Hello again,  this will be a short post (maybe) about yet again a difficult question.  Just to give some background there are stages of tennis development (red/orange/green) and age groups associated with them.  Also in the mix is mini ratings that are competition based that suggest how a player is developing within the stage.  Just to really complicate things take the varying degrees that children develop and you are now in a pickle! Now to the question…when should children move up to the next stage?

The obvious answer is that it is at the discretion of the coach when he/she feels it is appropriate and that the child is demonstrating the relevant skill set.  Of course this differs from coach to coach so is there an answer?

In the past people (including me) have been critical of mini tennis as it hasn’t been adopted across the rest of the world (until recently) and that other countries have managed to produce world class tennis players the “good old fashioned way”.

Well firstly, the UK is not the rest of the world and let’s face we have to do stuff differently due to the culture of the country.  With that said perhaps mini tennis is the way forward.

Mini Tennis Videos

WARM UP

PAIR DRILLING

POINT PLAY AGAINST THE COACH

MATCHPLAY

In the past people (including me) have been critical of mini tennis as it hasn’t been adopted across the rest of the world (until recently) and that other countries have managed to produce world class tennis players the “good old fashioned way”.

Well firstly, the UK is not the rest of the world and let’s face we have to do stuff differently due to the culture of the country.  With that said perhaps mini tennis is the way forward.