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Tots Tennis

MEMBERS ONLY Tots Tennis: Floor Tennis! (video)

This exclusive clip from one of our Tots CPD classes shows Mel explaining how to start tots off working with a ball and how to link that to the actions they will use when they work with a racket.

Mel’s draws on her experience to highlight the unique challenges of working with tots! For instance, when tiny tots are unable to roll a ball to each other… Mel shows how to make the exercise simpler and how to provide explanations and instructions that tots will be able to follow.

This is an excellent resource for anyone who has completed one of our Tots CPD classes or is thinking about running tots classes. Mel Short, who presents this activity, is an expert coach educator who regularly delivers i2c’s Tots CPD short course.

MEMBERS ONLY Tots Tennis: Introducing Games to Tots (video)

Our Tots Professional Development Course is one of our most popular short courses. Mel Short, who runs our great courses, lets us sit in on a group of attendees setting up “proper” tennis games for a group of tots. With Mel, you can experience the normal challenges of introducing activities to tots and how to keep them learning, active and having fun.

MEMBERS ONLY Parent’s Guide to Tennis for Tots STARTING TOTS TENNIS (Article)

As your child develops from a toddler to a young child, so the world of opportunities develops. By the age of 3, your child is starting to branch out, developing friendships, favourite activities and games, and showing a keen desire to learn through constant activity. As their confidence grows, they start to look for new and different activities to play. Tennis could be one of them!

What is Tots Tennis?

Tots and Parents classes are groups which give 3-4 year olds and their parents a gentle and fun introduction to tennis and the skills to help them to play the game. Many programmes offer these classes as the first step on a tennis programme, and they are seen as a perfect way to introduce tennis at a very young age. A key element is that classes should involve parents on a practical level. In other words, the groups are attended by the child and their parent as a couple, and parents are practically involved throughout the lesson having the same experience as the child.

FAQS

“What if I don’t play tennis?”

It doesn’t matter-nor does your young child! The important thing is that you are there to help your child to learn and enjoy tennis, and for you to learn about how your child is progressing, and how you can help your child enjoy and learn more.

“My child doesn’t seem to do what the coach asks him to do. What should I do?”

Relax! As long as it isn’t dangerous or disruptive, it really doesn’t matter. Your child has a different agenda to you and your coach, so let them make up their own games and rules and their own way of doing things. All children have favourite games and activities and once they find them they may want to do the same thing for quite a long time, whilst at the same time showing little interest in other activities. Understand too that young children are not cut out for formal learning, so let them discover through play.

“What if my child doesn’t seem to be progressing?”

We all compare our children to others, even if unintentionally. It is vital to understand that children develop in different ways and at different rates. It is more important at this young age to see your child enjoying what they do. Any excessive demands or pressure to perform from the parents is likely to put your child off. Finally, bear in mind that Tots and Parents Tennis is not tennis coaching, so don’t expect your child to become a little tennis player for quite a while

“When will my child learn to play ‘proper’ tennis?”

Tennis is a difficult sport to play at a young age, and whilst in many ways children learn very quickly, in other ways things take a long time. When children enter the Tennis All Stars Mini Tennis red groups at the age of 4-5 years old they will be taught to develop rallying skills and will be introduced to basic competition and you should start to see a game of tennis eveolving. At Tots level, priorities are development of ABCs, developing sending and receiving skills.

“I’d like to buy my child a racket. Is this OK?”

If your child shows an interest it’s a great idea, because they will probably want to play with it at home too! Getting it right is critical though, because a racket that is too big or heavy will simply not help them. Look for a 17”/43cm racket if possible with the smallest grip (handle) possible. Ask at a Club Pro Shop, as many of the major racket manufacturers make them. You should not pay more than £30 for a first racket.

“Why are they just playing games?”

Children learn in many ways. Play is one of them. Young children just love to play, and it forms such an important part of their learning and development. Play is important because it accomplishes a range of valuable things from developing physical and neurological skills to teaching children about rules and boundaries.

“How long will we stay in the tots group?”

It is recommended that young children complete a full year (3 terms) of Tots and Parents Tennis before joining a club Mini Tennis programme. By the age of 4 or 5 years old, your child may be ready to move into the club Mini Tennis red group, already having developed basic movement skills, an ability to throw, receive and hit or catch a ball, greater awareness and confidence.

“We can only go once a week? Is that enough?”

Of course, that’s a good way to start any sport. Tennis helps to build great skills for all sports so you might like to do tennis along with another activity – and, since we all learn through regular practice and play you will learn beneficial games that you can do at home, in small spaces and with limited equipment, although some need a small tennis racket.

4 Guiding Principles for Introducing Competition to Tots

There are many fundamental principles that we can take for granted with older children, an understanding of competition is one of them! Although tots are aware of achievement and reward, they generally don’t understand competition. However, competition is an important part of sports as well as daily life and in our role as tennis coaches we play an important role in building this knowledge.

Our tots CPD course explains how to introduce tots to competition. We’ve distilled the lessons from the course into these 4 Guiding Principles for Introducing Competition to Tots.

Free coaching resource: Introducing Competition to Tots

Request the principles in a pdf download here!

Request the download: 4 Guiding Principles for Introducing Competition to Tots

The 4 Guiding Principles of Introducing Competition to Tots

1. LET EVERYONE WIN

Introduce competition where everyone can win.

  • Introduce a “Player of the Week” which is not based on the player’s ability, but on the child’s behaviour and improvement – things the child can control.
  • Instead of a trophy, let the tots take home a cuddly toy – Encourage the tots to take a picture of themselves doing an activity with the toy.
  • Playing games in the session let you engineer the outcome so that everyone has a chance to win.
2. INDIVIDUAL TASKS FIRST

Start with individual tasks then move to working together (pairs/teams) finally adding opposition.

  • Individual activities involving one child can be expanded so that they are done in pairs. So, from bouncing and catching a ball by themselves, the children can move to throwing and catching with a partner.
3. START SIMPLE

Start simple, everybody loves to be good at something. Repeat and get players to challenge themselves.

  • Make sure that the children can do the activities that you’ve set for them. If they can do it quite quickly – then make what they’re doing a little harder or move on to the next activity.
4. PROMOTE GOOD VALUES

Promote good values by taking turns, sharing, working together, trying their best.

 

Other Tennis(24/7) resources relevant to tots tennis

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Revised and updated from our post dated April 21, 2017

MEMBERS ONLY Tots CPD: How to Introduce Competition to Tots (video)

Tots are generally not bothered whether they win or lose, they just want to run around and have fun! However, competition is an important part of sports as well as daily life. So, an important part of teaching tots is to build their understanding of competition and how to deal with disappointment when they are unhappy with an outcome. In this video, our Tots CPD coach, Mel Short explains strategies for introducing the idea of competition into your tots sessions.

BONUS! Download the “4 Guiding Principles for Introducing Competition to Tots” here [download id=”1032″]