Teaching angle play is crucial for a successful game plan. A great way to teach young kids this skill is to teach them the clock. If they haven’t done it yet, it is additionally addressing their cognitive skills. For imagining better the angles they should imagine a clock on the tennis court like in the following picture.

On the level of the T-Line, the digit 9 of the clock should be imagined on the deuce side and the digit 3 of the clock on the ad side of the court. These are extreme angles you should not start with. Start with the kids the angle play to direction 10 and 11 o’clock on the deuce side and to direction 1 and 2 o’clock on the ad side.

I always try to implement some motivational exercises with using the kid’s favorite super hero to master the different exercises. Here in Jelena’s case it is Lady Bug.

For the first exercise, I place the Ladybug balloon on the angle position at 11 o’clock. Jelena now has to throw the basketball into that direction, timing the movement precisely to be able to play the basketball into that angle. When changing the position of Ladybug, she has to adapt to a different angle. Every time she manages to throw the basketball to the right angle she wins points. The same can be done by throwing the ball to the inside out directions onto 1 and 2 o’clock.

The progression challenges Jelena now to do so too with the racket and feeding balls so she has to target the right angle with the forehand crosscourt and later on playing the forehand inside out. Challenge your kids with a combination of executing movement patterns and cognitive skills. For example, the player has to call the clock (the direction of the ball) before hitting it.

Try these great exercises out to bring the angle play from early ages into your player’s repertoire.

All the best COACH DIMI