Sport
28 October, 2024
Colourful season for tennis
HAVING recently completed their Green Ball Tennis Championships for juniors, the Mossman Squash and Tennis Club have just concluded their Orange Ball 2024 Club Champs.
“The competition was run over six Monday afternoons and was tightly contested, with only three games separating first to fourth,” said club secretary Bev Gwynne.
“Nate Bender eventually came through as the singles champion with Xaiden Bower the runner up,” she said.
Brothers Lennox and Dash Berry claimed the doubles championship.
Tennis Hot Shots, as the competition series is known, is a fun, social and active introduction to the sport.
In fact, it is regarded as the easiest way for children aged 10 and under to learn how to play tennis.
Developed by coaching professionals, this program is Tennis Australia’s official starter program and promotes the use of smaller courts and slower balls to teach children how to play tennis.
Children progress through three stages – Red, Orange and Green – as their ability improves. This approach to teaching youngsters’ tennis is also recommended by the International Tennis Federation.
The Red ‘Explore’ stage is for beginners aged 5 to 8. The red ball is larger than a normal yellow ball and doesn’t bounce as high, making it a breeze for even the youngest players to hit it comfortably. At the same time, the courts and nets used in the red stage are much smaller and easier for kids to move around.
After mastering the Red stage, children move on to the Orange ‘Develop’ stage for ages 8 to 10. The ball bounces a little higher and faster and the court is a slightly bigger.
For the Green stage ‘Encourage’, the ball used bounces higher and faster than the orange ball and children play on a full-size court.
Eventually players will graduate to the normal yellow ball and play on a full-size court.
“At the Mossman Squash and Tennis Club, we are presently running Green and Orange stages, as the club currently doesn’t have the younger players, to run the Red program” Ms Gwynne said.
People keen to get involved can find more details at
https://play.tennis.com.au/mossmansquashandtennisclub
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