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QuickStart Tennis Workshop
Laura Gilpin with the United States Tennis Association-Texas Section was the certified instructor of the QuickStart Tennis Workshop at Barons Creek Club on Saturday, June
7th. She spoke with a group of interested parents and tennis instructors along with a group of children participants. “QuickStart Tennis is the new way to play for kids 10 and under. We don’t expect our kids to play baseball on a field the size of Yankee Stadium or shoot baskets at a regular height basketball hoop. Why do we expect them to play tennis on a regular size tennis court with balls that bounce too high and too fast and with nets that are too high?” QuickStart Tennis is a new format in which tennis has been scaled down to a child’s size. This means playing on smaller courts with lower nets and using smaller racquets and lower bouncing balls. “The other aspect that I like about QuickStart Tennis is that it adapts so easily for the younger kids-4, 5 & 6 years. We do a lot of throwing, tossing, catching, rolling, and bouncing balls with both hands! We do age-appropriate games that make it fun for the kids but they develop their hand-eye coordination. We also have a fitness component in our camps that helps with their agility, strength, and endurance”, commented Nicole Mechem.
“The QuickStart method of teaching tennis is not just for tennis pros,” Laura Gilpin adds. “That’s why we have teenager summer instructors and parents at this workshop.
We want PE instructors, parents, recreation aids, certified tennis pros, teachers, and volunteer tennis instructors-anyone who has an interest in helping kids learn tennis, to come to our workshops.”
“We will be using the QuickStart Tennis program this summer in our camps and continue using it in our after school programs in the fall and spring. But I would like to see more parents take the next workshop the USTA Texas section sponsors. A teaching pro can help correct strokes but parents are the ones who help their kids practice practically any sport. I remember throwing balls to my daughters in the back yard in Santa Fe. I would tell them to see if they could hit the balls on top of the roof. I figured if they could hit them up there, they certainly could get them over a net. With the QuickStart method kids will not have to hit them on top of their roof, even though it was a fun target at the time.”
Anyone interested in doing a QuickStart workshop please call Nicole Mechem at Barons
Creek Club 997-8433. For tennis camp information, please call the same number or click here.
Photos from the Workshop