junior kids tennis strategy

E

eakin

New User
My son is 6 years old and has been playing a lot of tennis for several years.
He played his first 8 and under sponge ball tournament yesterday, and from a win/loss perspective it didn't go well but he was competitive in most matches.
Obviously every 6 months at this age is huge in terms of physical/mental development as some kids would be almost ready to move up to orange ball as they are 2 years older than him.

I put no pressure on him whatsoever, and at the end encouraged him on how well he played as I thought he played aggressive tennis albeit his unforced errors were off the chart.

One thing I noticed is that the vast majority of kids (even the county/regional players) play at 50% power and focus on keeping the ball in and waiting for the other player to miss.
Its clear this strategy is one of that works at junior level, but that doesn't sit right with me on how we should be teaching our kids with long term progess/development in mind.
Any opinions on that?

I'm well aware the most important thing at this age is about having fun, but at the same time I'm keen to enure he's coached with the best tactics for his future development.
 
“Get the ball back” is the main tactic that is needed all the way through low varsity high school to be a winning player in singles.

In terms of long term development though, you want juniors to focus on hitting consistent, high topspin balls from baseline that clear the net by 3-4 feet. If they are able to do that, then the next thing to work on hitting more offensive topspin balls when they are given short balls that bounce inside the service boxes. This is the same stroke as the baseline. The only difference is that the net clearance is 1-2 feet, giving the ball a “flatter” trajectory (but not a flat ball).

The other strokes are more important for doubles, but most juniors will not play doubles until they are in high school.

I wish your son good luck and an enjoyable tennis ‘career’!
 
At all levels of tennis, the best players make few errors in matches and are accurate, but are able to hit at or above the average shot/serve for that level. The higher the level, the higher the shot speed/spin. Kids with better hand-eye coordination and athletic talent will find it easier to hit harder while being consistent at a younger age.

I think developing players have to learn to construct points and know what their shot tolerance/limits are so that they can make high-% decisions. As long as they are hitting at the shot speed/spin appropriate for their level, they are fine. If they keep working on their technique and footwork as they continue to develop, the pace/spin of their shots/serve will go up as will the level at which they excel.

In practice sessions, you can work on increasing shot/serve speed, spin, accurate targeting without worrying about making errors as much. You can also isolate and work on specific elements of technique and footwork with specific feeds and repetitions. You also have to remove weaknesses as much as possible so that they have a well-rounded game with a couple of big weapons - then they cannot be exploited by specific point patterns as they get older.

We have a junior academy at our club and I‘ve seen many junior kids who were consistent moonballers when they were scrawny 6-7 years olds that turn into hard hitters who can beat 4.5 adults by the time they are 10-12 years old. The kids who win tournaments when they are young are the ones who continue to win them later and they do so by making their opponents beat them and not give points away. As their technique improves, they will develop the ability to force short balls from opponents with good serves/returns and then the power to put them away easily. You need a good foundation of footwork and technique to learn to hit harder and harder to smaller and smaller targets without making errors which is how you become an advanced player.

If you want your kid to be more aggressive than other kids his age, then teach him how to serve better and return better than his peers. Then he will get easy balls early in a point that he can put away without making unforced errors. If he tries to force the pace off neutral balls where he hasn’t opened up space on the court, it is usually not a winning strategy at any level.
 
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There's a difference between getting the ball back and actually hitting w spin and consistency. If a kid is just blocking the ball back w no spin, they're going to peak early. Kids that learn how to hit w spin and consistency will keep progressing.

Emphasis should be on consistency, not winning, if you want to raise a high level player.

W my son, I took a different tack and focused on fun and learning a variety of shots in his repertoire, w an emphasis on doubles. He's one of the best doubles players in his high school league, but would get crushed at the highest level of singles. It's a totally different skill set, other than serve/returns. He might look into playing club tennis at a D1 school, but he will get in due to his academics. He loves the game and will always be one of the better doubles players at the club.
 
Some great feedback here. Thanks to those who commented so far.

I've listened to a few podcasts that focus on Yannick Sinner. Apparently he was a very average junior always blasting the ball long and losing tons of matches due to errors. But he stuck to that aggressive style of play rather than resorting to consistent/safe tennis and over time as he trusted the process he learnt how to control the power.
 
eakin said:
My son is 6 years old and has been playing a lot of tennis for several years.
He played his first 8 and under sponge ball tournament yesterday, and from a win/loss perspective it didn't go well but he was competitive in most matches.
Obviously every 6 months at this age is huge in terms of physical/mental development as some kids would be almost ready to move up to orange ball as they are 2 years older than him.

