USA Team Tennis makes a racket; taking the team approach in tennis brings kids back to the courts

Parks & Recreation, July, 2004 by Marikate Murren

It's time to talk tennis--did you ever wonder where the majority of children first learned to play the game? If you were like me, the answer would be a park court somewhere in your neighborhood. And chances are, you learned the few rules from a friend or adult, and then were told to "play the game." In baseball, you didn't spend time learning the technique of throwing, catching or kicking a ball ... you just hit the field and worried about the skills later. You probably struck out many times at home plate before you were able to come in contact with the ball. The more you played the game, the more you learned the strategy, and the more successful you became.

According to the 2003 United States Tennis Association/Intercollegiate Tennis Association participation survey, more than 80 percent of new players to tennis last year first learned the game on either a school court or on a park court. I was no different--I was first exposed to tennis through a park and recreation summer program in Fairfield, Conn., which gave area children an opportunity to cooperate and interact physically and socially through music, theater, arts & crafts and physical activity. My park and recreation department focused on "developing the whole child" or building lifetime skills through its summer programming.

Today, nothing has changed with the philosophy for most of the park and recreation departments, just the fight for leisure time availability in the community. It is up to the youth sport organizations to adjust to the needs and desires of their constituents. Like many other youth programs across the country, tennis has evolved into a team format instead of the old perception of individual play. Cities and towns looking to facilitate the team tennis idea, can now do so through the USA Team Tennis program for youth, sponsored by the United States Tennis Association (USTA).

By combining the innovative format of USA Team Tennis and the Game-Based Approach (GBA) to learning tennis, park and recreation departments across the country can deliver a program that will keep kids "playing for a lifetime." Traditional tennis instruction is often boring and provides a limited fitness base during the early learning stages. To combat this boredom, the fun of playing tennis is introduced right from the beginning, by re-creating playing situations adapted to the level of the players. This approach gets rid of repetition and children waiting in line to play the game. The main focus is for kids to just get the ball over tire net consistently and to have fun doing it.

Scott Biron, a physical education teacher in Acton, Mass., credits the GBA for changing the way he delivers physical education at the school. "Whether it's tennis, football, or lacrosse, the emphasis is on playing the game--not on boring skills." Students have the opportunity to experience decision-making, positioning and stroke technique as it relates to the entire game of tennis.

Mike and Bob Bryan, the current No. 1 men's doubles team in the world and the USA Team Tennis spokespersons, started playing tennis in a team tennis program when they were six years old in Camarillo, Calif. "We loved playing with the other kids, being on a squad, having team shirts, going in vans for matches. The whole team experience was a blast, rooting for each other and supporting each other ... having fun!" Now many years later the Bryan brothers have played on more than 26 teams including high school tennis, and collegiate tennis at Stanford University and now the United States Davis Cup Team.

Though the USA Team Tennis format is flexible, in general most programs consist of girls and boys of similar age and ability practicing and playing weekly matches. According to Dick Roux, a 24-year volunteer in the Hartford Country Parks and Recreation Department in Bel Air, Md., who delivers the USA Team Tennis Youth program, "Children don't care about the gender of their opponent, they just want to play with their friends and have fun. They don't want to stand in line and practice all the boring stuff of learning a new game. They just want to play."

Not only does the team format allow the children to learn the game more quickly, it also affords parents the ability to interact with their kids on a regular basis. "One mother shared with me that tennis was the commonality she had with her son. Playing tennis provided them the opportunity to share more quality time together," Roux added.

In recent years, Little League and youth soccer have benefited from the use of parents as coaches or administrators for program implementation. Roux has seen an increase in his children's parents gaining a sense of community by being a "parental tennis leader." And by doing so, their participation leads to stress reduction or staying in shape, while spending quality time with their sons or daughters.

According to Rick Luther, recreation supervisor at Baraboo Parks and Recreation in Baraboo, Wis., the most important aspect of a child's participation in the USA Team Tennis program is the ability to teach the kids to rally quickly "The program meets the goals of all the other youth sports by providing an opportunity to learn in conjunction with playing the game." Luther goes on to say, "We have participated in Development Coaches Workshops (DCW) to give our instructors the necessary tools to deliver this approach because we believe it is the most successful way possible to expose children to tennis."