Our busy summer season of camps, clinics, USTA Tournaments, Play Days and events is over, but that doesn’t mean the juniors’ desire to play tennis, compete and have fun is over as well!
On August 11, 2013, we gathered some of our most dedicated players, divided them into 3 teams, and had them compete in an array of fun, competitive live ball games in what we called the “Tennis Olympics,” testing all sorts of facets of live ball competition, teamwork, and fun.
Group Shot
For this event, we utilized the high quality, secluded courts in my neighborhood, oftentimes using all of them at once and putting on a tennis spectacle for the pool-goers above us.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with some of the competitive games we ran, I’ll highlight them below (along with giving props to the winners of each particular game).
Team 105 – In this 2 on 2 drill, players play out the point. A groundstroke winner is worth 10 points, a volley winner is worth 15 and an overhead winner is worth 20. Any normal point won is worth 5 points. This encourages players to cooperate, take advantage of short balls, and look for offensive opportunities. The team of Suraj, Rupa and Abhinav won this event.
Ping Pong – In this drill, each team lines up at the baseline. A member of each team hits a shot, rotates out, and then the next person in line comes in to hit the next shot. We played each round to 11, and Suraj, Rupa and Abhinav proved to be the most consistent, winning this event as well.
Wipeout – this one is especially popular amongst the 10 and under crowd, but it’s fun for everyone. In wipeout, it starts as a one on one rally. After someone wins the point, they bring someone from their team onto the court with them. If they win another point, they bring another team mate out with them, etc. etc. The goal is to get your entire team onto your side of the court. If you lose a point, everyone is out, and you’re back to one player fighting for the team. This encourages teamwork, cooperation, competitive spirit, positioning and consistency. After a long battle, the team of Ainsley, Sophie and Jay emerged victorious
Attack and Defend – This is a personal favorite of mine for big groups. In this drill, 2 teams face off against each other. Say there are 4 people on a team, and let’s call the teams ‘Team 1’ and ‘Team 2.’ Team 1 would send a “defender” over to Team 2’s court to play out points against Team 2 in an attempt to prevent them from scoring. At the same time, Team 2 will have a defender on Team 1’s court doing the same thing. The goal of the defenders is to be consistent and not let the attackers score any points. The goal of the attackers is, obviously, to score points. The first team to 5 or 7 points wins the round. In this, we did a best out of 3. The team of Suraj, Rupa and Abhinav won this drill as well.
Racquet Quickness – Another one of my personal favorites to break up the live ball hitting. In this drill, everyone forms a circle, balancing their racquets upright in their right hand. When I say “go,” they quickly let go of their racquet and snag the one directly to their left. This practices a quick first step, quick reaction time and reflexes. Suraj and Ryan faced off in the finals of this, with Suraj winning after Ryan made a desperate, diving leap for his racquet.
Burn – Great drill to end the Olympics with. Usually, it starts as a one on one drill with everyone else lined up along the net post. After someone loses the point, the next player in line quickly jumps in while I simultaneously feed to the other player. If a player misses, they rotate to the end of the line. If they get a clean winner hit on them, it’s considered a “burn.” 3 burns and you’re out. The lesson of this game? Touch everything. You can get to every ball if you want to. This was an individual game and it was worth a LOT of points, and in the end, the team of Justin, Shivani and Sean had 2 members of their team in the final 3, allowing them to rack up the points.
Results: Team Rupa, Abhinav and Suraj used their penetrating groundstrokes and topspin drives to get off to an early lead, winning 3 of the drills. However, “Burn” was the big point-winning game, and Team Justin, Shivani and Sean came out unmatched in this game. When all was said and done, Justin, Shivani and Sean edged out Rupa Abhinav and Suraj by a margin of 18-16.
Team Nathan Ryan and Akash also showed a lot of hustle out there, especially in “Attack and Defend” and “Burn” where Akash tore through the competition, eliminating players left and right and earning himself a third place finish.
Team Jay, Sophie and Ainsley also had some great performances, winning wipeout, and coming in second place in 105. Led by the Nadal-esque antics of Jay and the positivity from Sophie and Ainsley, they always seemed to perform well in the drills.
Of course, in the end, the winners got medals, runners up got bag tags, and everyone got candy!
This was a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to running some similar events this fall!
