Class Descriptions

The classes are 45 minutes long and take place at indoor venues such as church halls and sports centres ensuring that they are accessible to all. The class sizes are limited and there is a fun, play based approach with each session teaching and developing, agility, balance and co-ordination through the sport of tennis. The lessons are taken by qualified DBS-checked coaches and specially adapted, brightly coloured mini tennis equipment is provided for the children to use at the sessions.

Detailed lesson plans ensure that the skills achieved each week are built upon with suggestions for ball practice to try at home between lessons and every child receives a sticker book with stickers being handed out at the end of each week’s lesson to reward their achievements. The Tennis Tykes branding is fun and the characters are very appealing to this age group. T shirts and a tennis pack comprising a racket, ball, t shirt and Tennis Tykes carry bag bearing the logo are available for purchase as optional extras.

Social interaction, confidence, listening, language and numeracy skills are developed with the children being asked to identify colours and to count the number of a skill they achieve. We never forget that this is a fun learning experience and that the children are very young so, with this in mind, nursery rhyme music is used for warm ups and cool downs. Our two cheeky characters, Tommy and Tessa Tyke are also never far away and help to bring the programme to life.

We ensure that every child from the age of 2 uses rackets and hits over a net during every lesson. This makes our teaching programme unique ensuring that even the youngest child experiences the thrill of hitting a ball over a low net.

Pre School Age lessons - age 4 & under

These lessons take place at various venues on weekdays before 3pm so that if you do have an older child you have time to collect them from school. There is parental involvement so that you can share the excitement of learning this new skill with your child and assist them with their learning and development. As parents are on hand to assist the children, every child can work at his/her own pace with advice and help from the coach.

Lessons begin with a warm up to music, followed by activities which develop the child’s basic ABCs (agility, balance and co-ordination). Racket and ball work plays the largest part of every lesson with sponge balls and small rackets being used to promote hand, eye co-ordination. Every child learns to hit over a low net from their very first session and they learn the basic shapes of the main tennis shots.

We have found that children’s abilities can vary significantly so that some 2.5 year olds are more advanced in their hitting skills than some 4 year olds. We do not therefore segment our sessions on an age basis such as 2-3 and 3-4 but look at the child’s skills once they attend the first lesson and ensure that their skills are matched with an appropriate session.

School Age lessons - age 4 to 8

The sessions are split into reception and year 1 groups as children are used to working in these age groups at school but these are very much a guide and children generally attend the session that best reflects their ability. Children in the school age sessions take part in the sessions without parental involvement (although parents are always very welcome to stay and watch). Children therefore build on their new found independence now that they are at school 5 days a week.

Children learn the game of tennis on smaller courts with the adapted mini tennis equipment. The lessons follow the LTA’s Mini Tennis Red programme. Fun competition and scoring is also introduced.