There are many people with ideas about how to promote and increase the amount of people who play tennis. There are programs designed around promoting the fitness aspect of tennis. There are numerous programs aimed at children. There are team tennis programs and tournament formats of all types. Every one of these programs can be great based upon how they are delivered. There are lots of reasons people play tennis and many of them are addressed by the programs that are offered by tennis clubs and tennis associations. It seems to me that one aspect that can bring more players to the game of tennis than anything else is being overlooked…FUN!
I started tennis in a public park and kept with it because it was FUN. There was an interesting group of characters who played in this park and they welcomed a teen age kid who loved to play. Over the years the best tennis environments that I have participated in as a player or teacher have always included a great deal of fun. Tennis can be competitive and frustrating and demanding in many ways. But it can also be great fun. It is a great way to meet people. You can continue to learn and improve your game for your entire life. Tennis can be played against one player (singles) or as part of a doubles team. If you want to get a little bit out of the box give triples a try. It can be a fun, fast paced and interesting way to play tennis.
So what are the obstacles for new players to experiencing the fun of tennis. There seems to be 2 main challenges for new players. Number 1 is that tennis is not an easy sport to learn. The skills can be difficult to master and it is easy to learn strokes and habits that are not fundamentally sound and can limit the success of a player. The second challenge is that it can be difficult to find players of a similar ability level to play with.
Both of these problems can be solved by skilled and caring tennis professionals. A tennis professional should be concerned with getting a player “hooked” on tennis. The best way to do that is to make sure that the new player can play with other people as soon as possible. I spent a year teaching tennis in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia when I was with Peter Burwash International (PBI). The sports club at one of the top hotels in the city had only two tennis courts on the roof of the parking structure but it had a large membership of families from many different countries who were working in Malaysia. One of the largest segments of my lesson business was beginning women players. Many of them were looking for something new to do in a new city. I enjoyed these students a great deal and they were all learning how to play a very decent game. But a few months into my time there I realized that these women would greatly benefit from playing games with other players. So I made a rule that you could not take a lesson unless you played with another player before the lesson. Brilliant idea…not exactly, soon I found that my lesson income had taken a serious dip because my new students were too shy and too inexperienced to set up their own games. So with some pressure on my income I either had to rescind my new rule or come up with another solution. The idea that I came up with was to call and gather all the new women together for a free doubles clinic. At this event I introduced all the players to each other and had them play doubles together with a little bit of instruction. It was a great success. Soon I had my beginners coming back for lessons with a purpose of how they could get better for their games with their new friends. With this one event I solved both of the challenges to new players. They had learned the fundamental skills of hitting the ball in lessons. At our doubles event they learned how to play a game and they also met other players that gave them a chance to start really having fun on the court.
One of the hottest sports in the United States right now is Pickleball. Pickleball is experiencing a boom that reminds me of the tennis boom of the 1970’s. People are playing pickleball in record numbers for a couple of reasons. First of all it is an incredibly easy game to learn. Anyone can learn pickleball in just 30 minutes or less! It is also a great social activity. I know many players who enjoy the sitting and talking (and maybe a little eating or drinking) as much as they do the time on the courts. This game is played on a much smaller court area than tennis so it is less demanding physically. I know many tennis professionals who are playing and promoting pickleball at their clubs.
So why am I writing about pickleball in a blog named The Joy of Tennis? Because I think tennis is a far superior sport and recreational activity but we can learn a lot from our friends with the little paddles. If we want to spur the growth of tennis we have to make it as fun and easy as pickleball. I know there are many tennis professionals and instructors who read this blog. I ask you to look at your teaching and find ways to make it easier for new players to learn to play the game faster. Can you get new players into a game after a few lessons? Once after I did a speaking session at a tennis conference a young professional came to me and told me he really liked my ideas about teaching but he was concerned that if he taught what I was suggesting that his students would improve too fast and he would not have enough lessons!!!! I appreciated his honesty and I explained to him that the exact opposite would happen. That once his students saw how fast they were improving that they would be eager to take more lessons and to improve other parts of their game.
Pickleball is fun, social and easy to learn. I hope those of us who love tennis will take a good look at our programs and find ways to make tennis easier to learn and create social environments where tennis is the center of the event, Tennis is a game for a lifetime and if we can attract players to the Joy of Tennis we will be giving them gift for a lifetime.
Thanks for reading and please head out to the courts to experience
THE JOY OF TENNIS
