A new program called Little Aces is getting hundreds of St. Albert kids excited about tennis.
About 900 elementary students gathered at Edmonton’s Saville Sports Centre on April 30 to take part in the launch of the regional Little Aces program. About 300 of them were from St. Albert.
The launch featured numerous mascots, celebrities, coaches and wheelchair athletes, all of whom helped about 900 kids in orange shirts play tennis at the same time.
St. Albert phys-ed teacher Glenn Wilson brought about 165 Leo Nickerson students to the event. “That was the craziest thing I have done in a while with a group of kids,” he said.
It’s almost unprecedented to have this many people playing simultaneously, said Richard Crowell, manager of community development for Tennis Canada. Past Little Aces events have drawn just 300 players.
“Edmonton has really set the bar high,” he said.
The program, which is backed by Tennis Alberta and Tennis Canada, uses special balls and smaller courts to help kids get into the swing of tennis.
Tennis is seen as a highly technical game that requires lots of training to play, Crowell said.
“We’ve lost so many participants to the sport just because it’s been seen as complicated,” he said.
Tennis can be frustrating for young beginners, said Bonnie Childs, junior tennis co-ordinator with the St. Albert Tennis Club, as the regular racquets are too big and heavy for them while the balls have little bounce, making them tough to hit. The result is a lot out-of-bounds shots, frustration, and discouragement.
“It’s important for children to meet with some success initially,” Childs said.
The Little Aces approach does so by starting the kids with smaller, lighter racquets, quarter-sized courts and bigger, bouncier foam balls.
“Pretty much immediately, they can hit the ball,” Childs said.
As kids learn the basics, they gradually move up to smaller, less bouncy balls (coloured red, green, and orange) before graduating to the regular-sized court and ball.
Childs has been using a similar system for her St. Albert students for about two years and credits it with bringing tennis back to the city’s youth.
“The year before last, our club was down to two juniors,” she said. “At the end of last year, we had 32 children, and we have tonnes of children registered for lessons.”
Programs like Little Aces encourage kids to be more active, Wilson said, as they teach them basic skills they can use in many sports.
“I’m not a very good tennis player, but because I know the basic skills, I am eager to say yes when invited to play,” he said.
The program also emphasizes having fun over winning and losing, Wilson said, which helps make kids more willing to try new sports.
“At the Little Aces event, kids were sweating, dripping with sweat, and grinning ear to ear,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be great to have a swimming or biking or basketball program grab the attention of kids by leading them through a group of skills in a safe, non-threatening environment?”
And teaching it this way makes it more fun for the kids, Childs said.
“If it’s not fun, then we’re not doing our job.”
