QuickStart Tennis – the perfect blend of discipline and fun for kids

Teaching tennis to the youngest players is a fantastic way to introduce them to the game, help them develop their skills and begin a life-long love of tennis. To make the game more accessible, the USTA pioneered the scaling of tennis equipment to kid-friendly sizes for children as young as age 4.

Seeking a delicate balance.

Some programs focus exclusively on kids’ on-court enjoyment.  They believe that if young players feel successful, they will love playing the game and continue for a lifetime. So these programs teach the skills needed to put a ball in play (serve) and rally, regardless of proper technique. But this can foster bad habits, causing frustration, injury, or quitting.

Other programs focus exclusively on kids’ technical proficiency.  They teach proper technique of all tennis strokes so that players develop good habits from the very beginning and improve their athletic ability in sync with their tennis game. Skill-trainings are often disguised as games, to hold students’ interest. But this teaching method will not necessarily help children rally – or feel like they are succeeding — for a few years.

A blend of the best teaching philosophies.

Advantage QuickStart strives to motivate success and build proper technique simultaneously. We teach proper technique and how to serve and rally as early as age 4. When the kids begin to rally, good technique may take a back seat to getting the ball over the net. Our coaches help players keep proper technique front and center, too.

Scientific studies prove that children’s learning is 60% visual, 20% verbal, and 20% through kinesiology (experiencing or performing the activity).  QuickStart coaches show, tell, and let the kids perform the fun exercises using proper technique – ingraining it in their muscle memory.

Everybody participates. Everybody wins.

We believe QuickStart is the best path to technically sound strokes, rallying, and having a blast on court. We also believe in educating parents to work with their children between lessons.

Our tennis pathway/teaching philosophy is easy to grasp, even if you have never set foot on the court. The QuickStart pathway helps parents see what their child needs to accomplish at each level in order to advance. Since group classes are generally limited to one hour, it’s very important for parents to encourage their children to practice their skills and to join in on these practice sessions.  The extra practice time is “tennis homework” that will help players reach the next level sooner – thanks to the player, coach and parents.

Keeping kids engaged at every level.

We make sure kids have so much fun, they want to keep playing. Our coaches interact with children before, during and after the lesson – combining enthusiasm and warmth with very high energy and positive reinforcement. Each lesson wraps up with a fun game, fun homework activity, and high-fives to all kids.

Coaches mention the lesson objective at the beginning of the class so students understand what they will be learning. The lesson objective is repeated 2 more times during class, followed by a quick review at the end.  Combining rallying skills — Rally me, bungee, ups/downs, walk the dog, lobster trap, and more — with fun technical skills such as Fruit Salad, Fireball and Crocodile makes class and “homework” really fun! And that leads to a lifelong love of the game.