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Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Tennis

5 replies

CharlesRyder · 29/03/2015 18:15

DS (4.6) has just started tennis and loves it (at the moment) with a passion he has never really shown for anything else. I know nothing about tennis (although have been involved with another technical, individual sport with juniors).

He is playing for 1.5hrs a week (1hr with club, half hour with school, different coaches). Does anybody know how quickly this might ramp up- does tennis take over your life at an early stage?

Anything I should know about being a tennis mum??

OP posts:
sunnydayinmay · 01/04/2015 21:38

Does your club have a strong junior section? Clubs do vary a lot, but it is generally games and ball and space skills until they are around 7 years. Then they can enter mini red matchplays etc.

Some clubs have performance squads, but it depends a lot on where you live.

DeeWe · 08/04/2015 19:42

I played as a dc and my ds is beginning to get into it, although he's older (7yo).
I've done tournaments (me not ds) and met every type of person from the child who came out of school so they could play/be coached 8 hours a day (and no they didn't make it) and the person who thought they were brilliant because "you know I only decided to start playing last week, but I'm really good" it showed, and no they weren't, but they did have nice tennis raquet earings

It really is as much as you want to put in. I knew people that were happy to have an hour's coaching and an aranged game every week, and people who played 52/7. The latter were on average better, but I'm not sure they necessarily enjoyed the game as much. Grin

Tennis mums can be lovely, but there are some awful ones out there too. I knew ones who were banned from the grounds when tournaments were on. Then there was the kind dad who refused to give his ds aged 16yo a lift home after he'd lost one final. They lived 40 miles away. Shock

I wouldn't ramp up the lessons at present, and probably not for at least 3 years, and then only by a small amount if the coach feels it is a good idea. You'll end up with it being a chore and a bore. If you want to help in other ways then swimming will help general fitness and dancing is good for footwork. A child can be overcoached.
Keep the emphasis on being fun. If he wants to mess around with a raquet and ball at home, then that will help his ball skills as much as putting extra time on the court at this stage. If you have a flat wall he can hit against, but if you don't, he can always bounce the ball on his raquet round the garden or park.

In all honesty if you have a good coach, if he's showing aptitude then they will approach you rather than you them. A good coach will pick up on the good ones because they want to have them representing the club/the coach which advertises them (and is very satisfying personally too).

I'd say you want to look for a club that does junior events. Not just has a competitive squad (as a rule about 90% of parents think their dc will sail into that, even when it's about 25% actually get in) and coaching. But social days for juniors (although that's probably older) or social evenings (often called club nights) or fun tournaments.

And be wary of the school one. I've not yet seen coaching (even run by acredited company) going on at a school grounds where I haven't ached to wander through the children correcting grips, and giving very little pointers that should have been given much sooner and would make huge differences to their play. It often seems to be a bit of a "well we wave our rackets and if we hit the ball it's a bonus" free for all.

iseenodust · 17/04/2015 10:52

DS started at a similar age and also loved it from day one. At age 4/5 he just went to fun courses at the club in the school holidays. Then he started to do mini-red squads once a week and the odd mini-red local comp. He has just finished mini-green, is age 10 and does 4 sessions a week (mix of squads & one2one coaching). He is good but not brilliant but the drive to go so many times a week comes from him, and it's outdoors year round !

Still only plays small, local comps (the club though has some playing county/national level). I think he has gone on a holiday course at his club every holiday for last four years (approx £40 for 3 days) and now he 'helps' with the mini-reds on Saturday mornings.

As a mum avoid the others too focussed on their child's performance. I've met some lovely mums and we tend to chat about the weather, holidays, books etc. It's recently got a bit more expensive as he now needs a decent adult racquet but squad costs are similar to football.

laughingcow13 · 18/04/2015 14:19

Do you watch either session? Just make sure you do, because many sports clubs for young children are money for old rope.

SodiumReindeer · 27/05/2015 15:36

It will only take over if you let it, you can choose what tournaments you do and what you don't. DD is green 2 at the moment, we're not going to many tournaments because they are few and far between due to green only being a year before you go to yellow ball.

Register with the LTA (it's free) and you can find tournaments to go to if you want to.

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