Junior Tennis Coaching: A Quick Guide for Parents

How Our Sessions Are Organised

Our junior tennis programme is designed to group players primarily by age, and then secondarily by playing level, aspiration, and sometimes by gender. This helps us create the most supportive and development-appropriate environment for every child.

Age Groups

• Blue Stage (Ages 4–6)
• Red Stage (Ages 6–8)
• Orange Stage (Ages 7–9)
• Green Stage (Ages 8–11)
• Yellow Ball (Ages 11+)

Please note: these age ranges may overlap slightly to allow children to progress at the pace that suits them best.

Player–Coach Ratios

We aim to provide a high-quality learning environment with close supervision and support.

• Blue & Red Stages: 1 coach per 4 children
• Orange, Green & Yellow: 1 coach per 6–8 children

To maintain / improve on these ratios, we also use coaching assistants and tennis leaders who help deliver a safe and engaging session.

Understanding Ball Colours

Although each stage has a corresponding ball colour, you may see different balls used within a session.
This is intentional — balls are coaching tools, not strict indicators of your child’s level.
Varying ball types helps us tailor challenges, develop specific skills, and keep activities engaging.

What Happens in a Coaching Session?

1. Warm-Up

Sessions usually begin with body-movement games or ball-coordination activities.
It’s normal if your child doesn’t pick up a racket immediately — these activities build vital physical and athletic skills for tennis and all other sports.

2. Main Theme

Each session includes a key learning focus:

• Full-court and advanced groups follow a term-long technical and tactical theme.
• Recreational & younger groups cover a broad range of tennis game situations each term to build an all-round foundation.

3. Games & Match Play

All sessions finish with a game. These may look like pure fun, but they’re designed to develop:

• Decision-making
• Match awareness
• Teamwork and social skills
• Confidence and enjoyment

We know these elements are a huge reason children love coming back each week.

Advanced & Academy Pathways

Players in our performance or academy programmes will experience:

• More advanced technical and tactical training
• Higher physical demands
• A more structured, competitive learning environment

Coaches will communicate with parents directly about expectations and progression pathways.

Supervision & Collection Policy

• Parents are welcome to leave their child during the session, we recommend staying while they settle in. This should be off the court, in the clubhouse or suitable spectating area. 
• Children under 12 must be supervised elsewhere on the club grounds if not participating.
• Primary school children must be collected from the court unless written consent has been provided for them to leave on their own.
• If no consent is given, we will assume they must not go home by themselves.

Behaviour & Discipline

We aim to create a safe, positive and respectful coaching environment.

• Players may receive a soft warning for behaviour that falls below expectations.
• If behaviour does not improve, or if a more serious issue occurs, a coach may ask a player to sit out part of the session. Parents will be informed when this happens.
• Repeated issues may result in removal from the programme.