I put no pressure on him whatsoever, and at the end encouraged him on how well he played as I thought he played aggressive tennis albeit his unforced errors were off the chart.

One thing I noticed is that the vast majority of kids (even the county/regional players) play at 50% power and focus on keeping the ball in and waiting for the other player to miss.
Its clear this strategy is one of that works at junior level, but that doesn't sit right with me on how we should be teaching our kids with long term progess/development in mind.
Any opinions on that?

I'm well aware the most important thing at this age is about having fun, but at the same time I'm keen to enure he's coached with the best tactics for his future development.
Click to expand...
The first thing is to have as much fun as possible and to keep it as a game. Fun, fun, and fun.
Getting the ball in the net is MOST IMPORTANT not only for the technical and tactical development of the strokes but also from the mental aspect. If confidence is "the capacity to predict the result of your action", putting the ball in is the seed of confidence.
The more offensive shots will come when he feels he can do them. In the end, it is the ball you receive that tells you what you can do with it and that is what your son is learning, to read the game and understand the ball he receives.
 
socallefty said:
At all levels of tennis, the best players make few errors in matches and are accurate, but are able to hit at or above the average shot/serve for that level. The higher the level, the higher the shot speed/spin. Kids with better hand-eye coordination and athletic talent will find it easier to hit harder while being consistent at a younger age.

I think developing players have to learn to construct points and know what their shot tolerance/limits are so that they can make high-% decisions. As long as they are hitting at the shot speed/spin appropriate for their level, they are fine. If they keep working on their technique and footwork as they continue to develop, the pace/spin of their shots/serve will go up as will the level at which they excel.

In practice sessions, you can work on increasing shot/serve speed, spin, accurate targeting without worrying about making errors as much. You can also isolate and work on specific elements of technique and footwork with specific feeds and repetitions. You also have to remove weaknesses as much as possible so that they have a well-rounded game with a couple of big weapons - then they cannot be exploited by specific point patterns as they get older.

We have a junior academy at our club and I‘ve seen many junior kids who were consistent moonballers when they were scrawny 6-7 years olds that turn into hard hitters who can beat 4.5 adults by the time they are 10-12 years old. The kids who win tournaments when they are young are the ones who continue to win them later and they do so by making their opponents beat them and not give points away. As their technique improves, they will develop the ability to force short balls from opponents with good serves/returns and then the power to put them away easily. You need a good foundation of footwork and technique to learn to hit harder and harder to smaller and smaller targets without making errors which is how you become an advanced player.

If you want your kid to be more aggressive than other kids his age, then teach him how to serve better and return better than his peers. Then he will get easy balls early in a point that he can put away without making unforced errors. If he tries to force the pace off neutral balls where he hasn’t opened up space on the court, it is usually not a winning strategy at any level.
Click to expand...
Great points. A lot easier to develop the serve as a weapon in isolation of the points than to force your competitively-wired kid to hit shots harder than his tolerance level while he’s learning how to win.

The ability to always judge your own shot tolerance is equally important to the ability to bash hard, if not more, and it’s a skill that should be honed from a young age.
 
Our experience was that the youth progression (10 and under) and perhaps 12s was a consistency game but that ended toward the tail end of 12s and for the remainder of tournament play. From that point forward you cannot compete at the higher levels of juniors just rallying balls back as bigger shots from the opponent will elicit shorter/weak responses and then the point is over.

There were a few kids that had very high national rankings in our district in 10s and 12s that strictly kept the ball deep and in play and they got smoked when they moved into 14s and tried to deploy this approach and by the end of 14s quit tournament play.

It actually makes sense that kids develop consistency first and then develop bigger strokes and put away power with that consistency as they develop technique and get older/stronger and that is exactly what happens.
 
eakin said:
Some great feedback here. Thanks to those who commented so far.

