Total Champion
Quick Start Tennis
10-and-under kids get on the fast track

By Rhonda Winstead Brown

We often lose good little athletes to other sports . . . good sports, mind you.

But how many soccer or baseball players never really considered tennis because:  #1 it’s too hard to learn at an early age and, #2 because they miss out on being a part of a team.

The early support structure is already in place for many sports.  With baseball, you have T-ball, then coach pitch, before graduating to kids pitch.  In basketball, the goal is lowered for the little tykes.  For years, soccer seems to be the sport of choice for really young children, because let’s face it – it is simply easier to run around and kick a ball at age 4 than it is to hit a tennis ball over the net.

Although junior size tennis racquets have been available for many years, tennis is still a sport that takes great hand eye coordination and it’s difficult for a young child to hit a regulation tennis ball on a full-size court.

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) addressed the gap in tennis training for young people some years ago.  The USTA developed the concept of Team Tennis because, simply put, kids like to be with their friends and they like to play for a team. 

With team tennis, clubs assemble a roster of players that play other clubs, usually on Sunday afternoons.  Younger kids have the “rally ball format,” where a point is earned every time a ball is hit over the net, instead of playing the traditional format.  Older intermediate and advanced players play pro sets.

But the USTA recognizes that we must do better to attract the good athletes at an early age.

Enter, Quick Start.

The new Quick Start format is designed for getting kids aged ten-and-under to take up the sport quickly and get them having a great time playing on a team.  This format has worked beautifully in Europe.  And just as tennis made its way from Europe to the United States in the 19th century, we now borrow from them the latest and hottest new way of teaching youngsters.

Here is how Quick Start works.

 A regular-sized court is divided into several courts, scaled-down in size for either 8-and-under or 10-and-under.  The racquets are scaled down, too.  The net is not as high, and we use low-compression balls to give the kids more reaction time.  Regulation balls bounce much too high and heavy for a smaller racquet.  As a tennis pro, I’ve agonized right along with my scaled-down students, affectionately called Mighty Mites.  They swing and they miss.  They look so forlorn.

Lastly, and this is a biggy – the scoring system is different.  Many adults are confused enough with the scoring system devised by our French brethren.  Can you imagine the difficulty of explaining “advantages” and “tie-breakers” with 5 and 6 year olds?   The scoring format allows for a simpler and much shorter match.   For 8 and under, there are only seven points in a game.  The best of three games are played so the entire match lasts approximately 20 minutes.

For 10-and-under, four games make up one set, and the players play best of three sets.  If it goes to a “third set,” the first player to win seven points wins the match.

The beauty of Quick Start is that, because the equipment is so much more suitable to their size and ability level, the kids can take full swings and rally almost from the first or second time-out.  They feel successful so they have great fun.  And they can do all of this with minimal instruction.

Some clubs already are including this Quick Start format in their Team Tennis program, and more will implement it for the Fall season.  As a parent, you may want to consider Quick Start for your under-10 child to get him or her off to a successful start in this great game.  For more information and volunteer opportunities, contact partners.quickstarttennis.com or CTA (Charlottetennisassociation.com).

Rhonda Brown in President of Total Champion,
Tennis instruction and mental toughness consulting
Email:  Rhonda@totalchampion.com