Why You Should Use Fun Tennis Drills for Beginners and Kids

When introducing tennis to a beginning player it is easy to start out by “over teaching”.  This means that you put too much emphasis on their technical skills and don’t allow for the natural development of hand-eye coordination that is so essential in tennis.  When you let the beginner develop more naturally, correcting and instructing as necessary, it will be more fun and they won’t feel as though they are failing all the time.  Too much instruction can also make the student feel like they are back in the classroom.  You might as well pull out a desk and chalkboard and start drawing up tennis problems for them to solve.  For a beginner, positive reinforcement and simple enjoyment are the two most important elements to add to a lesson.  Active tennis drills for beginners focus on both of these elements.

Use Drills with a Focused Goal

A beginner needs to be given room to develop, but that doesn’t mean you should stick them out on the court and start hitting balls at them.  This method isn’t good because a beginner needs to have a simple and immediate goal or focus to work towards.  A new player isn’t going to understand complicated instructions.  Implement drills that provide target zones on the court that the player can aim towards to develop accuracy while getting immediate positive reinforcement about their shots.  As the lessons continue you can reduce the size of the zones that they hit towards as they develop more skill and can hit more accurately.

Focus on Only Using Fun Tennis Drills

A good lesson for a beginner is going to be fun and not feel like a chore.  Endless drills that involve constantly feeding forehands and backhands with the player standing in place will get boring fast.  Make sure the player is always active and not sitting or standing around waiting all the time.  This is a big part of keeping the lesson fun and it also means that you need to limit the class sizes to keep them as small and interactive as possible.  The first giveaway of a bad lesson program is an instructor that has many courts available, but lines everyone up on the same court to take turns.  If you only have a limited number of courts and a large group then just do the best you can.  Finding the right tennis drills for  large groups of beginners can be challenging, especially when you don’t have the necessary space for everyone.  Try to move through drills quickly with one or two feeds per person before moving on to the next in line.  Have the students waiting around actively picking up balls, or implement a lap after each turn to keep everyone moving.

Always Give Positive Reinforcement

Part of creating a fun and interactive environment is to be outgoing.  Anytime that a student hits a particularly good shot or makes a smart adjustment, tell them about it.  A positive attitude and constant reinforcement will help a student feel that the lesson is a success, they will go away being more satisfied and ready to come back for more.  For more tips about keeping students interested in the sport of tennis head over to TennisShoeView.