My approach to teaching children tennis is in terms of long-term athletic development.  In other words, I am interested in what players can do closer towards the peak of their competitive careers a seniors in high school and college.  The progression of things done along the way should always focus on helping players reach long-term goals.  When a coach thinks of training a player long-term it provides clarity in overall program design and identifying individual short-term goals along the way.  Plain and simple it gives meaning and direction to all the lessons and training.

For young children under the age of 13 or 14 the most important things is technique because the fundamentals a player develops early on will be the base for all of their competition, strategy, and fitness training later on.  Limitations in the ABC fundamental tennis movement patterns will eventually set a player back at some stage of their long-term development.  It is also important to understand that children are not little adults and should not be trained as though they are.  Adults and even teenagers who play competitive tennis have already developed their ABC fundamentals while young children are still developing them.  It is the quality of a young child’s fundamental movement patterns that are more important than anything else in terms of successful long-term development.  As much as young players look up to older players and want to train like them doing so is not always appropriate.  Modeling strokes of someone with sound technique is excellent but hooking up resistance bands and medicine balls like older players may do in their training is not necessarily appropriate for a 10 year old.

One of the things I spend a lot of time with young children doing is a variety of specific overhand throwing drills.  The underlying movement pattern in serving a tennis ball is overhand throwing.  How can young children be expected to serve effectively with a heavy and long racket in their hand without first having developed the motor control of a fundamentally sound overhand throw?  The answer is they cannot and by expecting children to learn how to serve with a heavy racket and full service motion they are going to develop compensations in technique and ultimately never develop a proper service motion.  Think about it like this, if an adult goes in the gym and wants to squat 200 pounds certainly with enough practice they would be able to get the weight up but most likely by working with such a heavy load from the beginning without first establishing proper technique they would certainly develop compensations which ultimately would lead to injury.  The same is true for developing a service motion which is why it is a stroke that many people develop incorrect compensatory movement patterns for which can lead to injury in the long term as well.

It is my underlying philosophies above that lead me to spend so much time doing specific overhand throwing drills with young children.  These throwing drills allow children to work with a tennis ball, which is much lighter and more maneuverable than a tennis racket, and focus all their attention on the aspects of their movement quality.  It allows children to establish a sound overhand throwing movement patten, that once established, is easily transferrable to serving with a tennis racket.  In planning and delivering training this way you can imagine how a student who learns to serve in a progressive manner will also be the one who has the bigger and more consistent serve in their high school playoff match or college tournament much further down the road.

Decades ago the game of tennis went through a revolution with racket technology.  Rackets became incredibly powerful and with that change in power players adapted by inventing new techniques of hitting the ball with a combination of spin and power.  More recently string technology has evolved to aide players in generating more extreme power and spin.  According to Vic Braden we are at the point right now at a point in competitive tennis where on average the ball travels at 60 mph and takes 2.2 seconds to go from baseline to baseline as compared to 4 seconds in 1975.  The game truly has changed which is why developing agility, raw athletic ability, and shot selection at competitive levels is just as important as the technical ball striking skills.  The game of tennis was forever changed with advancements in racket technology.

Now we have a new and very controversial technological revolution going on with changing the tennis ball itself.  I remember playing college tennis many years ago where they experimented with a new larger ball that would slow the game down but all it did was hurt player’s arms because it was so massive.  Now we have an assortment of foam, red, orange, and green low compression balls made for 10 and under tennis or quick-start tennis.  I do not agree with everything surrounding the use of low compression balls in 10 and under tennis balls but I believe people are missing out on utilizing these balls for what they are, a fantastic teaching tool for everyone from college players down to young children.

