Fun Tennis Drills to Help Kids Improve their Skills
Learning Necessary Tennis Skills Doesn’t Mean Not Having Fun
When learning tennis, there are certain skills that need to be learned and practiced to become a good tennis player. Working on certain techniques or skillsets are called drills. Many children think of drills as being boring and so lose interest in the sport. Here are a few fun tennis drills for kids to improve their skills and yet not become bored with the repetition of certain moves.
“Simon Says” Drill
Any number of children can be used when practicing this fun tennis drill.
The instructor is in front of the children, with the kids lined up side by side. The instructor will say “Simon says” (the instructor will chose a stroke) and the kids will complete the motion of the stroke. The kids must complete the CORRECT stroke or they are out.
This will allow the instructor to monitor their techniques and positions.
Every so often, the instruction should say “Simon says FREEZE!” while the kids are in the middle of a stroke. The children must freeze when instructed and this will give the instructor a good opportunity to check positions, body stance, hand grips, etc.
This drill works on bettering your skills for different strokes.
“One Minute” Drill
This drill works best for only one student at a time. You will also need a timer or someone on the sidelines with a second timer on their watch.
Instructor on one side of the court, child in the middle of the court at the service line.
The timer is started and the instructor serves the ball to one side of the other court for the child to return. As soon as the ball is returned, the child is to return to his starting position in the middle of the court, at the service line. Each time the child returns a serve and goes back to the starting position, a point is counted. The fun of the drill is to see how many “points” they can get during a one minute period.
If there are a few children practicing the drill, the one with the highest number of points wins.
This is an excellent drill to get them used to returning back to a basic position on the court and getting ready for the next coming shot.
“Keep Away” Drill
This drill works best with 3 players, one at each end line and one in the middle.
The two players on each end line will volley low serves back and forth to each other trying to keep the ball away from the player in the middle by placing the ball on opposite ends of the court or tight shots over the net. When the player in the middle intercepts a ball, then that player swaps places with the player they intercepted the ball from and a new player is now in the “keep away” position.
This drill is good for practicing stretch shots and getting the feet moving quickly.
Learning Tennis Basics While Having Fun
By utilizing these three fun tennis drills for kids, your child will learn some tennis basics and maintain an enthusiasm for a sport where learning the basics isn’t always very exciting.
