WRA Dolphins Tennis
MVCT and WRA Junior Tennis Practice & Play Program – WRA Members Only
The WRA Dolphins tennis program is for ages 6 to 18, with some members eligible for participation in the MVCT Junior League matches in June and July.
Terminology:
- “Dolphins Team” is comprised of the players who participate in the MVCT Jr League,
- All the other players are in “Dolphins Tennis” or referred to as “tennis Dolphins”.
Dolphins Team
This is a Focused Practice and (Competitive) Play program, with age appropriate Instruction.
General Details:
- Everything is play-based for more complete and faster skill/ability development, and designed to be fun.
- Safety, Fun, and Effort are our first 3 Rules.
- The rest of the Rules are character traits.
- Professional coaching to include a Social-Emotional Learning environment with Character Development, Mental-Emotional Discipline, and focused practice for improved play abilities.
- Tennis trains life skills.
Schedule
Dolphins classes will run 5 days per week, except for the 3 or 4 Wednesdays that the Dolphins Team has a home match.
| Dolphins Daily Schedule | |
|---|---|
| 6/16 to 7/25/2024 | Mornings |
| Age | Time |
| 6 to 10s | 8:30 to 9:15 |
| 9 to 11s | 9:30 to 10:30 |
| 13 to 18s | 10:30 to 11:30 |
| 11 to 14s | 11:30 to 12:30 |
Dolphins Summer Schedule
| Session | Dates | No Class | Price: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Session 1 | 6/16 to 7/1 | 07/02 - 07/04 | $240 |
| Session 2 | 7/7 to 7/25 | 07/02 - 07/04 | $240 |
| All - Sessions 1 & 2 | 6/16 to 7/25 | 07/02 - 07/04 | $445 |
You see 6-year age groups in the table, however, in our curriculum and we closely match skill and ability levels across overlapping 3-year age groups.
- For example, we start off with looking at 6-10s as 2 groups: 6-8s and 8-10s.
- From there we may have 2 groups within the 8-10s group, frequently we do.
Competition
Competition:
We will have age/emotionally appropriate competitive play opportunities for all kids who can Serve, Rally, and Score whether or not they are able to play on the DolphinsTeam.
- For kids who can serve and rally we will teach them Score
- Score includes etiquette, ball management, tiebreakers, and deuce-ad correlation.
- Serve is frequently the chief obstacle for kids to be able to Serve, Rally, and Score so we will permit modified serving for some matches.
- Non-Dolphin Team match play will be in scaled play environments to foster longer rallies and improve point execution tactics.
- We will play singles and doubles as time and court capacity permit.
- Wednesdays and Fridays are good options for competitive play days for non-Dolphins Team players.
- On several Wednesdays, Dolphins Team will have:
- Away matches – a good opportunity for competitive play.
- Home matches – that take up all the courts.
- On several Wednesdays, Dolphins Team will have:
Jr. Tennis Ladders
Dolphins Team matches play the MVCT league format, which is exclusively yellow ball play.
- Dolphins Team matches are Wednesdays and Sundays.
Skill Development and Competition
- For players focused in their skill acquisition cycle, competition needs to be minimized.
Competitive Development
- For players to learn to compete, well-matched competition needs to be maximized.
Swim and Tennis Considerations
Obviously Swimming and Tennis are dramatically different sports.
- One of the significant differences is that Swimming practice and competition are both highly aerobic, whereas competitive tennis is anaerobic.
A similarity of both sports is that they take a lot of physical, mental, and emotional energy to participate at your player’s best. Additionally, swimmers bodies are working a little harder in the cool pool, and may process urine faster, and therefore reducing body hydration levels faster.
Players coming out of swimming to the tennis court will need to recover from swimming.
To recover, swimmers need:
- Time – time to rest and relax
- Hydration – swimmers may lose from a third to a full liter of water per hour of swimming, which needs to be replenished. Tennis players need to be well-hydrated at the start of practice and replenish during and after play.
- Nutrition – swimming will burn a lot of calories and can deplete your young athlete of their stored energy. Performance foods, summarizing as complex carbohydrates, are needed to fuel athletic performance and players need to begin practice properly fueled.
A suggested solution:
Kids also need to get their water bottle, put on shoes, socks, and shirt, maybe more sunscreen, a hat, and sunglasses. All this takes some time.
Players need to take that time to be deliberate.
- Kids can drink some water and have a whole grain or fruit snack while they are changing.
We have put a question in the registration form about whether or not your kids are coming to tennis from swim. Whether they are or not we will respect their time transitioning into tennis, and we’ll be teaching them how to warm up for tennis too.
If you have questions about this or want to engage us please don’t hesitate to contact us
Registration Form: