Green / orange / yellow ball confusing for 9 year old

[nj121]

Hello guys,

My son is taking private class since last 6 months with yellow balls. He also did full summer camp with yellow ball as well and he loved it. I was little disappointed with his progress with private coaching so we had coaching session with new coach.

New coach suggested to bring back my son to Orange ball and work on his consistency with orange ball. New coach’s suggestion is that until kid can have consistent rally of 10 and not playing the full net game, he should not move to green dot or yellow ball (again he is coaching in under 10 level).

Our old coach’s theory is that as long as kid can hit full shot he should play with yellow and with practice he can master the game.

I am not a tennis player so I can’t really help him but to reach out to you guys for suggestion.

He has been playing with yellow ball since last 8 months without any problem and he plays very good top spin shots but he is missing consitancy.

I don’t want to go through many changes in balls and have him frustrated with the game. He will hate playing slow games (his personality). At the end of the day I want him to have fun and learn. Also I want him to start playing tournaments as well.

Please let me know your suggestion about should I switch him back to Orange ball or find middle ground on green dot ball or keep going with yellow ball.

I know its hard to give suggestion but I am looking for your perspective ……

Let me know if you need any further information.

-Raj

 

[Alien]

What is the difference among the different balls besides the color ? Size, weight ?

 

[Deleted member 23235]

I'm a big fan of the red/orange/green dot balls.
While your son can hit with yellow balls, I can see some juniors developing a more exaggerated grip/stroke (eg. overly western, more brushy, off the back foot), since a yellow ball will generally bounce much much higher (over his head), unless he's being fed balls generally in his strike zone all the time (guessing not, unless he's playing with a good player that can do that).
Playing with orange balls (on a smaller court) will generally put the balls in his strikezone, and promote driving through the ball. He can even start hitting on the rise, as the ball will be generally (s)lower.
You said he's missing consistency... I'd agree, only promote him to yellow balls when we can rally 10 balls easily.
Additionally, i think that the red/orange/green dot balls encourage swinging out on shots (developing racquet head speed) since they don't travel as far.
On the smaller courts, he can also start working on longer points, developing a variety of strategies and game plans - baseline, transition, net play (vs. bashing a single shot against a peer that also can't handle a hard hit yellow ball).

I don't disagree with your old coach... as that way of learning does have some merit (eg. produced the sampras/agassi/williams'), but it can be discouraging if every 3rd ball is being hit out just because the speed and height are difficult (again this could be negated by a playing with someone that's able to put the ball in his strikezone every time (or wherever it needs to be to practice whatever skill is being worked on).

my $0.02

 

[Chotobaka]

Starting young ones out with orange balls facilitates feeling what is going on with the ball at contact and more easily relating that feedback to stroke mechanics instruction. Getting kids to whack a green dot or yellow ball is easy -- developing spin and depth control even at the early stages is the bigger issue. Also, depending on the junior racquet used, the graduated use of all three balls better correlates to the weight of the racquet in use at a particular time. The appropriate time to move on to a different ball (and/or racquet) becomes pretty obvious based on the students performance.

 

[Tee1Up]

I don’t want to go through many changes in balls and have him frustrated with the game. He will hate playing slow games (his personality). At the end of the day I want him to have fun and learn. Also I want him to start playing tournaments as well.

Most tournaments at his age do not use yellow balls. If you do a search on USTA tennislink you can see the tournaments scheduled, level of tournament and ball type.

 

[gallen1999]

What is the difference among the different balls besides the color ? Size, weight ?

The red ball is slightly bigger than the others and has the least amount of compression. The orange ball is the same size as the standard yellow ball but is lower compression making it slower. The green ball has more compression than orange and red but less than a normal yellow ball.

 

[nj121]

Thank you guys for your reply.

Special thanks to @Chotobaka and @nytennisaddict for your detailed response.

My son has a good top spin game. He loves hitting top spin and he uses semi western grip. I had a talk with his coach and he suggested to drill with green dot ball so improve his shots and make him learn better but definitely practice with him using yellow ball.

I will also look for league / tournament for him to participate for green dot ball and will see how he likes. My son is 54 inch tall.

I just ordered green dot ball for our next practice session on Friday.... will find out how it goes. My sons coach wants him to start hitting the target area whenever I practice with him and have rally of 10 times before we move to next drill (to develop his patients..... which is missing in him)...

If you have any suggestion or good book to read or good blog to follow please let me know....

My son loves to read so if there is any good book/reading material.... he will learn the most

THanks again....

