Get your kids started in tennis NOW!!

Summer the time for tennis

Summer is here at last. It is warm in the day and warm at night. Thank Goodness. And our children need so much light and exercise. In my upcoming book “I Like Me” I talk about the need for exercise and the fact that it’s not only the muscles but also the mind that gets a workout. Parents Magazine has this video which shows how the trainers are able to include maths and English as part of the training.

Tennis is a wonderful sport. To me it is the sport which  makes best use of both body and mind as one, and clearly, as we have seen with the likes of Nadal and Federer, Ferrer, one has to be so fit physically it is almost unreal.

Can you image what would happen if you got into the swing of things 🙂 from you were 5 years of age.  Nadal started to learn with his Uncle from that age and was able to play tennis with his left hand while using the right hand for everything else.

Hand preference

I have a toddler that seems to want to do just that as she will switch hands whenever something becomes too difficult. Studies have shown that between ages of 2 and 6 years, the brain increases from 70 to 90 percent of its adult weight. That’s a lot. Think of it 2/3rds   of your life puts you at about 70 or so and you already have a brain there at 2-6 years of age. It’s clear that if weight means anything you have to take notice of what is happening at this age.

So it is not surprising that there will be a hand preference during this age range and the studies show that ninety present of 5-year-olds prefer one hand over the other. This is due to the greater capacity of one side of the brain. So I think it is safe to assume that starting to play a game with a particular hand can bring some outstanding results at this age.