Kay Kay First Tennis Lesson

Date:  Oct 7, 2014

Today is the first official tennis lesson for Kay Kay.

He is learning the tennis together with 5 others schoolmates from LWPS. 

I went there a bit early to catch Kay Kay in action.

He has a pretty good ball sense comparing to his brother.

And I think since he can hit quite a number of balls, he probably will continue this tennis class.

Next drill, he has to hit the ball lying on the ground and pull the racquet over the shoulder.

Lastly, it is a volley.

The aim is to train the ball sense.  And he did OK.

A Fun Tennis Evening

Date:  Sep 15, 2014

I can’t remember when is the last time we played on this court.

It’s been a long time.

Every day after dinner, instead of walking around at home, doing nothing, may be is a good idea to go for a 1 hour tennis fun with the kids.

It burns the calories, and it’s healthy. 

Last week, Kay Kay joins the LWPS holiday program - Tots Tennis at Clay Court Tennis just opposite LWPS.

Although is only 3 days of fun workout.  

Kay Kay suddenly have deep interests to play tennis.

At his level is to train his ball sense.  So, we decided to do tennis on the last day of September short school holiday.

Look at the way how he sling carry his tennis racquet and how he choose what to wear for his sock.  hahaha

Definitely … Let’s develop this interest.

For all night, Kay stands just behind the net and to “catch” the tennis ball with his racquet.  This is how the pro teach them in those 3 days.

Let him uses two hands to hold the racquet.

All he needs to do now, is to see and look where the ball going.

At the mean time, let’s see how is Jay Jay doing.  He took tennis course for about 1.5 years.  And shamefully, this is the FIRST TIME as a parent, we played with our kids.  I have never or always too tired to play tennis with Jay Jay.  That is why I could not give him much training.  I think that was a mistake I made.

He confuses badminton and tennis thru out his learning journey.  And I have to stopped his tennis training.  

Come to think about it.  I feel quite bad.  hahaha

So, let’s see how Jay is doing.  Wow, I am surprise, he now can rally 2-3 times.  So, I was thinking, if we get to play every week, just once, can he pick up and rally 4-5 or even 5-6 times?  Unlike badminton, he can do quite fair bit of rally.  Tennis is different.

For Kay Kay, we certainly will not let go any opportunity to groom his interest.  If he show a little tiny bit of interest, we will give him the opportunity.

For Jay, for exercise sake, let’s play tennis again today.  And let’s try to play it on weekly basis.

Learning How to Smash

Date:  Apr 23, 2013

Today, Jay Jay learned how to smash in his tennis class.  Cool!

I think Jay Jay has benefited from him badminton class, so, his ball sense is much better nowadays.  I saw him catching a tennis ball from the sky yesterday.  He can never do that last time.  So, it is a great achievement for him.

This is the clip that shows his first class of learning how to smash.  Even myself did not know that you have to hold the racquet this way to smash.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/7UhaH-2yEzc

And he has paid a lot of attention in class.  So, I think he is also doing quite well in his tennis class.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/KaCIMeLfx1E

When we were young, there is not much opportunity to learn all these sports.  We have to learn it in High School by ourselves.  Nowadays opportunities is important for kids.  So, if he still got a lot of time, and within budget, try to expose the kid to all kinds of sports so that they can start learning the sports and healthy living.  Hopefully this will get them away from PC, Games, iOS devices.  

Tennis Lesson - A Real Lesson

Date:  Jan 22, 2013

Today, we the parents learned a real lesson about coaching tennis.

"If you are not a tennis coach it is better don't teach your kids…" 

HaHaHaHaHa

This is so true...

Some of Jay's friends arrived early around 4:30pm at the tennis court so that they can practise.  So, the parents including me start throwing the tennis balls to  our kid.

"Jay, must focus.  Focus on the ball, and swing the racket."

Hmmm…. I threw 10 balls, and Jay was only able to hit 20%-30% of it.

