Anyone for a hit of tennis?

Eli has just started tennis lessons. His good mate from daycare, Ethan, has been doing it for a while now and his Mum thought that it would be a great way for Eli and Ethan to spend time together now that they are big school boys (at different schools). We agreed, so Eli had his first lesson last Saturday.

Eli's coach is good fun and he had the class doing all sorts of activities (some of which had absolutely nothing to do with tennis, but were obviously designed to help the kids move and react quickly). They caught tennis balls, dribbled balls (using their racquets like hockey sticks) through cones and generally jumped around a lot, which was just the type of exhausting fun that Eli likes.

Practicing footwork and getting ready to swing

Eli in his 'cricket-tennis-baseball' stance.

Eli ready to target the coach with a 'head shot'

A 'near miss'

Aside from getting to smash the odd ball with his cricket-inspired double-handed forehand, Eli really enjoyed the activity in which the coach invited the kids to throw tennis balls at him. I thought this was an incredibly silly thing to do (since Eli has such a good throw on him) and between Eli and Ethan the coach did wear a few. As an aside, I've primed Eli to team up with Ethan next week, so they can time their throws to ensure that the coach won't be able to get out of the way!).

Eli generally has pretty good hand-eye coordination, so he did a pretty good job of whacking the balls that the coach sent his way. Here is a short video of Eli and the other kids in his class...note how Eli is the only one trying to hit the ball out of the tennis court (but at least he made contact with the ball!).