Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Tennis players, families, kids, and friends

Let us take this opportunity to thank you for attending the 2016 Fall QuickStart Tennis program held in Gloucester Twp. Trish and I hope to see you in 2017 at our programs held in early Spring at Fasola Park in Deptford Twp. and late Spring in Gloucester Twp. Community Park.



Thursday, November 10, 2016

Hello Tennis Players

Parents helped kids learn to volley
Last Saturday, we played a game called "Turkey Run".
The kids had to run to a turkey hill when we yelled out "Hunter".
Then the kids had to name the part of the tennis court where their turkey hill was located. This a fun game to learn the parts of the tennis court.

The kids also practiced their forehands and backhands as Coach Ron and myself fed them red balls into their hit-zone.

While playing a game called Long Step, Short Step, the kids needed to run with long steps, slow down to a grab a ball, and then run to the net. Using an underhand throw, the goal was to put the ball in the basket on the other side of the net.
This game helped the kids with movement on the court, hand-eye coordination, and it focused on the concept of Long Steps to cover much of the court and then Short Steps to make final adjustments to the ball location, depth, spin, and bounce.

We had the kids do a drill by tapping the ball around three cones with control.
At the end of this obstacle course, they had to hit a forehand through the goal.

The kids love that their parents come out onto the court with them.
Parents tossed the ball to their child as they practiced hitting volleys.

This Saturday, November 12, it will be on the cold side. Please dress you child appropriately.
Gloves will inhibit the kids using their racquet as they tend to allow the grip to slip in the hand. However, we understand that hands get cold. Suggest to the kids that keeping their hands in their pockets when not hitting will allow them much better control when they pull warm hands out to grab the grip of the racquet.

     
Please go to

to see a web site for the kids that we are putting together.

        
         See you on the court! 

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Hello Tennis Players,

This past Saturday was lots of fun.
  • Our warm up was self cone-catcher.
    • This activity helped with tossing the ball up straight for pre-serving skills and then keeping your eye on the ball and catching it after a bounce for tracking skills
  • Our activity, Drop and Dash, taught the players to keep their eyes on the ball and use their full peripheral vision
    •  students needed to dash off their feet to catch the ball developing the quick starts off the line needed in tennis
  • Our Hitting-Tee was used to practice our backhands
    • Using the Tee's helps the players with their form and development of a proper swing path for the tennis racquet
  • Roll Ball Rally helps the players to move their feet to the ball and recover back to the ready potion using the shuffle step
    • This activity also helps with the form of swinging the racquet and making the correct decision about Forehand or Backhand groundstroke
  • Our Parent and player game was Bone Collector
    • Each person had to hit the ball over the net from an easy feed and get it to the other side while staying within our 36' court boundaries

Coach Ron and Coach Trish hope that you had a fun time.

Please click on this website:

www.gottaplaytenniskids.com

See you on the courts












Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Hello Tennis Players,

Coach Ron and myself hope that you had fun this past Saturday 10/08 and 10/15.
During our classes, we have done drills for the shuffle step, hand-eye coordination and movement on the court.

Each activity is fun and directed towards learning certain skills for tennis.
Here are some of things we have done:
  • Forehand
  • Toss and trapping the ball over the net with parents
  • Bumping the ball over the net in a rally
  • Movement on the court
  • Footwork with ladders and dots
  • Moving your feet to the ball on the court
  • Sizing of racquets
  • Use the T's for forehand practice  (T - hitting the ball off the string into the other side of court; Coach Ron's design) 
  • Learned tennis terminology ; shuffle, bump,  trapping,  forehand,  tracking, balance,  racquet parts,  underhand, bounce, rally, sportsmanship, Team

Coach Ron and Coach Trish give each student attention during our drills and when on the court with their parents.
We also tried to help the parents so you can be successful in hitting with your child both during the session and when taking your kids to the court to play.

Remember: What you do as a parent on the court will be duplicated by your child!
If you ever have any questions or need help, please let us know.

Please be patient with us. We have loads of different personalities out on the court as well different learning skills to teach.
We continue to strive each week toward our main goals: Be safe, Have fun, Learn something.

See you on the Court!

Coach Ron and Coach Trish