I’ve been playing with my 7 year old son 2-3 times a week for a year and he’s enjoying the game and his success. However, next month I’m having shoulder surgery and will be out at least 4 months. My dilemma is how to keep him going while I’m out. Here’s why:
He did group lessons at our club for a few 8-week sessions. He liked them, but said they were a little boring. When I watch the sessions, there are 6-8 kids of whom 2 or 3 can actually rally, so things fall apart really quickly and the kids stand around a lot. The pros seem to insist on doing games that are beyond the kids’ rally skills. The feeding drills are OK because the pro can feed a hit-able ball, but there are very few rallies going on. I would love him to be with other kids, but the group lessons are a little lame.
When I play with him, I feed him regular tennis balls for drills and play rallies/games using Play n’ Stay balls (25% less speed/bounce). This is great because we can have longer rallies and he can swing through with good form and put spin on the ball while covering the court. And, probably most importantly, he LOVES to play games/sets because he’s playing real tennis.
Here is a drill we do and part of a set we played:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHdr4L3qipk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2suEGKic2Y
So, options while I’m out are to go back to the so-so group lessons or spring for expensive private lessons, which I would only be able to afford 1 hour per week max, which is far less time on the court. What would you do?
He did group lessons at our club for a few 8-week sessions. He liked them, but said they were a little boring. When I watch the sessions, there are 6-8 kids of whom 2 or 3 can actually rally, so things fall apart really quickly and the kids stand around a lot. The pros seem to insist on doing games that are beyond the kids’ rally skills. The feeding drills are OK because the pro can feed a hit-able ball, but there are very few rallies going on. I would love him to be with other kids, but the group lessons are a little lame.
When I play with him, I feed him regular tennis balls for drills and play rallies/games using Play n’ Stay balls (25% less speed/bounce). This is great because we can have longer rallies and he can swing through with good form and put spin on the ball while covering the court. And, probably most importantly, he LOVES to play games/sets because he’s playing real tennis.
Here is a drill we do and part of a set we played:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHdr4L3qipk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2suEGKic2Y
So, options while I’m out are to go back to the so-so group lessons or spring for expensive private lessons, which I would only be able to afford 1 hour per week max, which is far less time on the court. What would you do?