Most youth sports make allowances for children. Baseball leagues begin with t-ball,
basketball lowers the baskets and uses smaller balls, soccer is played on
smaller fields with smaller balls, etc.
Until recently two sports, tennis and golf, did not make any concessions
for children learning the game until now.
Radley Run Country Club ( www.radleyruncountryclub.com)
is the only country club in the area that employs the Family Course golf tees
with total 18 hole yardage of 2200 and 3800 yards and the Quick Start Tennis
program in its Junior Tennis Academy.
Quick Start, or 10 and Under Tennis, takes a new and
better approach to introducing kids to the game. Balls are lower in compression, they bounce lower and don’t
move as fast so they are easier to hit giving kids time to get to the ball and
helps them develop optimal swing patterns. Racquets are smaller and lighter and the courts are
abbreviated. A full sized tennis
court is reconfigured in minutes to create up to 4 smaller courts thus allowing
for real play action in the Radley Junior Academy tennis clinics. As is often quoted, “the world of
tennis has been turned sideways with 10 and Under tennis.”
Radley’s Junior Tennis Academy is run by Blake
Williams. Blake’s approach to
introducing young girls and boys to tennis is utilizing the Quick Start program
so that in short order the kids are able to rally easily and for several times
over the net. The Radley Run
program encourages these rallying skills while 90% of the drills incorporate
sending and receiving skills. Kids
learn how to move to the ball as well as control their shots. “Because kids can rally from the
beginning of their development, it encourages them to enjoy the game at a very
young age. We think we can develop
some local superstar tennis players at Radley,” says Blake.
The Quick Start Radley Run Junior Tennis Academy program
started in 2010 and has grown to approximately 130 participates. As Radley expands its tennis facility
in 2011 with 4 new Har-Tru courts and 2 paddle tennis courts we anticipate even
more children joining the Academy.
For more information call Radley Run’s tennis center at 610-793-2114.
