14 Tennis Pun Dog Names

Tennis lovers don't just rescue cats - they rescue dogs, too, so here ya go!
(scroll to end for photo credits)

Photo credits all from Flickr with Creative Commons licenses.

Bobby Diggs:
Untitled by Tomas Hellberg license here

Maria Shar Pei Pova:
Fawn Dilute Chinese Shar Pei Puppy Dog, Aspen, Playing With Tennis Ball by Beverly license here

Novak Djokofetch:
Playtime by Ashtyn Warner license here

Lleyton Chewitt:
Diesel and His Tennis Ball by Hannah Kemp license here

Fangcesca Schiavone:
Black and his Ball by Jason Paluck license here

Mary Jo Furnandez:
Sheltie Monster by Alex Valentine license here

Lindsay Davenpup:
Too Many Toys by Alden Marchman license here

Evonne Droolagong:
Biba the Golden Retriever 3 by abuakel license here

Caroline Woofniacki:
dunlop puppy by pmin00 license here

Andre Wagassi/Steffi Grrrraf:
Two German Shepherds with tennis balls by Damian Synnott license here

Fabio Dognini:
Drop It! by Paul Long license here

Wagneska Radwanska:
hey lucy by Sherman Mui license here

Boris Barker:
Tennis Ball Shugi by TCL8TO7 license here

Eugenie Poochard:
Fetchin by Matthew C. Wright license here

31 Tennis Pun Cat Names

Dogs get more press for their love of tennis (balls), but that doesn't mean cats can't join in the tennis fun. Get inspired when naming your next rescue.

Ladies first:

1. Meowtina Navclawtilova
2. Purrena Williams
3. Furia Sharapova
4. Martina Hinghiss
5. Lindsay Davenpurr
6. Pam Shrivepurr

7. Monica Selhiss
8. Samantha Stospurr
9. Jennifur Catriati

10. Simeowna Halep

11. Karolina Pusskova

12. Sabine Lislicki

13. Cattison Keys

14. Victoria Catarenka

15. Concheetah Martinez

16. Pounce Casals

17. Meowreen Connolly Brinker

18. Mary Furillo

and the gents:

19. Roger Federfur
20. Pawfael Nadal
21. Stan Clawrinka
22. Andy Furry
23. Tomas Purrdych

24. Jo-Wilfried Longclaw
25. John Hissner

26. Meowat Safin
27. Cats Wilander
28. Rene LaClaws





29. Pawncho Gonzales
30. Marcos Bagcattis
31. Pawfur Ashe

Team Triples

Team Triples is a twist on the Triples game, a player favorite. I saw it mentioned in the August 2014 issue of Tennis Industry Magazine. I love their idea of making it a team format for a tournament. I especially love the idea of playing it with orange balls!

To recap how Triples works: there are three players on each end of court forming a triangle - one at the T, and two at the baseline where the singles sideline intersects with the baseline. Players self-feed with a bounce feed. Both sides rotate one position after every point. Full court (including alleys) is played. First team to X wins.

Using a slower ball on a full 78-foot court introduces a fitness element. Having the players self-feed introduces a strategy and directional control element.

The article did not give details about who feeds or how, other than suggesting players feed rather than coaches. When we play regular Triples, I usually feed straight ahead to the player across the net from me at the deuce side baseline. We play first to X, best two out of three, and the players rotate positions after every point, so someone new is always getting the feed. I suggest a similar strategy here so that a different person is serving every point. So consider whomever has rotated into the deuce side baseline position the feeder. Avoid having the player at the T as feeder.

As for scorekeeping, because you are rotating players after every point, I would go with a 'first to X' or rather than a traditional 15-30-40 scoring method. If using a 'first to X' scoring strategy, alternate teams feeding with each new game. If you want to play timed rounds, you don't need to have an end point to the game. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the timed round, wins. But with this scoring strategy, you may want to alternate which team is feeding with every point, so that one team is not feeding the entire timed round.

No need to organize a big tournament to enjoy this activity. Consider using this as a warm-up if you have six or more players in your group. If more than six, that's fine - just have the extras rotating in since there is a rotation after every point and things move pretty quickly.