"Jay, be focus.  Look at the ball.  See how it bounce."

Some how, Jay Jay simply just could not hit the ball well.

When coach Zul came in and teach.  Surprisingly all can hit the ball well.  The hitting rate is > 70%.  

OK… What went wrong?

1.  We, the temporary coach, is standing too far away from our kid.  And when we throw the ball, it is not consistent.  The ball actually bounce here and there. So, the kid got confuse about hitting the ball.  As we observed coach Zul simply stand beside the kid, and drop the ball in front of him.

2.  Now, when we get frustrated, we start to speak with a little bit louder voice and start questioning why they not focus?  Well, that is a No-No for a coach.  Remember, the kids love to play iPad games because the games always encourage them.  :) 

3.  I am afraid that Jay Jay hit the ball at me.  Very pain once hit your face.  hahaha But coach Zul does not seems to be afraid.  Sometimes, he just simply stand in front of the kids.

So, after we saw how coach Zul taught the kids, we realise why we cannot teach our kids effectively.  :) hahaha

Here is the video… See it yourself and you will know what I meant. 

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/6F8i6Fi7BBs

In general, these kids did well today.  Keep up the good work.

It's Tennis Lesson #1

Date:  Jan 15, 2013

For Primary 1 students, it meant a lot to them if they can learn something together with their familiar K2 friends.  Today is the first lesson where Jay Jay learned how to play tennis together with Lukas & Louis, Ashlyn, Royston.  

It rained earlier at 3pm.  But Jay Jay look into the sky and say "老天爷，不要下雨!".  

All the kids are beginners, so, they need to learn how to pick up the racket and start hitting balls.

Nice swing!  Lukas.

We found this coach from the Internet.  And he teaches around Clementi area.

Coach Zul is from STA, and I think he is qualify to teach the kids.

So, the first lesson is learning how to grab the racket, and how to swing it.

Nice swing, Jay!  Well done!

May be last time, when I sent Jay for the Tennis Tots is when Jay is 4 years old, which is a bit too young for him.  He could not even carry the racket correctly, and it is too heavy for him.  Now, 7 years old kid, is different.  I have to buy a new racket for him.  

Here is Royston swinging with 2 hands.  But coach Zul says, please use 1 hand.

Nice swing, Ashlyn!

Little Louis' turn to hit the ball.

In this class, we have 3 lefty and 2 right handers.

Every one seems to have fun during the 1 hour lesson.  See you next Tuesday!

Tennis @ Home

Date:  July 17, 2011

While my wife was searching for something in the store room, she found this...

As usual, she will "Blah Blah Blah... buy already never use... Blah Blah Blah.... 浪费钱... Blah Blah Blah...."

I think 3 years ago, I bought this from a US website, together with another ball thrower (loan it to a tennis coach friend)... and I don't recall we had used it  At that time, we buy this for Jay Jay, so that we don't have to throw ball at him.

So, we decided to give it a try today.  9AM, we were at the court.

Kay Kay enjoying picking up the ball.

It runs on battery.

And it is a great tools to teach kids how to hit the balls.

After a few stroke... Jay can remember how to hit a ball.  Remember, he went for a few months class when he was 2 plus years old.

Even Kay Kay also hit a tennis ball first time in his life.. hahaha

I think we will start doing this again... let Jay and Kay play the tennis twist few times a month...

Remember, you don't expect them to be expert in this sort of training sessions..

What you want them to learn is

1. Focus

2. There is racquet sports such as Tennis, badminton, etc.  That uses a racquet.

3. How to hold a racquet.

4. How eye, legs and hands works and coordinate together.

5. And why exercising is very important, especially for fat boy.

When they grew up, and when the time to chase girls, then, they will suddenly remember how to play, almost automatically, and be good at it.  It's fun to get your boys exposure to all kinds of sports if possible.  It helps to build the foundations of their future characters.

Most importantly, pick up balls is also a very healthy good exercise for both adults and kids.

Have fun!