Teaching the kids to serve, volley and rally

Free tennis lessons for children ages 4 to 12 were given at North Woodmere Park on July 22 from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., which was one of several parks across Nassau County to host "Quickstart" a 3-year old program jointly sponsored by the U.S. Tennis Association Eastern (USTA) and the U.S. Professional Tennis Association Eastern (USPTA).

The USTA is a non-for profit organization that designs and promotes

programs for teaching tennis. Quickstart is the main instructional program for teaching tennis to children.

The USTA works in conjunction with the USTPA which is a teaching association for tennis instructors. “This is a very important program for the USTA because this is where majority of tennis players come from, courts in local parks,” said Chuck Russelle, one of the instructors at North Woodmere park on Thursday.

Russelle is a trainer for Quickstart as well as an USPTA certified and a national tester for the professional tennis registry. “We want kids to experience tennis in a fun way. We want them to walk away from this loving the experience,” Russelle said.

The Quickstart program is specifically tailored down to kids so that they can gain the most they possibly can from the program. This is done by using larger sized balls, smaller nets and utilizing the court

dimensions.

“We want kids to succeed,” he said. “We want them to be able to rally (hit the ball back and forth over the net).”

Through the specific design of the program the children are able to be successful in learning how to play tennis. “This is how I started playing tennis,” said Shelby Goldman, a member of USTA, who also served as an instructor. “I fell in love with the sport. It’s a great way to make friends and stay in shape.”

Many kids came out on that sunny morning in North Woodmere Park

to learn the basics of tennis and have some fun. Tammy Carmel brought her

four children Samuel, 7, Natalie and Pnina, 6, and Emanuel, 4, to teach them some new skills.

“We love tennis,” Tammy Carmel said. “This is our first time attending this program.”

Samuel, the most experienced tennis player of his siblings modeled his favorite swing, backhand, while his sisters Natalie and Pnina tried to balance a ball on their rackets under Russelles’ instruction.

Four-year-old Emanuel got to play too, rolling the ball on the floor with his racket in a drill Russelle called “walking the dog.”

Later, kids from the Five Towns Community Center camp arrived and Russelle and Goldman paired them up so they could practice skills together and learn to rally. “Today is all about playing,” Russelle said. “We want to teach them some quick skills and

then get them out to play.”

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