I've listened to a few podcasts that focus on Yannick Sinner. Apparently he was a very average junior always blasting the ball long and losing tons of matches due to errors. But he stuck to that aggressive style of play rather than resorting to consistent/safe tennis and over time as he trusted the process he learnt how to control the power.
Click to expand...
Sinner is known to have the biggest groundstrokes off both wings (maybe in terms of pace) on tour. Kids that hit hard first w/o consistency comprise the majority of high school players. Very few can switch that type of hitting into consistency. Sinner would be an exception.

Even though my son embraces training and doesn't mind "suffering" (running, sprints, etc.), unfortunately for him, he finds baseline bashing boring, which is how the modern game has evolved.
 
LOBALOT said:
Our experience was that the youth progression (10 and under) and perhaps 12s was a consistency game but that ended toward the tail end of 12s and for the remainder of tournament play. From that point forward you cannot compete at the higher levels of juniors just rallying balls back as bigger shots from the opponent will elicit shorter/weak responses and then the point is over.

There were a few kids that had very high national rankings in our district in 10s and 12s that strictly kept the ball deep and in play and they got smoked when they moved into 14s and tried to deploy this approach and by the end of 14s quit tournament play.

It actually makes sense that kids develop consistency first and then develop bigger strokes and put away power with that consistency as they develop technique and get older/stronger and that is exactly what happens.
Click to expand...
Why don’t the kids who are high ranking 12s from being consistency players start developing offensive weapons at that age? Or do you think offensive weapons need to be developed at a young age, which may make them average/losing players when they are younger but better, winning players when they get over the age of 12? This is what OP seems to be concerned about with the Jannik Sinner example.
 
eah123 said:
Why don’t the kids who are high ranking 12s from being consistency players start developing offensive weapons at that age? Or do you think offensive weapons need to be developed at a young age, which may make them average/losing players when they are younger but better, winning players when they get over the age of 12? This is what OP seems to be concerned about with the Jannik Sinner example.
Click to expand...

Because they physically can't. They are smaller. Moreover, they are just learning the game.

You really see it in that 14s age group where boys develop into men at different ages. I recall there was one kid in our section that was huge and looked like a man at 14. Others look like a boy. Others in between. It is really interesting to watch kids develop as they do it at different times and rates both physically and mentally.
 
eah123 said:
Why don’t the kids who are high ranking 12s from being consistency players start developing offensive weapons at that age? Or do you think offensive weapons need to be developed at a young age, which may make them average/losing players when they are younger but better, winning players when they get over the age of 12? This is what OP seems to be concerned about with the Jannik Sinner example.
Click to expand...
Yes, this is exactly the angle I was looking at but I'm no expert in junior tennis (but I do play a lot of adult tournaments myself)
From what I witnessed at my first 8U tournament, Its clear playing safe tennis (50% power with few errors) at a very young age will win matches and I'm conviced a lot of coaches/parents push this as they are so focussed on getting wins as thats the only metric they use to measure their kids success. I'd also argue this is why we see a lot of moonballing right the way up to 12U and beyond...

I'm not advocating for a wreckless approach where kids blast every ball, but I think we should be encouraging kids to have a go and play aggressive at the right times.
But from my first experience of 8U tennis, the main focus seems to oriented around rarely taking risks and instead to just keep getting the ball back in play until the opponent misses.
 
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eakin said:
Yes, this is exactly the angle I was looking at but I'm no expert in junior tennis (but I do play a lot of adult tournaments myself)
From what I witnesses at my first 8U tournament, Its clear playing safe tennis (50% power with few errors) at a very young age will win matches and I'm conviced a lot of coaches/parents push this as they are so focussed on gettings wins as thats the only metric they use to measure their kids success. I'd also argue this is why we see a lot of moonballing right the way up to 12U and beyond...

I'm not advocating for a wreckless approach where kids blast every ball, but I think we should be encouraging kids to have a go and play aggressive at the right times.
But from my first experience of 8U tennis, the approach seems to be never to take risks and just keep getting it back in play until the opponent misses.
Click to expand...
Maybe 8-year-olds should be playing tennis tournaments on pickleball sized courts?
 
travlerajm said:
Maybe 8-year-olds should be playing tennis tournaments on pickleball sized courts?
Click to expand...
They do do this kind of stuff, the idea is you make the court the size u can cover 70ish percent with your fh since this is what players try and do to get more fhs.

Training to just get balls in tends to limit development, misses are encouraged in a lot of training set ups (many sports) and ultimately accuracy comes with power due to increased spin.
 
eakin said:
Some great feedback here. Thanks to those who commented so far.

