This resource uses various activities that aim to build children’s tennis-related vocabulary, coordination and balance. It is easily adaptable and takes up minimal space; thus making it suitable for use with small groups.
Tennis Ball Relay is a fast-paced team game in which participants run to an outside tramline, tip a ball onto it and return back before running back towards teammates to tag each one of them.
Toss & Catch
Kids can develop the basic skills of tennis through playing simple games that build balance and coordination. For instance, children could practice balancing a ball on top of their rackets, beginning by only using one hand but gradually increasing to using both hands on it as they grow their balance and coordination skills. This will allow them to learn how to trap the ball between their hand and racket – an integral component of tennis technique.
Clapping before throwing the ball to a teammate is another fun game to try; this can help build motor skills while building teamwork. This activity can be played individually or collectively; to add an additional challenge you could also require that all players clap before throwing.
Players can enhance their eye-hand coordination by rolling a tennis ball along tramlines. The first player to get their tennis ball past an opponent wins one point!
Students may enjoy playing a version of curling using tennis balls instead. Players compete to get as close as they can to rolling their balls closest to a bullseye placed on the floor – an excellent way to encourage hand-eye coordination and build grip strength!
Add an extra challenge by having kids race against one another to move tennis balls from cone to cone in an increasingly challenging race, with the first team to succeed winning their round. Mix locomotive patterns such as running, skipping or lateral shuffle for even greater variety in this challenging activity!
Simon Says
The classic listening game provides children with a fun way to develop their attention skills and follow directions, both essential skills in tennis. As they practice their serve or execute drills, following directions is key in playing well – the more a player understands their game and its strategies, the better their performance in matches will be.
Although this activity is perfect for young children, older students may also enjoy it. It serves as an effective warm up before beginning lessons or during break periods between classes and can even serve as a friendly competition between players in groups of players.
Starting off, one player acts as Simon and issues commands to all other players to perform actions based on what has been stated by “Simon says”. All participants must obey his/her orders if they start with “Simon says”. Otherwise, if another player takes their turn at acting out commands they should stop performing that action and wait their turn.
Make the commands more challenging to keep the game interesting, and to encourage students to listen more attentively for every instruction. This will keep students engaged with the game.
At times, it can also be fun to mix up the rules of a game by including music. Asking players to perform commands in time with a specific song can keep players engaged and improve focus, or playing tennis yells instead of verbal commands can keep things exciting while helping develop kids’ listening skills.
Bounce & Count
Tennis ball play can help young learners develop balance, agility and footwork skills. If you don’t have access to a full court for practice purposes, try hopping scotch or bananagrams using large sheets of paper with 9-10 tennis balls; these activities provide excellent practice at tracking attention and focusing focus.
One fun way to improve coordination is through practicing forehand and backhand volley drills off the wall, either solo or with a partner depending on each player’s abilities and comfort levels. The aim is to execute as many successful volleys without losing concentration and keep practicing until success comes naturally.
Hungry Crocodile is an easy and effective volley drill popularly utilized by tennis camps for kids called Hunger Crocodile. This game helps novice players focus and anticipate on each shot they hit into their opponent’s court, with the first player hitting it successfully winning.
Bounce & count is an easy and effective volley drill designed to sharpen players’ focus on developing better racquet control. A fun variation of four square, it allows players to compete to build the tallest tower with tennis balls inside four square structures.
Picture cards provide another fun and interactive way to strengthen tennis-related vocabulary. Once you’ve collected three to four copyright-free images of people on a tennis court, divide students into teams of three and select three-four of these copies for playback without seeing their faces in person. One student on each team must then impersonate that person without seeing them directly – an engaging way to promote language development that works particularly well when played small groups or breakout rooms allow sufficient space – it works especially well with elementary school children.
Rally from the Back
At this stage of the program, students are developing the necessary coordination skills necessary for mastering basic forehands and backhands. Coaches will utilize dynamic warmups to ensure your child has established a solid foundation in movement, racket control and swing technique as well as hand feed drills with increasing pace to familiarize them with consistent and controlled groundstrokes.
Coaches will implement volley and smash drills with the aim of developing strong and efficient directional returns as well as an intentional, controlled approach to volleying. Furthermore, they will encourage correct footwork – such as stepping into the ball before punching it hard in order to eliminate backswing or abbreviated follow through – in order to complete an effective game of tennis.
Coaches use games that require learners to count the bounces that the ball makes when being hit rather than count their hits directly in order to help learners focus on mastering volley and smash fundamentals. Through this method, coaches also teach players commands they can use when hitting the ball to indicate how they should strike it.
Players work in pairs and are required to volley against one another while listening for coach-given commands from a coach. The first player to respond with the correct command wins a point; players are encouraged to think outside the box when coming up with creative answers. This game fosters teamwork and communication development skills as learners must listen closely in order to successfully complete their task; additionally, its teamwork element encourages concentration and focus as players must pay attention both to incoming volleys as well as instructions being given by their partner.
Curl
If you want to find ways to engage your students physically and get them moving, tennis balls are an invaluable asset. They can be used for various educational activities that develop motor movement skills like crab crawling and soccer as well as helping students build upper body strength.
Start by splitting your class into groups of five to six students each, assigning one as the initial tagger, and having them run within a grid trying to tag one another. If they succeed in doing so, that student must join up with the initial tagger in the grid before playing further. To add to the challenge of this activity, students may assume a curling delivery stance before pushing off from it; this helps stretch legs and groin muscles as well as quickly escape potential taggers.
Make this activity even more educational by splitting your class into pairs. Each pair should receive a tennis ball and vocabulary flashcards; as each student passes their tennis ball to their partner, they must say aloud the word from one of the flashcards which appears on it when passing back the tennis ball; this activity promotes multiplication.
This game provides a fun way to introduce children to curling, an Olympic sport. Students compete to see which can roll the ball closest to a bullseye set out on your classroom floor – you may even challenge them to beat their personal best time! It is an engaging way to promote competition and teamwork!