Mailbag: Introducing Kids to Tennis

Category: Tennis

Publish Date: 09-16-2010 02:11 PM -0400

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My husband and I wanted to introduce our 9-year-old twin boys to tennis, so we took them out to the high school courts with a couple of our old racquets. It was a disaster. They couldn’t hit the ball over the net, not even once, and after 10 minutes they were begging us to go home. We’re not looking to groom the next Roger Federers, but we’d like them to give tennis a chance and maybe get to enjoy it enough so eventually they’ll want to play family doubles with their dad and me. Are some balls better for kids than others and what kind of racquet should they start with?—Laurie

You used the wrong racquets, wrong balls, and even the wrong court, Laurie, but your timing couldn’t be better to get your twins into the game. Check out this promo for the recently approved 10 and Under Tennis.



During the U.S. Open last week, the USTA announced a sweeping rule change to downsize the equipment and courts for kids ages 10 and under. Beginning in 2012, all 10-and-under tournaments around the globe will be played with slower balls on smaller courts, and kids will be encouraged to use lighter and shorter racquets. The format was endorsed by the International Tennis Federation earlier in the summer and adopted by the USTA board during the Open. Patterned after the USTA’s three-year-old QuickStart program, it will become the new standard for kids’ tennis.

The idea behind 10 and Under Tennis is that the game is only fun when you can rally. That’s practically impossible for most kids on regular courts with regular equipment. It’s frustrating for a kid when he tries to cover a court the size of Montana, swing a racquet that takes both hands just to pick it up, and hit a ball that bounces higher than he is tall. We wouldn’t ask a kid to ride Lance Armstrong’s bike, so why ask him to play with Roger Federer’s equipment and on his court?

Other youth sports already have versions for kids, from Little League baseball to Pop Warner football to youth soccer. A Little League diamond is roughly two-thirds the size of the Major League version, and the bats kids swing are much lighter so they can get them around. Youth basketball is played on a smaller court with a rim that’s 2 feet shorter and a smaller ball that kids can handle, control and shoot. Youth soccer is played on a smaller field so the players touch the ball more often.

Millions of 10-and-under kids play those sports’ organized leagues, while currently only 10,971 play in the tennis equivalent, USTA-sanctioned tournaments, according to Kurt Kamperman, the USTA’s chief executive of community tennis. “A lot of communities have more kids playing soccer than we have in the entire country,” Kamperman says. “Kids struggle finding a passion for a sport designed for adults.”

Under the new rules, kids ages 5 to 8 will play on a 36-by-18-foot mini-court, about a third the size of a standard singles court, with a lower net and foam or low-compression felt balls. Nine- and 10-year-olds will play on a 61-by-21-foot court with a regulation-size net and slightly faster low-compression balls.��

The USTA also has a specific guideline to measure kids for the proper racquet: The racquet should be no longer than the distance from their fingertips to the ground when they’re standing with their arms at their sides. Generally, recommended racquet lengths are from 19–23 inches for kids ages 5–8 and 23–25 inches for 9- and 10-year-olds. The adult standard length is 27 inches.

We recommend that you opt for the biggest head size you can get for your beginners. It will improve their chances of hitting the string bed from the get-go. Here are some models to consider, divided up by length:

•�19 inches: Dunlop Aerogel 300 Jr. 19 (87-sq.-in. head); Wilson Sponge Bob or Wilson Dora the Explorer (82 sq. in.)

•�21 inches: Prince Airo Ace 21 (92 sq. in.); Yonex RDiS 21 (85 sq. in.)

•�23 inches: Head Agassi or Steffi 23 (105 sq. in.)

•�25 inches: Prince Airo Ace 25 (107 sq. in.); Babolat Nadal Junior 140 (105 sq. in.); Wilson Federer Collection 25 (105 sq. in.)

The obvious question is why has it taken tennis so long? Tennis is a sport that resists change. There have been only a handful of ITF-mandated equipment rule changes in the last 100 years. They came only when the ITF felt it was necessary to protect the game’s integrity, as when it abolished too-long racquets and spin-crazy spaghetti strings.

There has also been pushback on the 10-and-under rule by some top coaches, who complain it will force their protégés to dumb down their tennis. But Kamperman points out that this group, which he figures consists of less than 1 percent of kids, still has the option of playing up in the 12-and-unders on full courts with regular balls. And some 40 percent already do, he adds.

As the legitimate new standard, the rule will help recruit and keep more children in the game. So even if your kids never decide to play in a sanctioned tournament, at least they’ll be more successful on the doubles court with mom and dad.

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