After a child is able to balance a tennis ball on the strings of their racquet, they should begin to learn to move the ball and still remain in control. Rolling the ball around on the strings is typically the first step towards controlled movement which is often followed by the child moving while still keeping a ball balanced on the racquet strings.
Many coaches will race their students (if only one participant) or set the children in a race scenario based on keeping the ball balanced on the strings while moving quickly to some predetermined spot. Parents can race their children across the driveway or even find out how many times they can spin around in a circle without the ball falling off the strings.
As the child becomes stronger in the ability to keep the ball on the strings, try the following: Have the child bounce the ball upwards using the racquet without letting the ball hit the ground. We call this “Bump Ups.” The term ‘bump’ implies a small contact between ball and racquet as opposed to the term ‘hit’ which implies a strong contact assuming the ball flying away at great speed.
Some reminders:
- Bounce the ball upward using the racquet
- Keep the bumps (or bounces) below ‘head high’
- The softer the contact; the easier it is
There are two ways to measure success:
- Keep a running total of all times the ball is bounced on the strings
- Count the number of bump ups obtained ‘in a row’ without missing
In the early stages of learning to control bump ups, the child will be more interested in how many bounces they are able to obtain in total. This allows the child to count further than 1 or 2 and shows early success if even simply counting attempts at success. As the child develops the ability to bounce the ball successively on the racquet, begin to set goals for the number of times ‘in a row’ the child can continue their control of “Bump Ups.”
In the Tennis for Children article “Balance the Ball. Don’t Let it Fall,” I mention a few ways to keep repetitive counting to small totals interesting. Counting in different languages is certainly my favorite. Over the years, I have personally learned to count to 10 in Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese (not so different from Spanish), French (which I already knew), German and Korean.
However in any language, “Bump Ups” are a great way to help a child further develop their tennis skills!
Good luck, and remind your child of Rule #1 of Tennis for Children:
- Never try to hit the ball with your face!
