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Fun tennis drills are aimed at kids and juniors learning how to play tennis. Kids can benefit from specific fun tennis drills designed to teach them the fundamentals of tennis helping kids solidify their tennis basics. There are many benefits of having fun tennis drills for kids, in order to help them learn tennis at a young age. It’s essential that fun and enjoyment are at the centre of learning for any child who is introduced to the game, and one key area that ensures kids have a fun time in their tennis development is through tennis drills and

Fun tennis drills are aimed at kids and juniors learning how to play tennis. Kids can benefit from specific fun tennis drills designed to teach them the fundamentals of tennis helping kids solidify their tennis basics.
There are many benefits of having fun tennis drills for kids, in order to help them learn tennis at a young age.

It’s essential that fun and enjoyment are at the centre of learning for any child who is introduced to the game, and one key area that ensures kids have a fun time in their tennis development is through tennis drills and games.

Many successful professional tennis players started to learn tennis at a very young age even at 2-3 years old, so the earlier a child can start to swing a racquet and develop a love for the game the better!

We’ve included some fun drills to use below that will keep kids engaged when learning how to play tennis.

Note: due to legal and privacy issues, the kids’ drills are filmed with adults. However, all these drills have been used extensively and successfully in kids’ tennis lessons.

Fun Tennis Drills #1: Hungry Crocodile

One of the best ways to introduce kids to striking the ball is through learning the volley.

Hungry Crocodile is a great volley game for a group of young kids. The coach should line the kids up next to the net, firstly showing them the correct volley technique.

Coaches generally have a few different ways to teach the volley, but for very young kids we find it easiest to teach them as if they were giving the ball a “high five”.

This “high five” should begin on the forehand volley and then once they have mastered that they can use two hands to hit a backhand volley.

If the kids are older they can learn to hit with a continental ‘hammer’ grip while using their non-hitting hand to guide the racquet as they hold the throat of the racquet.

In Hungry Crocodile the kids will line up next to the net and the coach will randomly feed to each player. By randomly feeding to each player the coach ensures that each child is attentive, alert and in ready position as they never know when they’ll receive a feed.

If a player makes a mistake they’ll lose a limb. The first limb to go is their non-hitting hand, the 2nd limb is one leg whereby they’ll go down on one knee, the 3rd limb is their other leg which will have them kneeling on the ground and finally the last mistake will result in them being eaten by the Crocodile and losing the game.

If a child has lost a limb and they successfully hit the shot back in they’ll be able to regrow that limb.

The last player standing who hasn’t been eaten by the crocodile wins the game.

Fun Tennis Drills #2: Shot and Bounce Selection

Shot and bounce selection has two players working together. One player will be throwing a ball to their partner who has a racquet in their hand ready to hit a shot.

The player throwing the ball will be calling out a shot (such as forehand, backhand or volley) and a number.

The shot they call out as they throw the ball will be the shot the player must hit, e.g. forehand. The number they call out will represent how many times the ball can bounce before the player can catch it e.g. 2.

If the thrower calls out “backhand one” and their partner hits a backhand over the net and it bounces once before the thrower catches it, then the pairing receives one point.

If they’re multiple kids playing then the players can split up into pairs and compete against each other.

The pairing that reaches 7 points first wins.

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