Teaching Life Skills Through Sports
Vivo Plae Mini Racket Sports
Racket Sports: Playful and progressive pedagogy
from the age of 3 / 4 years
About the Racket Sports Program
Through our program, we transform spaces into sized-down kids courts complete with equipment suitable for your child.
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We are operating in over 50 centres throughout the Province of Ontario Canada and we have expanded to collaborate with Padel Bahrain to share our specialized knowledge of high-quality Racket Sport teaching service to early childhood aged 3-7 in Bahrain.
Why Mini Racket Sports?
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Our approach is a launch pad that helps familiarize children with popular racket sports including: Tennis, Padel, Badminton, Squash, etc. While many sporting activities focus solely on physical strength, Racket Sports focus heavily on developing a broad range of skills including:
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General overall fitness
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Mental strength
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Tactical thinking and reasoning
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Hand – eye coordination
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Speed and agility
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These skills are essential as children begin to move into their sports of choice
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Classes facilitate both physical progression and mental advancement, strengthening your child’s fine and gross motor skills that are essential during early age childhood.
You can also expect to see an improvement in your child’s hand-eye coordination, balance, athletic skills, movement of racket and ball. Once these skills are acquired, they will lead to easy learning of forehands, backhands, serves, volleys and smashes.
As a result, kids will intuitively develop their concentration, self-esteem, confidence and social skills through small group immersion.
Racket Sports for 3-4 year old's
Participation of Parents/caregivers
is highly encouraged
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Through 5 levels of learning, discovery of Racket Sports and activities is the first stage to develop your child's motor skills. Through the use of an adapted language and equipment, our qualified instructors teach the first technical imprints in a fun way.
Light balls and balloons, small rackets, colored targets and educational tools that brighten up the playing area and contribute to progressive learning of forehands, backhands and serves.
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Racket Sports for 5-7 year old's
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According to the progress the kids make, children will play on bigger and bigger courts giving them the opportunity to develop basic technical skills to cover the mini-court and build rallies, then they can really have fun! The children start to learn proper warm ups, develop technique, learn how to compete and burn some energy. Here is where we see some friendships start to form, characters develop and get our first little rallies and points!
Skills to acquire at the end of each stage
The use of different size courts, rackets, balls, net allows kids to learn the game while respecting their learning rhythms.
WHITE LEVEL
Players are 3 to 6 years old, mostly for kids at the discovery stage.
Serve: Hit below the head
Return of serve: Getting ready with the 2 hands on the racket, facing the opponent, positioned between the 2 cones.
Baseline shots: Play forehands AND backhands on the grounds using the 2 faces of the racket, turn around the ball path.
Game understanding: Count the points, wait until the kid on the other side is ready before starting the point and understanding that kids have to alternate.
PURPLE LEVEL
Players are 5 to 7 years old, mostly for kids progressing form the while level or have played a little.
Serve: Hit above the head from the purple baseline, send the ball consistently.
Return of serve: Getting ready with the 2 hands on the racket, facing the opponent.
Baseline shots: Improving ball path understanding above the net, do not rush to the bounce, succeed several shots in a row, hit the ball out in front.
Volley shots: hit the ball back inside the court’s opponent.
Game understanding: Identify the ball IN and OUT, call out the score and know the rule of the 2 serves.
RED LEVEL
From 6 year old
Serve: Hit above the head from the red baseline, send the ball consistently in the 2 diagonals.
Starting position: square stance and contact ball-racket, then pass by the “Trophy position”.
Return of serve: Getting ready with the 2 hands on the racket, facing the opponent, on the toes.
Baseline shots: Be consistent, makes your opponent moving. Differentiate forehand and backhand grip. Recover fast.
Volley shots: Play forehand and backhand volleys, differentiate grips, aim where the opponent is NOT.
Game understanding: STAY FOCUS all game long.
ORANGE LEVEL
From 7 year old
Serve: Starting position with square stance, “continental” to “hammer” grip. SECOND SERVE!!!!!!
Return of serve: Split step, play offensive on the second serve.
Baseline shots: Split step, Shoulder turn early, play offensive and defensive and intro of Topspin and slice. inquiring forehand and backhand grip.
Volley shots: Identification of opportunities to approach the net.
Game understanding: Improvement of internal conflict management.
GREEN LEVEL
Orange level continuation of progression
Serve: Aces, use of the “Hammer” grip. CONSISTENT SLICE AND TOPSPIN SERVE!!!!!!
Return of serve: Neutralize on the first serve, intentions of play development.
Baseline shots: Identification of the rally situation (Offensive/Neutral/Defensive), and play the shot that matches with. Topspin Shots on forehand and backhand side. Racket head acceleration before the hit.
Volley shots: Identification of the situation, hit out in front of the player, Control of the balance.
Game understanding: Autonomy and fair play whatever the score is.
