A volley good time

Andrew Edwards

Kevin Fukuda’s legs were like springs as he bounced up and down in

preparation to fire a serve across the court. Once he was ready, the

9-year-old tossed his tennis ball above his head and with an overhand

swing of his racket, launched the fuzzy green projectile over the

net.

“You have to throw the ball high enough so you can pop the ball

with your racket,” Kevin said, describing his technique.

Kevin was practicing his serve along with the other children in

his group at Junior Tennis Camp. The campers were divided into three

groups, based on a combination of age and skill level. Kevin’s group

of intermediate players, were practicing serves under the guidance of

Ai Takamori.

The children, in the midst of learning tennis skills, don’t always

play like pros. For every serve they nailed, some shots didn’t clear

the net or went sailing far beyond the court boundaries. Though not

all the players in the group were completely new to the game, the

camp was a chance for the players to have fun and pick up basic

skills and work through their inexperience.

“You learn backhand, forehand, you get food, you get to hit the

cars and make the alarms go off if you hit it over the fence,”

8-year-old Jacob Parisi said.

The youngest children at the camp played simple drills in their

group. In a game they called “jail,” Minh Nguyen tossed tennis balls

to the players and challenged them to hit the ball over the net three

times. If they missed three times, they were sent to jail and had to

sit out the match until another player managed to break them out. The

only way to get out of jail was if a child successfully returned

three volleys and then sent an extra ball flying over the net to free

their companion.

Hannah Johnson, 6, won 7-year-old Jessica Laconde’s freedom when

her racket connected for four volleys. Hannah was all smiles after

her effort.

“It’s fun,” she said. “I like hitting the ball.”

The oldest campers practiced more advanced drills with Ian Rich,

who taught them how to use overhand strokes to connect with

high-flying balls and a technique that required the campers to hold

their racquets upright and step into incoming shots, returning the

ball to their opponent.

“You step on your left and just punch for a ball,” explained

9-year-old Drew Ross.

The advanced group finished their day with a round-robin doubles

tournament. The players would pair up and face off in single volleys.

The challenging team would serve the ball and their opponents would

play for points by trying to win the volley. Only the defending team

could score points, if the challengers won, they took the defenders’

places and tried to hold their own against the next pair.

Oz Gotsman, 11, and Nicole Colgrove, 14, claimed victory when they

were the first pair to win 15 points.

“I love being on the winning team,” Nicole said.