Last Week of QuickStart Tennis

May 23 and 24 will be our last 2 days of tennis this season. I want to let you know of the plans for this week. On Monday, we will play tennis matches with the 8-under and 10 and under teams. On Tuesday, instead of match play, we will be having a tennis party. Teams will participate in a variety of tennis games, and during the last 15 minutes of the hour, we will hand out awards, certificates, and prizes.

The forecast calls for scattered storms for both days. If Tuesday's session is rained out, we will schedule a make-up day for the tennis party.

Please call me at 661-7964 if you have any questions.

QuickStart Tennis May 10

I know the tornado/severe thunderstorm sirens just went off and it is raining here in north Marion. However, because it is so warm out, I think the courts will dry pretty fast and we should still be able to have tennis unless it is still raining around 5:00. If you have any question if tennis is still on or cancelled, check back around 5:00. If there are no further posts, then tennis is still on.

April 25 Tennis Cancelled

Tennis has been cancelled tonight due to court conditions. We will resume tomorrow with match play.

TENNIS CANCELLED!

QuickStart Tennis is cancelled for Tuesday, April 19 due to weather. We will plan on practice for Monday, April 25.

QuickStart Rules and Scoring

This Tuesday (weather permitting) will be the first night for matches for the 7-8 and 9-10 year old teams. QuickStart rules are modified from regulation tennis. It would be ideal if each court had a parent volunteer or coach watching to make sure the players are following the rules and keeping the correct score. As the season goes on, everyone will be more familiar with match play, but the first night may be a little confusing. Posted below are the rules for QuickStart match play.

7-8 year old teams:

Court size is 36' x 18'. The doubles lines of the court are used as the baseline, and the singles lines of the court are used as the service line. The regulation service line and baseline serve as sidelines. An additional court can be used using the service line and net as sidelines.

Net size is 2'9" (the size of the mini nets used in practice)

Scoring is best of 3 games - first to 7 points in each game. The server gets two serves and each player serves two points at a time.

Serves can be overhand, underhand, done as a bounce and hit, or executed by the coach bouncing the ball and the player hitting it.

9-10 year old teams:

Court size is 60' x 21' for singles and 60' x 27' for doubles.

The regular net is used.

Scoring is best of 3 sets - first to 4 games earns a set. First to 7 points earns a game. If each player earns a set, then the first to 7 points earns the 3rd set.

The serve rules are the same as in regulation tennis.

QuickStart 2011 Kickoff Night

The weather cleared off for us and we had great weather for our first night of tennis. The focus for the night was ball and racquet control, and the kids did a great job. Tomorrow you can take your child to his/her court at 6:00. The 5-6 year olds will have Coach Andrew again; all other courts will have different instructors on Mondays and Tuesdays.

QuickStart for Monday, April 11

Tomorrow we will kick off the spring season of QuickStart tennis. I want to give you a little background about QuickStart tennis. Most if not all other sports utilize modified rules and equipment to teach proper skills to youth (think t-ball, basketball with 8 foot goals, shortened soccer fields, etc.) Tennis has been a little behind in this trend. The United States Tennis Association is now endorsing QuickStart tennis as the way to teach children tennis skills. Taking a small child on a regular sized tennis court with adult-sized racquets and regular tennis balls is a recipe for frustration at not being successful and lots of ball chasing. QuickStart Tennis utilizes smaller racquets and modified balls, nets, and court size to give children a chance to be successful at tennis. At first glance it will appear that children participating in QuickStart are not playing "real" tennis. However, they will be learning the skills necessary to progress them to a point where they will be able to be successful on a regulation sized tennis court with regulation balls. Many youth tournaments now are going by the QuickStart format, and the USTA is pushing for cities and schools to put permanent QuickStart lines on their tennis courts for childrens' use. Please let me know if you have any questions about QuickStart tennis. Our hope is that all children involved this spring will gain a love for tennis as they become successful at learning tennis skills.