Tennis is Academic
This was the first year of Page County Recreation Department's "Tennis is Academic" program which was offered to middle school aged children at the Town of Shenandoah Public Tennis Courts. The program consisted of 8 lessons that focused on a different technical tennis stroke each day over 4 days. Also hand eye coordination, racquet/ball control and athleticism games/exercises were performed to improve players coordination and speed. Discussions about school, food, life experiences, etc. improved players communication skills. Kirk Comer was there each day of the program as the organizer. Anna Armentrout, Annie Bailey, Stacie Bailey, Nikki Cubbage, Tiffany Kibler and Katie Shenk all served as instructors by communicating, demonstrating the games/exercises and displayed how to have fun not only on the tennis courts but in life. Some of the events included:
Racquet Quickness Circle -On the count of three players must let go of their racquet and grab their teammate's racquet before it falls. If no racquets fall then everyone takes a step back making the circle bigger.
Racquet Handling was comprised of two separate exercises:
"Indy 500" has players rolling balls around the racquet face and "Ball Bounce" has players bouncing balls in all kinds of crazy and challenging ways to improve ball control.
Jog Ball was the exercise where players set their racquets in the middle of a circle and players work on tossing the ball while skipping, jumping, etc.
The Volley Progression was a technical skill development of the volley. In 5 steps the players learned the basics of the forehand and backhand volley.
Champion Of The Court was a singles game using orange balls that bounce at a 50% reduction of normal tennis balls on a slightly smaller tennis court. The game puts all the technical skills that players learned during the program to use in live games. Whoever wins the point becomes "Champion Of The Court" as teammates line up to beat the champion.
Red Ball Doubles was the doubles games using the mini-nets and very small courts. The red balls bounce at 75% reduction of normal tennis balls and teaches players to control the ball using their technical skills. Players also learn teamwork playing with a doubles partner.
Middle school children have a great opportunity to learn how to play tennis!