10 Dead Giveaways This Is A 10 and Under Tennis Teaching Cart

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March Drill Contest

March is here, which puts me in a festive mood as I hate cold weather, and March means cold weather is on its way out! Let's celebrate with a contest. Send me your favorite junior tennis drill. I'll post them here. At the end of the month, I'll hold a drawing from the names of everyone who submitted a drill. Yes, you can submit more than one, and I'll enter your name once for every drill submitted. Winner receives a Cayce Tennis and Fitness Center logo hat or tennis towel, depending on winner preference.

On your March, get set, go!

Tennis Pen Pal Program

Did you ever have a pen pal when you were a kid? One of my elementary school teachers organized a pen pal program for our class. We corresponded with some French students. This was very big doings for a bunch of fourth graders from Dallas, Texas. I remember the experience fondly, even after all these years. Oooh, la la!

Recently I was talking to someone about how Twitter is similar to the old pen pal concept as far as meeting interesting people from all over. That got me thinking about reviving the pen pal idea for my current tennis students. Some of you have already expressed interest in participating. That's awesome, but how to proceed??

Safety first! I will be approaching my students' parents and get permission from those who are interested in participating. We also need to come up with a way of having them communicate with each other that is acceptable to all. Facebook is an obvious choice since so many clubs and parents are already using it. Or, we could go old school and just have them correspond directly via snail mail.

I thought I would match individuals or groups by age and level of player. For example, Red Ball class to Red Ball class, or Orange Ball female player to Orange Ball female player. That way, at least they would have their basic tennis experiences in common to start off with.

As far as what will be communicated, depends on how we communicate. Using technology such as Facebook, I was thinking of group pictures, pictures of fun stuff going on in clinic, reports on tournament/JTT play, school team news, etc. If we go with individual communication via snail mail, that's up to the students and their parents.

This will probably evolve as we go along. Any thoughts or advice welcome - tweet to me @10U10S or leave a comment here. Thanks for participating! Should be fun!

Toe Fencing

Toe Fencing is also from the Quebec PE site. It's a great idea for warm-ups for any size group from 2 players on up. It reminds me of the Gotcha game but doesn't need any bean bags or extra equipment, so hurray!

Pair up players. Pairs hold both of each others' hands about shoulder height. Object is to tag opponent's toes with your toes while of course not letting them tag you!

The site gives a couple of good options for game management: you could either go for highest number of tags in a giving amount of time, or go until someone achieves X number of tags before switching partners.

Tusker Tag

Another fun warm-up variation on tag from the Quebec PE site: Tusker Tag. Best for large groups.

Players pair up. All pairs must hold hands or wrists. One pair is designated Tusker. If you have an uneven number of players, include single player as one of the Tuskers also. Give Tusker team a ball. Commence playing 'tag'. Tusker team tries to tag other pairs with ball. Note they are touching other players with the ball still in hand, not throwing ball at them. When tagged, pair is frozen in place and must raise the hands they are holding up into a bridge shape. They may be unfrozen if any other unfrozen pair runs underneath their 'bridge'.

If any hands/wrists become disconnected, that pair is automatically frozen also.

Object is to tag/freeze all players.

Make this game harder by gradually shrinking the playing space. For example, start by using the entire end of court. Then shrink to back court only. Then to service box. Then alley. Any players stepping outside of boundaries are frozen.

Gotcha!

Gotcha! is an easy and fun tennis warm-up idea from one of my co-workers, Coach Tricia. Tricia is a retired PE teacher and has many great ideas for small and large group activities. 

You will need some bean bags or koosh balls or other soft items that do not bounce or roll, enough for one each. Restrict the game area to a portion of the court based on the size of your group. You want it small enough to make it fun, but large enough to be safe. In this example we were using the service box. 

Play is during a timed interval. When Coach says Go, players try to tag each other on the foot with their bean bags. When they are successful, they call out 'Gotcha!' At the end of the timed interval, player with most Gotchas wins.

Mr. Wolf

Perfect book to accompany
this game

Thanks to Martyn Collins for sending this website my way. I will be R&D'ing* heavily the next few posts to convert some of the fun game ideas into tennis activities.

