Serve Time

Continuing our incarceration theme with Serve Time, a great dual purpose game. No more boring serve practice. No more lost opportunities to improve the second most important stroke of the game (return of serve).

Players pair up and are playing together as a team. One player serves; the other is across the net retrieving the serve by hand. Retrieving player must catch ball after one bounce. For every successfully completed serve and catch, the pair earns one point. First pair to earn seven points, wins. Players switch roles and repeat. Players switch partners and repeat twice more so that each player has a chance at performing both roles.

You might argue the receiving player isn't exactly hitting a return. But the coordination required to track and catch the served ball bare-handed is critical to this process, and some might add even more difficult than having a racquet in hand.

Adapted from USTA's Learn To Rally And Play booklet 

Lesson Management: Lockstep or Free-For-All?

There is probably a different management style for every tennis club. At the first club I worked at (at first in an admin position; later doing a little of everything), it was a very small club. We had one full time teaching professional and one part time high school student who helped out at our summer camps. So the pro had full say-so on everything from creating lesson plans to ordering toilet paper. 

My current club is much bigger with several teaching pros and several layers of administration. My boss sets the expectations, but we all have a great deal of latitude on court. There are some broad common sense guidelines such as safety, customer service, dress code, punctuality, the usual worker bee stuff. We are expected to become PTR or USPTA certified. We are encouraged to maintain our skills by attending workshops and so forth. Our certifications lead us to general suggestions for lesson plans, skill progressions, the latest trends in tennis instruction, etc. But how we interact with our students and the details of each lesson plan is left to us. 

I understand some club management goes a little further, expecting all staff to teach in exactly the same way, using the same terminology, lesson plans, swing style/technique, etc. across the board. For example all 8-year-olds will play orange ball or higher. They will use a semi-closed stance with a semi-western grip and a baby C loop on the racquet prep. 

I have never worked in such a regimented environment. I can see the advantages, one big one being your lesson plans are already mapped out for you! I suppose this would be fine assuming the club's teaching style is in sync with those of the pros. My concern with this approach is: what do you do with the students who don't fit the mold? What if the club's curriculum is out of date, such as insisting on a one-handed backhand, or using yellow balls regardless of the age of the student? I suppose the easy answer is to not accept the job in the first place, but in this economy, turning down work is easier said than done.

What is your experience with various tennis club management styles? What works and what doesn't? 

It's A Scream

Here's another jewel from www.jobeasier.com. It's a simple concept to get your young beginners rarin' to go. It also helps them focus on and track the ball.

Coach tosses a tennis ball into the air. When ball is in air, students may scream. But only when it is in the air. Silence please, if ball is in hand, cart, or pocket. JobEasier suggests including some fake-outs during this process to increase the fun factor.

I have one Red Ball class that is all girls. They are going to love this.

UPDATE: yep, they loved it!

Squeeze Rally

Squeeze Rally can be a challenge for any level player. Recommended for advanced beginner and up. You may find some cones, spots, or stripes handy to help mark the court safely and quickly.

If your players can
get a 10 ball rally
squeezed into the
alley, be impressed!

Players begin at baseline of full singles court. Each time they reach a rally of 10 balls, they squeeze the court narrower by one racquet length. Object is to see which team can successfully rally 10 balls with the narrowest court.

Adapted from Growing Kids, Growing the Game by Mike Barrell

Great Escape

Escapes are popular on screen and on court

Great Escape is a variation of the Jail Break or Dog Pound type of game. The object is to stay on one side of the net by not making any hitting mistakes.

Players are on one end of court. Coach is across net tossing balls. One at a time, players attempt to hit the balls over the net and in play. If they succeed, they go to the end of their line. If they miss, they run over to Coach's side of court. Any player catching a ball after one bounce may return to the hitting line, and whichever player's ball was caught must go to Coach's side.

Here's where it differs from those other two games: If any player on Coach's side of court catches any ball out of the air, ALL players on Coach's side are free and may return to the hitting line. Last player to hit safely (without being caught) wins.

Adapted from USTA's Learn To Rally And Play booklet

Tennis Jacks

Jacks game pieces

Thank you again to all the great children's games out there that can be easily adapted to tennis. This one may be a stretch - how many kids today have any idea what 'jacks' is, much less how to play it? So parents and grandparents reading this: buff up your jacks skills! If you have no idea how to play jacks, here's a video of the real thing.

For the tennis version, it is basically a variation on the self-rally. Players toss the ball into the air, let it bounce, tap it up once with their racquet, then catch it in their non-racquet hand. This is a 'onesie'. Once this is accomplished, they repeat, tapping it up twice in a row for a 'twosie'. Continue with successively longer rallies. Player who can achieve the most 'ups' wins.

Variation
Play with a partner! You do the tap-ups, partner does the catching.

Adapted from USTA's Learn To Rally And Play booklet

Clear the Court

Here's a simple activity to warm up the shoulder. Perfect intro to a serving lesson. Divide players into two teams, one on each baseline. Place two piles of equal numbers of balls on the court, one pile at each T (middle of service lines). Teams compete within a set time limit to 'clear the court' of balls on their side. Team with fewest balls on their side of court at end of time limit wins.

Note: players must start at baseline, run up and get a ball from the service line, throw it over, then return to baseline before throwing another ball over. For safety reasons, players may not advance past service line to retrieve balls. Also for safety reasons, this game is best not played on 36-foot courts unless you are playing with foam balls.

Adapted from USTA's Learn To Rally And Play booklet