Here at Fit For Kids Co. we are focussed solely on coaching kids from the ages of 3.5 - 10yrs of age predominately. This means we get to see a whole lot of young players across our various sports of tennis, golf, cricket, basketball, netball & soccer. There are certainly now, some things that we have picked up over the years from teaching this age group that all parents and coaches should be aware of. Here are just a few:

1. Cones, Markets or lined out areas. When students are first starting out, they can find the dimensions and areas of the court or grounds confusing and hard to nivigate. Whilst as a coach or p[layer we see the areas as a given and know where we should be, for young children this is not the case. The use therefore of cones or markers is crucial not only for the safety aspect of teaching, but also for showing the students where they need to be as they begin to form the idea in their heads.

2. Repeat Repeat Repeat. Repitition is another super important part of the learning process for young children. When they are first learning any sport, they will be recieving a lot of information and there will also be a great deal of proccessing of their surroundings, parents, friends and the general environment. This is why its really important to keep driving home the key points you are trying to get them to learn. Ask them to repeat instructions back to you and be sure to ask them questions at the conclusion of the class. This will help to reinforce the key points and ensure they wll remember them in a weeks time when they are back again for that next lesson.

3. Keep it to a 3 step process. With our students here at Fit For Kids Co. we have consistently found that breaking any stroke, shot or move into a simple 3 step process is the best way to teach a beginner. By breaking it down into 3 easy steps, the student is able to easily digest the information and remember it when needed. This also alliviates the need to 'over complicate' the teaching and forces the coaches to condense the most important parts into the 3 given steps.

4. Use relatable examples. When constructing a given 3 step process, its really important to make the steps fun and relatable. By creating funny and interesting examples the children will enjoy learning the steps and be keen to try them themselves. For example, when we teach a side on stroke for tennis, we teach the students to 'stand like a surfer'. This gets them to understand the knee bend, balance and is also reaully easy remember!

5. Fun. If its not, why will they want to do it. These days there are so many activities for children to engage with, from sport to video games & even virtual reality. It's therefore more important now more than ever that we make sport and fitness fun! Find ways to make a game out of almost any activity or drill. Add scoring in for more competative students and finally prizes always seem to make things a little more fun too!  Use your imagination to find new fun ways to play old games.

So here are just a few things that we here at Fit For Kids Co think are important in order to make your teaching of a new student fun & engaging. We hope you can implemement these with your kids or students & heres to having more fun out there!

Fit For Kids Co. Team 

Whilst in the modern game, the approach and volley has almost been long forgotten in singles, it still remains a crucial shot to get right for doubles, approach situations and simply to ensure your kids have a completely well rounded game. Today we wanted to look at the volley and asses the key criteria for how to hit a great one. For us there are three basic aspects they are important when teaching very young students.

1. Racquet strings facing forward. For a young student this is the first thing we want them to do. Getting them to make contact is going to create confidence and enjoyment which will encourage them to continue to practise the stroke.

2. Stepping in on the correct foot. Very important that they get this right early on to ensure that they are reinforcing good habits and not bad ones. Remind them to step in on the opposite foot for a forehand & block the ball.

3. No swing. With our young students we remind them that the volley is like a 'high five' not a 'big swing'. We get the students to repeat this back to our coaches over and over to ensure we are engraining this element to them. 

So these are our 3 key aspects of teaching young beginners the volley. Obviously as they progress and get older the instruction becomes a little more technical, but if you can ingrain the basics first, you will have a really solid foundation to work from.

Good luck and let us know how you go teaching your child the tennis volley.

Fit For Kids Co. 
Tennis, Sport & Fitness for kids in Melbourne. 

Last night we witnessed the straight sets defeat of Novak Djokavic one of the worlds best tennis players by Hyeon Chung the young Korean. Chung showed incredible athlethesism and skill as he took the world champion in 3 hard earned sets. Chung admitted after the game that he had in fact idolised the Serb whilst growing up and through juniors. He even admitted that he had modelled many of his amazing strokes on him. It was a great upset and a wonderful match. Good luch in the next round Hyeon!

 

What an amazing first week of tennis we have seen here in Melbourne at the Australian Open. We have seen the Aussies put on some incredible matches and of course some of the big guns such as Rafa, Roger & Djok making their way through to the fourth rounds. We are really looking forward to watching Nick Kyrios take on Dimitrov tonight on centre stage.

Enjoy some of the action and press conferences below:

Fit For Kids Co.
Tennis Coaching, lessons & sporting schools incursions in Melbourne. 

It's already been so good to see the great man Roger Federer winning his first few matches at Australian Open 2018. We love everything this guy does and we are looking forward to seeing if he can make it through to another AO Final & possible title.

Here's a litle taste of his few matches.

Enjoy.

Fit For Kids Co

Coaching & Lessons in tennis, soccer, golf & many other sports. To find out about our programs, incursions & private lessons please contact us today HERE