Little Effort, Huge Results

So I've got to tell you about our net games unit. For the first 5 weeks of term 1 our year 3-6 classes focused on volleyball, badminton and tennis. All these sports share similar concepts, strategies and skills.

Our badminton equipment is pretty good. I have collected it over the years and have enough stuff to fill out the undercover area with courts. Our volleyball nets and balls are adequate for what we need. We play throw/catch style modified volleyball games.

But for tennis, I was still using those waffle-style plastic bats. Have you ever used those? They are terrible. Rafal Nadal couldn't return a ball with one of those bats! Not only was it difficult for my students to play competently, but this equipment was not inspiring them to want to play.

So I had to do something. I had neglected tennis for many years. We used to have a tennis coach come in and take lessons for those who paid for it. So I took this as an excuse for pushing it to one side. But now that I have decided to teach a 'net games' unit, tennis is back on my radar, and I have discovered that equipment is a big factor.



I decided to purchase some decent racquets. They are not expensive, but short handled string racquets enable students much better control when they contact tennis balls.

Speaking of tennis balls, low compression tennis balls are my new favourite piece of sports gear. They move slower and bounce lower and are therefore much easier to control.

Along the way I discovered some teaching tips that were a bit help in correcting bad grip and technique, particularly with backhand strokes. These pictures show visuals I used to help students understand that the back of the racquet face is used for backhand strokes. The orange tape was helpful for students and their peers to self-correct and peer teach, as it makes it easy to see if students are keeping one edge on top for both forehands and backhands.

         

        

With this new armoury my students experienced great success in not only developing competency, but their interest as a result went through the roof. Students started bringing tennis racquets to school to play at recess and lunch. The courts were full at these breaks. It was great to see, and the lesson for me was to not dismiss the importance of having the right gear. For what was a little effort in ordering some new equipment, the results were huge.