September 2007 -- In 1994 we developed USPTA Little Tennis® to draw a group of potential tennis players that at the time we felt had not been sufficiently tapped. The teaching program was designed to engage young children - ages 3 to 10 - and their parents in tennis-related skills and activities with the hope that they would stay with and grow the game.
Now we’re excited to repackage Little Tennis, a teaching program, to support the
Quick Start Tennis play format, described by USTA as "tennis to scale." It focuses on the use of smaller courts, sponge and low-compression balls and graduated racquets, and was formerly known as 36-60.
If you attended last year’s Tennis Teachers Conference or some of USTA’s committee meetings, you know that the organization has been working on this program for more than a year. Complete with a new name, Quick Start is being unveiled as a collaborative effort between USTA’s community tennis and player development departments, and teaching professional organizations, industry leaders and equipment manufacturers.
With goals similar to that of Little Tennis, Quick Start aims to increase the number of beginner players between the ages of 5 and 10, increase this group’s retention rate, and improve the technical, tactical and physical development of these players. USTA activities, such as its Junior Team Tennis and tournaments, will utilize the courts and equipment, with 8-and-under players using the 36-foot courts and 10-and-under players using the larger 60-foot courts, according to Kurt Kamperman, USTA chief executive, community tennis. While the play format was introduced to teaching professionals at the recent Tennis Teachers Conference prior to the U.S. Open, Kamperman said more details about Quick Start Tennis will be announced in late September with the consumer launch set for spring 2008.
Little Tennis and its resources represent the perfect partner for Quick Start. Its teaching component stresses similar graduated courts and equipment. And, going a step further, it provides the most extensive resources for planning, administering and teaching the youngest players in our sport. Little Tennis is designed to be led by a teaching professional, who directs the use of structured lesson plans, drills, league play and follow-up activities. These resources are available in the program’s manual,
USPTA’s Complete Guide to Little Tennis, and on the reorganized Web site - www.littletennis.com.
Littletennis.com now separates its resources into three distinct areas for "Pros," "Kids" and "Parents." Teaching professionals can access a wealth of information, the most important of which is the Teachers Toolbox. This area contains information on creating a program, lesson plans, drills, games, tips, how to start a program through schools, additional activities and more.
The "Just 4 Kids" area provides links to fun Internet sites, word games, a coloring contest, tennis trivia, a picture gallery and
NetMagic magazine. Parents are guided to various pages or links that explain Little Tennis, games parents can use with their children, a shopping area,
NetMagic magazine and USPTA’s Find-a-Pro site.
The Find-a-Pro link is another very important part of the site since it provides parents and others with a very efficient way to search for and locate tennis teachers for their children and family. It’s also important to note that our Find-a-Pro site also provides potential students with your personal Web site address. So, if you teach Little Tennis - or any program that targets young children, it’s important that you highlight that as part of your biographical sketch or facility’s program offerings on your personalized site.
Little Tennis teaching resources and play format like Quick Start are great ways to market your services. Conversely, we need your participation in them to meet our industry’s goals of recruiting young players and then retaining them as they grow into adults.
If you already teach children using Little Tennis resources or those of your own making, that’s great! If you don’t, we urge you to get online and explore the Little Tennis Web site, and consider using Quick Start to introduce tennis activities to an eager group of customers.
