It was perfect Saturday for tennis, sunny with a cool breeze. We had a good number of kids come out for the first day of tennis at each of the four sites. We went over a few new rules -- youth athletes who show up late will have "consequences," such as running extra laps, and for those kids that show up after the first 30 minutes, they'll be denied entry into class completely. Lesson learned? Be on time! Class always starts at 1pm.
At Tompkins, the first part of class was spent getting to know each other's names and playing fun games like relay races. Then we moved into the proper way to hold your racquet and the correct motion of a forehand. We focused on swinging from the middle of the hip and following through so the racquet ends above the shoulder. The youth athletes caught on very quickly. We broke them up into three groups each with a different game that focused on the forehand technique. Class ended with a group game of frogger.
It was a really great time and we're all looking forward to next week as well as seeing the final results of the kids' hard work at the end of the season. It's going to be a great year! Check out some more photos from the season opener on Facebook.