Children’s Tennis Lessons in Hong Kong

I found a great tennis teacher in Hong Kong!  I was thinking of giving my kids a more active, outdoors and crazy sweat sport to get them to burn all their crazy energy and help further develop their motor skills.  Tennis is definitely becoming more common in Asia and with the year round weather conditions (hey, it never snows here… but we do have the occasional typhoons), playing outdoors is great!  In a country where public grass doesn’t exist, and even if it did, you can’t STEP on it – the opportunity that my kids can run around on a court is great!

The tennis association I found is designed to serve the unique tennis needs of the younger (and smaller) people.  They focus on footwork and becoming familiar with movements involved in tennis.  They do activities such as:

• Running on the spot
• Picking up balls
• Swinging motionless balls (the teacher dangles the ball with a “fishing rod”)
• Throwing at targets
• How to get up from sitting position
• How to balance a racket
• How to balance balls
• Relay activities
• How to stretch after a good tennis session

The lessons are an hour in length and cost around $200 per lesson per child.  You also have to purchase your own rackets ($180 a piece), but truth be told, they will destroy the racket because he teaches them to swing with the ball rolling on the floor – which is a smart idea because I don’t see them hitting the ball in mid air right away.  I like the fact that the teacher starts in baby steps and gets them to enjoy the movements rather than plowing them head first into the game itself.  That will come in time when they become more proficient.  As well, the teacher’s patience level and ability to teach young children is a key factor to the lesson’s success.  He is truly excellent in explaining the exercise and is constantly encouraging them and giving them high fives.  He’s also fluent in English, Cantonese and Mandarin, so indirectly, we’re getting free Mandarin lessons!

Plus, I put my kids in some tennis skorts and they look uber duber cute!  I think they really enjoy it because they are doing this together with their cousin Natalie and each other and it is a solid hour of moving (with a quick water break every 15 minutes).  They become complete wet heads and have a great nap in the afternoon and are so proud to sling their rackets on their backs.  It’s fabulous!  And I will definitely continue it as long as they are entertained, exercising and enjoying themselves.

Vanessa doing her swing with the “fishing” ball in mid-air

The kids picking up the balls after supplies run low.  More running.

Lining up for footwork exercises.  Small, Medium, Large….

One of the single “relay” races.

Balancing activity. This one was tricky, but the kids got it!

The teacher explaining patiently what we’re going to do. He’s really a great teacher!

Victoria working on her swing, she’s a natural.