Structuring Practice for a 10-Year Old

[sgrd0q]

Hey everybody, I have a question on how to structure the training sessions for my 10-year old son. He currently takes one private two hour lesson with a pro and pracitces with me five days per week (he has one day per week off from tennis). When with his coach they go over everything in the lesson. When I go to practice with him, I am not sure what the right approach should be. There is so much you can do when you have only two hours per day on the court. Do you work on groundstrokes, slices, drop shots, volleys, over heads, serves and then find the time to play a set to have some fun as having fun is also important at this age to keep the kid motivated. I feel as his skills have progressed we are trying to fit too much in every session. It was definitely easier when all we did was ground strokes and maybe a game here and there. For those of you with experience with kids - do you try to do a little bit of everything every day or do you concentrative on a few things and then rotate what you are working on?

Thanks!

 

[mdickson11]

Depends on kid and level. Assuming good fundamentals I start with tennis specific warmup covering several elements, then I always follow Play-practice-play theory for good part of session. Focusing on one or two things that need work. Plus some technical work is usually needed at 10yo so mix in technical work with fun competitive games. Kids love competitive games. And serving practice every single session. Focus on forehands as that is key and also touch tennis games to develop feel.

 

[socallefty]

Don’t you think he should play more with other kids whether it is group lessons or matches? Kids have fun playing with other kids and it can’t be only about practice with adults every day of the week - he will burnout.

 

[sgrd0q]

Thanks, good advice. On playing with other kids, we set something up from time to time, but not consistently. Hard to find kids to play with and now that the weather's getting colder - even harder to find kids to play indoors. He's never played in a tournament, though they do have them every weekend within a driving distance. Not sure if/when we should start to do those. I feel his serve needs to improve first. I'll ask his coach for advice...

 

[First3Shots]

If you’re wondering what to practice, playing in a tournament will give you the information that you need. Track points. Understand why he loses the points he loses. Overemphasize practicing those things.

But if you already know that his serve needs work, it’s pretty obvious where the emphasis in practice should be...

 

[giantschwinn]

From my own experience with my son, playing a set is too time consuming and cuts into practice time. Plus it's not a real match because he is playing against dad. Instead we play points without serve and arrange him to play sets with other kids.
And I also think you get a lot of ideas on what to work on when you watch him play a set with other kids.

 

[socallefty]

What is the objective for him to play tennis so much? Is it just to have fun and be a good rec player someday or do you have ambitions to try and get a college scholarship (if you are in the US)? If it is the second case, 10 seems to be a pretty late age to not have much tournament experience with other kids.

The top kids at my club who are in the top 50 in California for their age group typically have been playing since they were 5-7 with a lot of tournament experience. I also see them playing for hours every day with other kids after group lessons or individual lessons. It seems like they are at the club from after school till about 8 pm for about 5 hours per day and that might be the level of competition for kids looking for a college scholarship - the majority of them are handed out to international students anyway these days in the US.

Even if he is playing just to get into his high school team someday, playing matches with his peers is integral to development along with learning technique in order to learn how to compete, how to deal with winning/losing, the mental aspect of the game etc. I agree with the poster above that playing sets or matches with ‘Dad’ is just not the same as competing with other kids his age who are serious about tennis in your area.

 

[BevelDevil]

I'm in a similar situation with my kid.

Something we do every practice: Footwork drills. Some are basic warm-ups he does at the start of every practice session. Others I have him do specifically to deal with what I think he needs to work on. First-step movements, adjustment-step movements, ball striking movements, recovery movements, and so on.

What to emphasize: Ideally, you would be able to see a weakness and do drills to address that. Hitting deep balls? Short balls? Hitting with more topspin? Depth? Recovering? Adjustment steps? Etc.

 

[sgrd0q]

What is the objective for him to play tennis so much? Is it just to have fun and be a good rec player someday or do you have ambitions to try and get a college scholarship (if you are in the US)? If it is the second case, 10 seems to be a pretty late age to not have much tournament experience with other kids.

The top kids at my club who are in the top 50 in California for their age group typically have been playing since they were 5-7 with a lot of tournament experience. I also see them playing for hours every day with other kids after group lessons or individual lessons. It seems like they are at the club from after school till about 8 pm for about 5 hours per day and that might be the level of competition for kids looking for a college scholarship and the majority of them are handed out to international students anyway these days in the US.

Even if he is playing just to get into his high school team someday, playing matches with his peers is integral to development along with learning technique in order to learn how to compete, how to deal with winning/losing, the mental aspect of the game etc. I agree with the poster above that playing sets or matches with ‘Dad’ is just not the same as competing with other kids his age who are serious about tennis in your area.

