I'm often asked the difference between the various coloured tennis balls, and when each one should be used. In a nutshell, they are designed for specific age-groups:
- Red for 8&U players - the ball is not pressurised and so bounces slowly and high, hence staying in the air longer and so easier to hit
- Orange - slightly pressurised, and so a little faster
- Green - pressurised to 50% of a yellow-ball, allowing the ball to fly through the air a little slower allowing the child more time to get to the ball now that they are playing on the full-sized tennis court
- Yellow - fully pressurised and when they bounce, they bounce!
When children start playing at say aged 2or 3 years old, they will start on the red ball (or even foam balls!). They can stay on the red ball right until just before their 9th birthday! So a long time! And we use this time to develop their shots, learn the game, fall in love with the game and introduce competiton.
Moving up a ball colour
As the children gain more experience, they can start moving through the coloured tennis balls, and as they move onto the orange ball, they may find themselves in lessons where there are players of differing abilities and playing with different coloured balls. It’s not a pure science as I like to push the children to just beyond where they are comfortable – and this may mean playing up a ball colour, or on different sized courts i.e. orange size, or green size.
Normally children play using the ball afforded to their age group i.e. 8&U use the mini-red, 9&U use the mini-orange, 10&U use the mini-green, then depending on ability some children move to the yellow ball aged 11 upwards. However, they will remain on green if they are struggling. We start Adult Beginners on green!
We move children up a ball colour in two instances
- when they are totally comfortable playing with their existing colour, and have competed at that level, and
- when they become too old for that ball colour. This means that sometimes children have to move up a ball colour despite not really having mastered the previous colour.
In an ideal world, we would strive to move children up before their age dictates a move. But having said that, if they are aged for a particular ball, it’s nice to keep them there and focus on their technique on that ball colour, rather than have the extra pressure of the next ball colour up and the larger court it brings.
No-one stays on the orange or the green too long as they are transitional balls to get used to faster bounces and slightly bigger courts.
Children are encourgaed to practise hard on their new ball colour in a bid to move up to the next ball colour before their age dictates a move! So play a few more matches, win a few matches, practise regularly and keep on enjoying the sport.
It can sometimes be confusing for a child to see another child in their lesson on a higher ball colour, yet they know or feel they are better or can beat that child! This is most probably due to the child being too old for the previous ball! Complicated! But please always speak with me to discuss your child's progress!