand Like Roger Federer

If you want to jumpstart your forehand and play like the PROS, check out my 70+ page Tennis Ebook that will immediately show you how you can take your forehand to the next level.

The Modern Forehand Domination Ebook is guaranteed to improve your tennis technique, and increase power, topspin and accuracy of your tennis forehand!

Modern Tennis Forehand Ebook
Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic

The post Tennis Drills For Children and Kids appeared first on Tennis Instruction.

Many successful professional tennis players started to familiarize tennis at a very young age. Andre Agassi like for example started his tennis lessons at a very young age (2-3 years old).

However, there are also disadvantages to start learning tennis at a very young age. One is the short attention span of young children. Thus in teaching tennis to kids, it is important to make the lessons enjoyable, fun and interesting. This article describes some of these fun tennis drills for kids.

Fun Tennis Drills #1: Around the World

This fun tennis drill is good for more experienced beginner children. To accomplish the drill, two groups with equal number of children must be formed. We call these groups as Group A and group B. Each group forms a line behind each baseline of the court. The instructor feeds the ball to the first student in the line (say group A). The student then hits the ball and prints towards the other side of the court and stands behind the last student of group B.

The instructor then feeds another ball to the first student is group B and the student sprints towards the other side of the court and stands behind the last student of group A. If a student misses a hit, he or she is considered out. The drill continues with the same pattern and the last standing student is the winner.

Fun Tennis Drills #2: Fill the Court

This fun tennis drill needs two groups of students (A and B). Same as the above fun tennis drill, each group align themselves behind the baseline in each side of the court. The instructor stands at the net post and feeds the ball to the first student of group A, the student then starts the play by hitting the ball towards the first student of group B, then the first student in group B returns. If the ball is good, the succeeding student plays the next ball but if one student misses he or she has to stand behind the last student of his/her group and wait for his/her next turn. The group that finishes first (all members are able to hit good ball) is the winner.

Fun Tennis Drills #3: Around the World Jabba the Hut

Just like the first two fun tennis drills, this drill also needs two groups (A and B) of students. However, this time each group must have three members each. One of the students from each group kneels down at the T part (the point where the end of the center service line intersects with the service line) of the each court. Other members of the team stand behind the baseline. The two groups start to rally and if during the course of the play one of the kneeling student hits a good ball; his or her team wins three points. The points are given even if the team (of the kneeling student who hit a good ball) misses the point in the end. The team that earns 21 points each is declared as the winner.

Fun Tennis Drills #4: Hit and Run

This is one of the most interesting fun tennis drills especially for kids. This drill helps the kids or beginners to get to the ball, hit the ball and recover to the right spot of the court and be ready for the next shot. It is very common for beginners to be out of position when their opponent’s ball hit his/her courts.

This drill helps them to correct the problem. This drill will be done on one side of the court. The instructor stands on one end of the half court while the student stands in the middle of the half court. The instructor feeds the ball towards the student in any directions (in front, left and right side or behind); the student then returns the ball and tries to recover to his or her original position as quickly as possible. The drill continues where the instructor hits the ball in different directions.

Fun Tennis Drills #5: Simon Says

This drill is of one of the fun tennis drills that teach the learners the different tennis strokes and terminologies. The students need to have their own rackets and then stand on the baseline. The students must be spaced out so that they won’t hit each other when they execute the full racket swing. The instructor on one hand stands near the net.

The instructor says, ‘Simon says’ and mention name the stroke (forehand, backhand or overhead) he/she wants the student to execute and make sure that all the students correctly execute the stroke. To make this drill an enjoyable one, the instructor can say, ‘Simon Says freeze’ and check the students’ executions and eliminate those who are wrong in their executions. The last standing student is the winner.

Fun Tennis Drills #6: Four Square

This fun tennis drill does not involve so much physical activities such as running. It is aims to develop the students hand skills and quickness. Many tennis instructors like include this fun tennis drill in addition to the other fun tennis drills in their tennis classes because it is fun and very interesting.

This tennis drill needs four students who position themselves on each of the service box (center). This drill is accomplished by hitting the ball before it bounces the ground.

To start this fun tennis drill, any student can feed the ball to the other student and the receiving student must hit the ball to any of the student before it bounces the ball. There is no particular order as to whom to hit the ball, thus each student can hit the ball to any of the students. To make the drill more interesting, each player should hit the ball as far as possible from the student (e.g. corner of the service box) for a difficult return. Each student can also surprise one another by disguising their shots. The student with the least error is declared as the winner.

Fun Tennis Drills #7: Ring around the Rosie

This is one of the fun tennis drills that help to develops the students tennis strokes and hand quickness. At least three students have to stand around the instructor. Just like the other fun tennis drills, the more students there are the merrier the drill will be. To start the drill, the instructor feeds the ball to any of the student and the receiver tries to hit the ball towards the instructor after it bounces from the ground.

The instructor then hits the ball again to another student. If a student misses a hit, he or she is out of the drill and has to sit down. Any ball that does not bounces in front of the instructor is considered a miss hit. Like for example if the ball lands behind the instructor or lands to other student’s front, the ball is considered as a miss hit. The last standing student is declared as the winner.

Fun Tennis Drills #8: Go to Bed

This is one of the tennis fun drills that help the student develop their hand-eye coordination, accuracy and agility. This drill does not need particular number of students or a particular number of groups. To accomplish this series of fun tennis drills, the instructor positioned himself or herself on one side of the court while the student stands on the other side.

To make this drill easier for very young students, they can stand on the T section (please refer above for description) of the court. The instructor feeds the ball and the student has to return it to the other side of the net (or towards the instructor) and the ball must land on the singles court. Every time the student misses a return, he or she yawns and if the yawn reaches to four he ‘falls asleep’.

If the student misses again, he or she has to go bed (which is the opposite side of the court). This means that the student has to run towards the other side of the court after five misses. He or she can only wake up and go back to the other side of the court if he or she is able to catch another student’s ball after its first bounce from the ground.

Learn to Hit a Forehand Like Roger Federer

If you want to jumpstart your forehand and play like the PROS, check out my 70+ page Tennis Ebook that will immediately show you how you can take your forehand to the next level.

The Modern Forehand Domination Ebook is guaranteed to improve your tennis technique, and increase power, topspin and accuracy of your tennis forehand!

Modern Tennis Forehand Ebook
Learn How to Hit a Forehand Like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic

The post Fun Tennis Drills for Kids and Junior Tennis Players appeared first on Tennis Instruction.