Where's the best place to purchase my racket from? Good quality rackets can be purchased from a variety of sources.  Carl Douglas Coaching has no particular affiliation to a specific retailer but would always advise people to use a reputable supplier with excellent reviews e.g. Tennis Nuts, Tennis Point and Decathlon. The best advice is to shop around as different retailers will have deals and offers available at different time so that you can quite possibly find the same racket at a cheaper price simply by comparing across a number of sites.

What's the best racket for my child? Rackets for children are largely based on age groups (see below) and how tall your child is with racket sizes ranging from 19 inches through to 26 inches. As they get older (8 upwards), and especially if they are starting to play more seriously, then a better quality composite or graphite racket would be advisable.  Children will of course often want a racket that looks similar to their on court heroes but there's such a wide variety of racket sizes, costs, colours etc where do you begin? ....

How to choose the right size Junior Tennis Racket: the most important thing about junior rackets is the size (literally the length in inches of the rackets). The following is a rough guide based on age/height.

• For Age 10 to 12 (4 ft 8 in. to 5 ft 2 in.) pick a 26 inch racket.
• For Age 8 to 10 (4 ft 4 in. to 4 ft 8 in.) pick a 25 inch racket.
• For Age 6 to 8 (3 ft 11 in. to 4 ft 4 in.) pick a 23 inch racket.
• For Age 5 and 6 (under 3 ft 11 in.) pick a 21 inch racket.

Junior Graphite Rackets -  if your child has been playing tennis for a while, has coaching and is really keen, go for a graphite racket.

Junior Aluminium Rackets  - these are cheaper than graphite and are perfect as starter rackets, particularly in the under 19" to 23" categorary

Some of the Best  - 26" Junior Rackets (age group 10-12) - The following rackets are all good quality graphite based rackets from a range of manufacturers and would be good choices for any child who is looking to develop their tennis further. They are listed in no particular order of preference though I have tried to only list products that can be found for less than £70 but shop around as online bargains can often be found.

Decathlon TR530 26

Head IG Gravity 26

Babolat aero 26

Finally grip size - when ordering a racket it may ask for grip size and will typically list choice as G0 or G1  or L0, L1 (see table below). For most juniors either G0 or G1 would be fine but if your child has large hands then the G1 or possibly even a G2 grip would be best. If you are unsure check with me when I see you.