introduce Your kid to Tennis

🎾 Step one: Lay the racquet flat on the floor with the strings facing up.

🎾 Step two: Ask your kid to pick up the racquet and shake hands with it.

That’s it! If your kid is shaking hands with their racquet and it feels comfortable to them, they are ready to play.

Tennis is a game played by either two players (singles) or four players (doubles). The players are separated by a net, and the goal is to hit the ball over the net and into the opponent’s side of the court so that they cannot return it. The ball must land inside the lines of the singles court (if playing singles) or the doubles court (if playing doubles).

There are many ways to win a point in tennis, but three main ways that you can lose one:

🎾 By hitting the ball into the net.

🎾 By letting the ball bounce twice (or more).

🎾 By hitting the ball ‘out’.

🎾 On a serve, failing to get the ball into the correct service box.

The Court and the lines

There are a lot of lines on a tennis court. When the ball lands inside those lines it is ‘in’ and the point continues; when it does not, it is ‘out’ and the player who hit it out loses the point.

🎾 Children who are learning tennis should only play inside the service boxes. As they get older and stronger they can move back towards the baseline.

scoring

Tennis scoring is complicated. However, when you are learning to play you can score points as simply as 1,2,3,4,5.

If your child starts playing competitive tennis, they will need to understand how to score a match. A player earns points in the following sequence:

🎾 0 points = love

🎾 1 point = 15

🎾 2 points = 30

🎾 3 points = 40

🎾 4 points = Game.

If both players reach 40 (i.e., score 3 points), it’s called Deuce. A player must then win two consecutive points to win the game.

Matches are divided into sets. Most competitive matches at club level are one or the best of three sets. At the professional level, they play the best of three or five sets. To win a set, a player must reach six games and be two games clear of their opponent (e.g., 6-2 or 6-4). If the score is tied at 5-5, the players play to seven games (e.g., 7-5). If the score is tied at 6-6, they play a tiebreak, which is typically the first to seven points (winning by a margin of two points).

Why teach your kid tennis

Tennis is one of the world’s most popular sports for a reason. Teaching your kid to play tennis not only helps their physical development, but will improve their focus, mental strength, and social skills too.