🎾A Game Changer for Tennis Lessons

Keeping children interested and motivated is a major factor in ensuring they stick with a sport, and tennis is no exception. It’s a technical game and teaching the sport can present challenges when it comes to retaining the fun. But for kids to stay motivated, they need to have fun, as well as learn the practical elements of the game.

Children would benefit from engagement in the sport on and off court, in the same way football is almost accessible in daily life through match attack cards and magazines aimed at the youth; reinforcing the positivity of tennis outside of gametime may help keep kids committed to play.

This may sound difficult but there is a wealth of resources available for parents and coaches on how to keep kids entertained, as well as learning. The LTA has a section on its website dedicated to Tennis at Home which includes videos for Tennis at home exercises, fun activity cards, learning activities and a range of challenges are aimed at children aged 4-11 years old. All freely available for coaches and parents.

Another fun way to keep children playing and learning, is by introducing different games and activities to help them practice key techniques, whilst completing fun challenges.

Coaches using the BallTrace device, saw an increase in engagement and concentration, when they used the tool to create a range of bespoke balls that created different challenges for their students.

One coach marked up a number of balls differently and placed them on cones in a grid, to create an interactive game of tennis ball snap! With students able to choose the tennis balls after successfully completing a goal set by the coach.

Another successful use of the marked balls is to increase concentration and keep kids fixed on looking at the ball, with students being asked to confirm the emoji marked on the ball served to them, as it is returned to the coach.

The BallTrace device is the only way to mark tennis balls quickly and neatly. Found on courts throughout the UK and USA, it transforms boring, plain tennis balls into fun, customised ones.

To personalise tennis balls, you simply clip the ball into the BallTrace marker, snap on a favourite stencil, and use the waterproof pen provided to perfectly mark tennis balls. Meaning it’s a device that allows children to engage with tennis off court too, as they experiment with the fun emojis using the stencils and different coloured pens to personalise their own tennis balls.