The original is entitled, "What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf?" but I can already see where that will be too long for my younger students. Game names are important to the success of an activity. If you have some activities that seem like they should be fun but aren't quite working, make sure they have a fun name. If they don't have a name, make one up. If it involves scary animals like sharks or wolves, all the better!

This game is best for larger groups. One player is selected as the Wolf. The Wolf stands with his/her back to the rest of the group. If you are playing this on a full size tennis court, have the Wolf at the net and all others behind the baseline.

Players in the large group take turns calling out, "What time is it, Mr. Wolf?" Each time Wolf answers, players take a step closer to Wolf. Remember, Wolf has his/her back to the group so cannot see how close they are. Wolf answers each question with a time. Time can be completely made up, like ''two thirty" or "eleven fifteen". Eventually however, Wolf will answer, "Dinner time!", turn, and chase the players. First player tagged before reaching the safe zone behind the baseline is the new Wolf.

You may have to dictate how large of a step should be taken after each of Wolf's answers - giant step, baby step, regular step, etc.

*ripping off and duplicating

Shrinking Racquet

I came up with this one at random during a clinic with my older students. As always, I told them if they were going to miss, miss long. In other words, avoid hitting into the net.

As further encouragement to avoid the net, I established a new rule: anyone hitting into the net must exchange their full size racquet for my 21" Sponge Bob racquet for the next point.

This elicited exactly the responses I was hoping for: anticipation by some; dread by some; wariness of the net by all. If you are going to try this, make sure your small racquet is the craziest, most colorful or, dare I say it - most baby-ish racquet you can find.

Hoodie Season

Like most of the country, we have had a chilly winter so far. Here in Tennis Heaven (South

Carolina), the land of year-round outdoor tennis, that just means an extra layer is required for tennis clinic!

I stumbled upon this fun idea recently. All of my red ball students happened to be wearing a jacket that had a hood on it. We were playing a target practice game where they each got to bounce feed one ball toward a target. They would hit, then run to the end of the line where they would grab a ball out of the hopper in preparation for their next turn. Forget the hopper - I started tucking one ball into their hoods instead.

These were young players, 6-7. They got a huge kick out of grabbing their ball out of the hood of the person in front of them when it was their turn. It was a simple idea that turned out to be a big hit. See what I did there????

Live Ball

Live Ball is a fun activity that goes by many different names. What I love about this particular

Go here for article and video

incarnation is that the author explains why it is okay to sometimes just skip 'the most important stroke of the game' (the serve) in the interest of speeding things up and leveling the playing field. In the article, the players are very high level. But I have had success using this for students of all levels and abilities with groups large or small. The article example is with a larger group and is playing doubles. But recently I played it with two orange ball players - TWO - (singles, natch), and they both loved it. It really gets the competitive juices flowing. It is also great for fitness. I had my older yellow ball players huffing and puffing with it a few weeks ago.

To summarize the article and video: this is basically King/Queen of the Court with a 4/2 scoring scheme. Pro feeds first ball to challenger(s). Challengers must win 4 points before king/queen wins 2. If challengers succeed, they are the new king/queen.

Some fun variations:

• Set a time limit. Player(s) who are king/queen when time ends are that day's champs.
• Set a limit on how many rotations the king/queen can stay. 
• Base your feeds on whatever you are working on that class - all backhands, no bounce, etc. 

Tennis Bingo

Everyone is making resolutions this time of year. I saw a Reading Bingo game recently to encourage more reading and decided to rip it off for Tennis Bingo.  Here's my Tennis Bingo card:

My students will have until September 1 to complete their card. The following week I will hold a drawing from all who have completed it. The winner will get something really cool from our pro shop.

Feel free to use this bingo card as-is. If you want to change it, let me know and I will send you the original doc file so you don't have to re-invent the wheel.

Mountain Climb

Mountain Climb is Daniel Breag's version of Uptown/Downtown. But I like his addition of different types of balls at the various stations.

Players are distributed among as many courts as you have available. They play singles across the net from each other. Half courts are okay/encouraged. Small ball/mini tennis okay also. Points are played out; winner of best 2 of 3 moves 'up' a court and non-winner moves 'down'. Which is up/down is determined prior to play.