 

[Deleted member 23235]

not specifically a book on tennis, but just on being a good parent..
https://books.google.com/books?id=CuR2682qG5EC&hl=en

in general i've always been a fan of the "tennis master" and "coaching mastery" books... (also a ttw poster), and i think would be good place for a 10yr old to start reading... (simple, clear, illustrated, etc...)

also "coaching tennis"

and if he can absorb it, "Winning Ugly" is a must read for every tennis player..

 

[Deleted member 23235]

I'm actually interested in how you got your son interested in the first place?
I have a 7 & 9 that i feel like i'm forcing to play, every time we do.. recently realized I might be focusing on the "drill and practice" part, vs. the "play" part...

 

[nj121]

My son is very competitive and love to win; like other kids at his age. He hates to only practice.


But unfortunatly you have to practice little to be able to hit the ball so during that early stage. This is what I did at early practice session. Initial goal was very low so he can win everytime.

· Set our practice session target (like he will hit 3 shots out of 10 ball I throw at him and he will do it 4 times during practice session…) Then increase the # of shots as he progressed.

· If he meets the target, he wins the bet and he gets to play video games or watch movie.

· Basically, I made it a game out of tennis.​

After he got to the level where he could hit the ball (not good by any way but just cross the net)

· I took him to court and practice with me or his friend

· Focus on one kind of shot and keep telling him that if he hits there he can win the point

· So just to win he would try to hit there and fail miserably.​

o I talk to his coach to focus on that particular shot and he get excited to learn as he wants to win point against me or his friend…(in that way I keep telling him that he is almost there ….thats all)

o For that entire week we focus on that shot and I let him easily win the point by putting myself in a bad position to hit that shot…..

o Basically it makes him feel good about his improvement.

o So next week he is ready to learn something new to win more point.​

Once he got somewhat decent at his game (like hit couple of balls in a rally). We watched couple of videos about “Talent Code” (highly recommended) and value of deep practice. Watched some of the good video about tennis shots and their analysis (there are very good youtube video. Feel tennis and mauro marcos )


He is not good player by any means but I see him slagging in the heat and for many hours to learn tennis. That’s all that matters to me; to be outside and happy.


At times, its very frustrating as parent but I believe, it will help him to enjoy the sport in his lifetime. As a father, its my job to teach something valuable to my kids and that’s all I am doing.

 

[Deleted member 23235]

thx nj121... I think i focused on the practice part too early...
I need to make it a game based approach... get them wanting to beat me,.. and maybe reward them with something little if they win.
looking back I got into it because I wanted to beat my dad.
thx for sharing.

I've read the Talent Code, great book, i'll look at vids (youtube presuming?)

Yeah, I just want them to be outside, and teach them a sport of a lifetime...

 

[nj121]

I will find the video and will send you over the weekend.

My son actually read the first chapter of talent code book (its too much for him to understand) but we discussed the value of practice many many times.... hopefully one day it will sink in his mind the value of practice to learn anything in his life.....

Just bought the book you suggested winning ugly.... if there is any other book please send me the name..... i saw other books you suggested but they are developed for coach and not for player.... do you think its still useful for player to read and be helpful?

 

[Deleted member 23235]

Honestly I'm impressed that your 9 year is reading any of those books (winning ugly, talent code, etc)... they are rather dense, and geared toward adults (or at least high school), so normally i wouldn't have recommended them. I was happy when my kids started reading Harry Potter

 

[nathan lu]

This is a good topic,why no more comments? BTW,i totally agree with nytennisaddict.

 

[Keendog]

Yeah mate understand your reluctance to 'slow him down' but sounds like he is missing some fundamentals. If he goes in a tournament and gets thrashed he might lose interest in the game altogether.

He is only 9, what's the rush? If he doesn't develop the right habits from the start as his second coach is trying to do then it will be very hard later on to break his bad habits and each bad habit will become a limiting factor later on (trust me I know about this last one) .

The ramp up in rapid progression usually happens later, once all the basic shots have developed, not within 6 months of starting coaching. I feel it's up to the coach to make it fun and interesting for him, whichever balls he uses.

Also, this may not apply but a lot of coaches are reluctant to refresh 3/4 sets of balls and the green/red/orange ones are more expensive so some coaches might push a progression which is not always in the best interest of the child to save on ball costs. The second coach sounds like he has your child's interest at heart and has seen how kids progress much more than you or I, so I would trust in his opinion.

 

[BlueB]

Guys, that boy is now 12 years old...
Although, it would be interesting to hear how he developed, in the mean time.

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk

 

[heninfan99]