I use the green 78 low compression balls a ton with my advanced players.  I utilize green balls because they slow everything down and return symmetry to the game that was disrupted with the advancements in racket technology.  The green balls on a full size tennis court allow players to have longer rallies, learn how to construct longer points, and develop symmetry between strokes and movement.  Once enhanced by training with the green ball these skills can be easily transferred to use with faster regulation tennis balls.  When I have a new student come to train with us and I pull out the green balls they look at me with disgust like why is coach making me use some “little kids ball” but within 30 minutes they are sold on them because they feel how their ball striking improves and how much more tactical point construction becomes.

I recently read an article in a professional tennis magazine about why American tennis players are not dominating the ranks like they used too.  One of the reasons presented was American youth do not play as much on clay courts like they do in Europe and other parts of the world.  The rational being that clay courts slow the rallies down and allow players to learn how to construct longer points, as opposed to just powering opponents off the court.  It is true that hard courts are much more accessible to train on in America than clay and hard courts do play faster.  The author suggested we start to build more clay courts to train on.  I saw an obvious and cost effective solution which would be to utilize the green balls in our training more often and with players older than age 10.  We have these great tools in the green balls to better develop players all we need to do is utilize them.  It is like a caveman having the wheel right in front of him and simply not knowing how to use it.  Lets start employing these green balls in our training with ALL players and instead of looking at them as “little kid balls” lets look at them for what they really are which is a tool designed to slow the game down so juniors can learn to rally, move and construct points better.  In the long-term we will have better developed competitive players.

All coaches, parents, and even the junior players themselves want to do well in tournament competition.  Success at tournaments in a young player’s development are a great motivator and confidence booster as well.  However as success increases many players and parents want to have their child “play up” in age groups for more competition.  This idea certainly makes sense but playing up all the time can actually stunt a player’s long-term development.  The lack of continued competitive growth occurs because playing up an age group takes all of the pressure off the younger player.  A ten-year-old is not expected to beat a 12-year-old so a loss can be blown off quite easily.  At the same time if a 10-year-old defeats a 12-year-old they did so because they were able to play with nothing to lose or in other words without pressure.  Imagine a 10-year old in a tournament with his 10-year-old peers.  These players are all now the same age and if our player has developed his game properly he would be expected to do well against his peers in the tournament because he has done the right things.  This 10-year-old now must compete with pressure and without excuses.  It is competing against his peers and winning that breeds true confidence and along with that confidence he also learns how to compete in a true pressure situation, which is a wonderful skill to cultivate for long-term development.

Coach Chuck Kriese, a great mentor of mine taught me this concept.  The ideal formula for scheduling a junior player’s year would be to have 1/3 of competitions playing up an age group or against better players, 1/3 of competitions with their peers or players of about the same skill set, and 1/3 of competitions with weaker players.  This is the rule of 1/3 and it is of utmost importance when looking at developing a competitive junior player.

Playing up an age group allows younger players to see what lies ahead and measure their skills against better competition.  This competitive scenario also allows them to compete with less pressure because they are not expected to win.  If they can get a win or two under their belt as well it will certainly boost their confidence.

Playing against peers is really about learning how to play with pressure.  The playing field is level and it is about who did the right things in practice and can perform well under pressure.  It truly is a skill to learn how to compete in a pressure situation and peer competition is the major factor in a young player’s career to begin honing that skill.

Playing against lesser opponents is also incredibly important as well for two reasons.  First, playing against lesser opponents allows players to practice converting points into game, games into sets, and sets into matches.  This repetition develops confidence in their match play abilities.  Playing lesser opponents also allows players to practice different styles of play.  For example if a player is a counter-puncher by nature they can practice coming to the net or hitting more aggressively from the baseline.  Second, playing lesser opponents also teaches a player to compete with the pressure of expectation because they now are the ones expected to win that match.

In conclusion, taking the time to carefully plan a player’s competitive schedule to equally balance it in thirds is critical for developing both confidence and the skill of playing with pressure in the long-term.  That way when “Little Timmy” is not so little anymore and is playing in a big tournament when he is 18 or in college he will be well prepared to deal with the pressure and compete at his peak when the stakes are high.