Since each court has different types of balls, typically the slowest balls will be on the lowest court. Balls will increase in compression until you get to the highest court. So for example if you have three half courts playing, first court could be orange ball; then green ball; then yellow ball would be the highest court and ultimate goal.

Players at highest court when activity is finished are the winners.

Smashmouth

This is such a fun game from PTR Master Professional Daniel Breag. Simple and action-packed. Plus, I like the name.

Four players at service lines. One starts the point with a bounce feed. Point is played out. Ball must stay within service boxes. Each player serves 4 times. Team with most points after 16 serves is the winner.

Full disclosure: Daniel said a couple different times that this was a 32 point game, so either my math skills are lacking (likely) or I misunderstood his instructions (also likely). In any case, this activity is great for a warm-up, great for quick hands, great for working on volleys and using the continental grip.

If you have more than 4 players but only one court, divide them into teams and have them rotate after every 4 points/feeds.

Variations

• Make it harder by restricting strokes - all volleys, all backhands, etc.
• Start play with a 'drop' ball - feeder places ball on racquet, then gently rolls it onto other side of net to begin point.

50 Ball Rally

I attended a PTR 11-17 certification this workshop and came away with some great drill ideas. This one is from Ashlee Creen, girls tennis coach at Brookland Cayce High School. Great for large groups, but you can make it work with as few as 4 players. Players should be able to volley and rally. No special equipment needed.

Divide players into two teams. Each team selects one player as their King or Queen. King/Queen takes up position at net. All other players on their team are at the opposite baseline. One at a time, they rally straight ahead relay fashion (baseline player hits one ball, then goes to end of line so next player can hit next ball). First team to 50 rallies, wins.

Variations

• If they miss, they don't necessarily have to start over at zero - that is completely up to you. 
• Switching out King/Queen - you can do this after each round of 50, or devise some method of having them switch during play. For example, if net player mis-plays a ball, they have to switch with whomever they were playing against. 
• Limit to specific shots, such as players must hit only backhands, or net player must hit volleys. 

This game generated a high level of enthusiasm, camaraderie and competition. I will def be trying it soon with my own students.

Group Of

Group Of is a warm-up activity best for medium to large groups. It is similar to Musical Chairs without the music.

Scatter racquets around the tennis court. Give each player one tennis ball. Players move about the court. Leader calls out a number. Players must form a group of that size around one of the racquets as soon as possible, and place their ball on the racquet, forming their 'group'. So for example if the leader calls out '3', all players must form a group of three players/balls at one of the racquets. Any players unable to form a group may perform a challenge activity such as jumping jacks, chicken dance, touchdown dance, donkey kicks, something silly but not demeaning.

Players must select a different racquet location each round to avoid having them hang out at a single location the whole time.

Variations

• Players must move around the court in a designated fashion such as running, skipping, hopping, etc.
• Players have a designated amount of time to form their group.

Dragon's Gold

Dragon's Gold is a warm-up adapted from ThePhysicalEducator.com. Good for large groups of any
age. You will need a tennis ball and some cones or spots, enough for each player.

Create a large circle with the cones or spots. Divide players into equal teams of 2-3 players each. Each player stands near a spot or cone that is their home base. Teams do not have to stand next to each other - players on a single team can be scattered around the circle.

One player is designated the Dragon and is given a tennis ball (the 'gold') to place on the ground in the middle of the circle. Teams take turn trying to steal the Dragon's gold and return to their base without getting tagged. Dragon's job is to protect the gold by tagging players before they can return to their base. Tagged players must freeze. If all players on a team are tagged before they collect the gold, they return to their bases and it is another team's turn. Play continues until one team successfully captures the gold. If no one can capture the gold, once all teams have had a chance, designate a new Dragon.

Boxed In

This is a simple warm-up for both mind and body. Best with medium to large groups.

Arrange players roughly in a square with Coach in the middle. Players take note of where they are standing relative to the Coach as well as to each other. For example,a player might be facing the coach with Johnny to their right and Susie to their left. Some will be behind, some to the right, some to the left, etc.

Coach spins, then stops. All players must then rearrange themselves so that they are back in their original position relative to the coach as well as to each other.

Variation
Rather than spinning, Coach may move to a different part of the court.