Customer Reviews

Introducing Children to the Game of Tennis

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Mr. Kelley is an outstanding teacher of tennis. Any parent who is trying to teach their child how to play tennis will benefit from reading this book. Mr. Kelley has a knack for making things easy. Many of the terms will be easy for your child to learn and then apply to learning tennis. I really enjoyed the book and have used many of his suggestions with my own children.

A recent move to a home near tennis courts coincided with my grandson coming of "tennis age." Reading Mr. Kelley's superb book reacquainted me with this beginning stage that I had undergone so many years ago. Not having kept up with the game myself, I was also able to relearn and rethink many aspects of the game which I'd consigned to "body memory" years ago, and had perhaps developed to the "sloppy" or "lazy" stage. Now I know how to do it the right way again and how to convey the correct techniques and methods to a six year old. The drills were especially helpful; and the history, glossary, and appendicies were all bonuses. If my grandson keeps up with the game, I'll know that, by having read this book and followed the instructions, I didn't teach him the wrong stuff or "screw up" his development. We had fun, too.

This book was not helpful for us in terms of really engaging our kids, and we found the writing dry. There is a sexist streak too that won't win the hearts of mothers or daughters.

This book is not good enough for a parent to teach kids playing. Its image is too old and not clear. It is very difficult for you to learn how to grip the racket for example by seeing the pictures in this book.

I was very disappointed in this book when I received it. There has been a lot more development in getting children interested in tennis than this book reveals. The production values of the book in terms of text, photographs and graphics are somewhat primitive. Pierce Kelley is a great guy, dealing with a topic he really loves, but he needs to get more help on communicating this in an effective way. Tennis has evolved tremendously since he grew up in Florida, but you would not know it from this book. There is a lot more gold left in this mine for Pierce or someone else to bring out.

This book is well written, thorough and insightful. Mr. Kelley's approach to teaching tennis can be used by any coach, parent or teacher trying to help any athlete learn the fundamentals of any sport. Having coached youth sports for over twenty years I can only say that I wish I had discovered this wonderful book sooner!

If you are a complete beginner, than this book is suitable for you - however, if you know nothing about tennis, you shouldn't teach your children to play it.

Described strokes in the book are old-fashioned, not recommended by ITF and at least 15 - 20 years old. Lendl would have such gameplay, Nadal not.