I've listened to a few podcasts that focus on Yannick Sinner. Apparently he was a very average junior always blasting the ball long and losing tons of matches due to errors. But he stuck to that aggressive style of play rather than resorting to consistent/safe tennis and over time as he trusted the process he learnt how to control the power.
Click to expand...
Curious to know which podcasts you listened to? Where can I find them?
 
eakin said:
My son is 6 years old and has been playing a lot of tennis for several years.
He played his first 8 and under sponge ball tournament yesterday, and from a win/loss perspective it didn't go well but he was competitive in most matches.
Obviously every 6 months at this age is huge in terms of physical/mental development as some kids would be almost ready to move up to orange ball as they are 2 years older than him.

I put no pressure on him whatsoever, and at the end encouraged him on how well he played as I thought he played aggressive tennis albeit his unforced errors were off the chart.

One thing I noticed is that the vast majority of kids (even the county/regional players) play at 50% power and focus on keeping the ball in and waiting for the other player to miss.
Its clear this strategy is one of that works at junior level, but that doesn't sit right with me on how we should be teaching our kids with long term progess/development in mind.
Any opinions on that?

I'm well aware the most important thing at this age is about having fun, but at the same time I'm keen to enure he's coached with the best tactics for his future development.
Click to expand...
even at 9, at the highest levels, they are going for high margin over net, depth, and big targets...
(first match)
 
K1Y said:
Curious to know which podcasts you listened to? Where can I find them?
Click to expand...

Here is a segment where Jack Draper talks about Sinner which I found incredibly interesting
podcasts.apple.com

‎Control the Controllables: #166: Jack Draper - GB´s Rising Star on the ATP Tour on Apple Podcasts

‎Show Control the Controllables, Ep #166: Jack Draper - GB´s Rising Star on the ATP Tour - 21 Jun 2022
podcasts.apple.com

The entire episode is great, but the specefic segment relevant to this discussion is at 50mins to 53mins
 
eah123 said:
Why don’t the kids who are high ranking 12s from being consistency players start developing offensive weapons at that age? Or do you think offensive weapons need to be developed at a young age, which may make them average/losing players when they are younger but better, winning players when they get over the age of 12? This is what OP seems to be concerned about with the Jannik Sinner example.
Click to expand...
Some kids have a nature to be conservative and might not want to hit harder even when they are physically capable of doing so or maybe they are not coached to hit harder as they get older especially if parents are their coaches. There is also the case where a young kid below the age of 10 is consistent without proper spin-generating technique, but by hitting slow, high trajectory moonballs - he will start making errors if he tries to increase the shot speed as he gets older. The kids who can generate high spin start having more racquet head spin (RHS) as they get older and their shot speed goes up allowing them to progress to higher levels.
 
I read that JK Rowling named Harry Potter after watching nadal as a junior play on clay. She came up w the idea of the snitch in quidditch bc nadal would hit moonballs that seemed like they would never come down.
 
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My advice on all this ball bashing/not ball bashing stuff is it is "step L" in the alphabet of tennis progression and at 8 your kid is at "step C" (learning how to conduct oneself in a tournament) after "step B" (Knowing the basic rules of the game) and "step A" (Developing basic strokes). If it were me and it was looking like the sport my kid was going to have a passion for I would identify if your kid is working with the best "technician" as far as a coach and don't get tied to the first group of instructors your child happened to start out with if they are not the best. If you are not familiar with the coaching situation in your are then reach out to the parents of older tournament kids and find out who the best technician is in your area/city and start working with that individual. What I mean by technician is someone who understands and teaches a sound set of mechanics to their students.

A solid player is working from a solid base of proper footwork, position, and stroke technique, and without that foundation anything built on that will be at risk including crushing the fuzzy yellow ball.
 
To me, the reason why people are saying the "separation" occurs around 12-14 years is easy to identify.

How puberty treats your kid is much more important to their tennis development than what they do before age 10. Outliers and exceptions exist, but we know their names because they're outliers and exceptions.

Tennis is far too physical nowadays to believe otherwise, at least at the level any parent hopes their kid reaches.
 
If they're not successful by 12-14, it's not a death sentence. Sampras was a late bloomer.

It might help their defense to be a late bloomer.
 
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