Time:
45 to 60 minutes
Equipment:
Spots, racquets, large balls, targets, beanbags or Koosh balls, teaching cable, tee and small net
1. Welcome/roll call (3 min.)
2. Warm-up
Run the lines (5 min.)
Everyone follows the leader along the lines of the court, changing forms of locomotion each time they reach a new line. This is a good way to teach the lines of the court while children:
- Walk fast
- March
- Jog
- Stop and jump back and forth over a line
- Take giant steps and then baby steps
- Hopscotch
- Hop like frogs and then bunnies
Slow stretches (2 min.)
Spread the children along a line and have them count together as they do the following stretches:
- Reach for the sky and down to your toes
- Arm circles forward and backward
- Ready, set, stretch -- in a starter’s block position, extend one leg and hold, then extend the other
3. Motor skills
Hopscotch and roll (5 min.)
Set up a hopscotch pattern for the children to follow using spots or chalk. The coach should stand several feet in front of the hopscotch pattern facing the children. When the children complete the pattern, they should land on both feet. Then the coach can roll or bounce a ball to either side of the child, who moves to trap or catch it and then rolls, tosses or throws it back.
Crocodile River (5 min.)
Each child should stand across the doubles alley (Crocodile River) from a parent-coach. The river is full of crocodiles that will eat anything that falls in. The object is to safely pass a beanbag from coach to student, racquet to racquet, across the alley. Set goals for the number of safe handoffs.
Beanbag balance (10 min.)
Place the children and parent-coaches in teams at the baseline balancing beanbags or Koosh balls on their racquets for the following game variations:
1. Relay: Give each team one beanbag and have one child or parent-coach from each team walk to an instructor and return to the baseline to pass off the beanbag to the next player. Have the instructors step farther away and play again.
2. Have the children follow the leader along the lines of the court.
4. Racquet skills
Mini-carnival (15 min.)
Set up a teaching cable, a tee and a small net. Station parent-coaches at each one. Rotate the children among the stations to do relays on the cable, count consecutive hits or target hits from the tee and hit volleys at the net.
5. Final game/wrap-up/homework
Red light/green light (5 min.)
All children begin at the baseline and the coach stands at the net. When the coach calls "green light," children move as quickly as possible toward the net. When the coach calls "red light," the children must freeze. The game continues until a child reaches the net. Play once with the children balancing beanbags on their racquets and once without.
Practice suggestions:
Balloon games
Object passes from racquet to racquet
Volleys