Good question, and I appreciate the input. We have no concrete plans or aspirations (high school, college, pros, etc.) other than it seems like a great way to start the day every day at 6 am by playing/training for a couple of hours before school and work. He has had lessons in the past but started playing seriously and daily about a year ago. Is he behind some kids who started at 7 - most likely. Will he catch up eventually - I don't know. He is making great progress which in turn makes him appreciate it.

 

[Blackwellacad]

Try to work in a group session with other kids his age once a week, even if the other kids are not as good. The social atmosphere will be a good change of pace for him. If your kid is a competitor, group lessons will also fire him up as he tries to show he's the best in the group.

Also, tournament and match play should be a part of his experience. Don't worry about his serve - most kids in 10U have shaky serves, and all the 10,000-hour kids his age are not in 10U tournaments. He should be fine. Winning in 10U is secondary to learning how to perform and adapt under some pressure - pressure that can't be replicated at his lessons with you or his coach. The ability to perform and adapt should also be treated as a skill to be learned, like his forehand or backhand.

 

[Blackwellacad]

I also don't think you need to do such a deep dive into your son's tennis practices. He is still at an age where thinking big picture will bear more fruit.

Keep in mind that your son (as well as all of our sons and daughters) is unlikely to ever reach a level where groundstrokes/volleys/overheads/slices/drop shots/etc. matter more than movement, mental strength, or serving. Movement is a key one that doesn't require a coach or anything. A strong athlete who's decent at tennis will likely have similar or better results than a strong tennis player who's a decent athlete (The Most Exhausting Player/Green Shirt Guy is but one example). It's also cheaper and more fun to develop an athlete than a tennis player. A fairly well-known European study revealed that the kids who became the top tennis players (Federer, Henin, etc.) actually played less tennis than other kids on average, while spending more time on fitness/other sports in their developmental years.

If your son is serious (if he's playing 6 days weekly he is), he should spend more time on his movement and athletic development. Movement is more than footwork drills - think explosive exercises that create speed, agility, and quickness. The window to expand a child's athletic ceiling is shorter than their tennis window, and should be emphasized accordingly. Maybe turn 1-2 of his tennis days into fun developmental days - basketball, soccer, throwing a football, etc. 6 days a week of tennis without an overall athletic development plan might end up being counterproductive.

 

[mdickson11]

Get him to try a tournament and see how he responds most kids I coach love the atmosphere of a tournament.

 

[sgrd0q]

I also don't think you need to do such a deep dive into your son's tennis practices. He is still at an age where thinking big picture will bear more fruit.

Keep in mind that your son (as well as all of our sons and daughters) is unlikely to ever reach a level where groundstrokes/volleys/overheads/slices/drop shots/etc. matter more than movement, mental strength, or serving. Movement is a key one that doesn't require a coach or anything. A strong athlete who's decent at tennis will likely have similar or better results than a strong tennis player who's a decent athlete (The Most Exhausting Player/Green Shirt Guy is but one example). It's also cheaper and more fun to develop an athlete than a tennis player. A fairly well-known European study revealed that the kids who became the top tennis players (Federer, Henin, etc.) actually played less tennis than other kids on average, while spending more time on fitness/other sports in their developmental years.

If your son is serious (if he's playing 6 days weekly he is), he should spend more time on his movement and athletic development. Movement is more than footwork drills - think explosive exercises that create speed, agility, and quickness. The window to expand a child's athletic ceiling is shorter than their tennis window, and should be emphasized accordingly. Maybe turn 1-2 of his tennis days into fun developmental days - basketball, soccer, throwing a football, etc. 6 days a week of tennis without an overall athletic development plan might end up being counterproductive.

I really appreciate your response and I do feel playing tennis only is one-dimensional. Last year he used to play soccer and dodge ball in school. Now he is remote due to COVID and has minimal interaction with other kids, which is very sad and probably unhealthy. I am not good at any other sports, though I guess I can go kick a ball with him. I really have to give it some serious thought to figure out what else we can do to have more athletic exercise. Maybe not even replace the tennis but do something in addition in the afternoons. Two hours of tennis practice is really not that much exercise and he is indoors the rest of the time. When I was growing up we were a lot more active.

 

[dominikk1985]

My experience in that age is do a quick but intense technique session for about 15 minutes focusing on one stroke or at max 2 and the rest of the time do something fun that reinforces what you have worked on and keep verbal correction to a minimum in that phase unless something is very bad because too much verbal correction will **** off kids.

Whenever possible use constraint drills instead of verbal correction (like for example standing in front of the face when trying to shorten the backswing.