Vestal Junior Team Tennis Program. 

Ages: Two groups:  8-12 and 13-16.  All youth, regardless of skill level, residing in Broome or Tioga County are invited to join.

Dates:  The program kicks off December l3, 2008, with a Free Clinic.  The clinic is divided into two sessions.  8-12 year olds at 2:00 p.m. and 13-16 year olds at 3:00 p.m.  Skill development and team organization sessions will be held through mid-January, and then match play begins.  The program will end the last weekend in March 2009

Venue:  All practice and league play will be at the Southern Tier Sports Center, Old Vestal Road (behind Old Navy), in Vestal.

Times:  Both practice and league play are from 2-3 pm and 3-4 pm for respective age groups.  Other sessions will be organized as necessary.

Divisions: Once Phase I Skill Development is completed, players will be evaluated and organized into teams.  There will be two divisions, Major and Minor for each age group.  Majors will begin league play immediately and have their games at the regular scheduled times.   Minors will shift to another practice schedule and continue skill development and modified league play, probably on a 60-40 basis.   Kids in the Minors can advance to the Majors as soon as their skill level warrants.  If we have made a mistake and assigned a player to the Majors who really should be in the Minors, we reserve the right to re-assign that player to the Minors until such time as advancement is appropriate.

Evaluation:  Assignment to the Majors or the Minors will depend upon the child acquiring a skill-set consisting of ball feeding, groundstrokes, and volleys.  At the very least, the child should be able to drop feed a ball properly to commence a point.  He or she should also be able to hit a ball as a groundstroke or volley with an appropriate level of skill and consistency. Without such, the child will not be able to compete effectively with other players, resulting in boredom, frustration, and ill-feelings.  We want all our players to be able to play a decent game of tennis and that is why we have a two-tiered system.  If the child has not attained the necessary skill level, we will continue to work with him until he does.

Training and Coaching:  All training and coaching of the participants in VJTTA will be done by Randy Cummings, a certified tennis instructor, with the assistance of one other trained coach.   Parents are welcome to volunteer their assistance as needed, but unlike in the past we will not use volunteer parents as actual team coaches, either in skill development or league play. Mr. Cummings is a certified Tennis Instructor (Professional Tennis Registry) and has taught tennis professionally for over 20 years.  He has directed the Town of Vestal Summer Tennis Program for over ten years.  VJTTA pays Mr. Cummings and his assistant for their services.

Team Organization:  Each team will consist of at least 4 players, but absolutely no more than 6 players.  Teams will be organized based on player evaluations and thus should be competitive with other teams.

Courts & Equipment:  The regulation 60x120’ court is divided in half to make two equally-sized courts approximately 60x60’.  Two smaller portable nets, running perpendicular to the regulation net, are used to effect this.  Additional lines are laid down on the court for boundaries. We will definitely use this smaller court with the 8-12 year old group.  Because the overall playing area is rather constrained at the Triple Cities Sports Center, we may use a full court for the older kids.  We'll play this by ear during the training and organization session and make a decision before league play begins.  

Players provide their own racquets. The balls are Gamma lst Set Balls, which are decompressed balls; these are the same size as regulation balls, but are softer, with a more controllable bounce in order to facilitate learning the game.

Game Play:  The basic format in this instructional league is triples, which for each team there is one player at the T and the other two on the baseline.  Triples accommodates a large number of players with only minimal “sit out” time for each player.   After every 5 points players on each team rotate clockwise.  If 4 or more kids are on a team, then they can have the extra player(s) off the court enter the rotation after every 5 points. Variation of the triples format is possible, depending on the number of kids showing up for a match.   For example, if 5 kids show on one team and only 2 or 3 from the other team, we might divide the kids into two more-or-less equal teams.  If 3 kids show on one team and two on another, then we might play “2-on-3” and use a full-court rotation system.  The point here is that we will have some kind of competitive league play for our players each Saturday.

Game Basics:  As stated above, triples is the standard format.  A cart is placed near the far left hand corner of the court (ad court), and all balls are “drop- fed” from this location by the baseline player.  The feeder can feed to any player on the opposing side; strategically, one would not want to feed directly to the player on the T as that usually would lead to losing the point quickly.
Once the ball is put in play, players hit the ball back and forth over the net until the point ends.  Groundstrokes, volleys, lobs, overheads, drop shots, and everything you would see in a regular tennis match (except for the overhead serve) are allowable.  The receiver can hit the feed as a volley or a groundstroke.  The point is over when a ball is: hit out of bounds, hit into the net, hit into a permanent structure (roof or net post), or hit after it bounces twice.  After 5 points, players rotate clockwise in position.  If there are more than 4 players on a team, one player will go out and a waiting player will come in for the next 5 points.

Scoring:  This is an instructional league, so we are not that interested in scores or match records.  Nevertheless, the kids will want to keep track of the score and we need to be aware of the score so we can rotate the kids in and off the court.  Rather than regular tennis scoring, we will use numerical scoring, with each game being to 21 points.   The game must be won by a margin of two points.  After the game is over, players take a short break, change ends, and begin a new game.  Players play as many games as time allows. 
Making the Game More Competitive:  We strive to have evenly balanced teams, but if after a game or two if it is clear that one team is overwhelming the other then we will re-organize the players.  We might take the best player from one team and place him on the other team; and put one of the weaker players from the losing team on the winning team.   We’ll mix it up however necessary to achieve a more competitive game between the two sides.