Applying learning

Tennis (Part 3): Scoring

Physical development

﻿Hi, everyone, my name is Alistair, and today, we're going to play tennis. For this lesson, you will need a tennis ball, a frying pan or baking tray, some chalk, some coloured paper, a soft ball and a table. If you haven't got these items, you can substitute them for other things you have around your home and that's absolutely fine. Press pause whilst you get things ready. Let's get ready. Find a quiet, clear space to work away from distractions. Ensure the area is safe and that your child is feeling fit and well to take part in the lesson. Check that you're wearing the right clothes for sports and physical activity. I'd encourage your child to be as independent as possible with this. Make sure your resources are nearby and use a familiar reference to prepare the learner that the activity is going to start. This could be a symbol, a sound, or even a song. Press pause whilst you get things ready. It's time to look, listen, and learn. Before we play tennis, we need to get our muscles ready for exercise, so for work today, I have got a little plastic, tennis racket here, so you can buy these from a bunch of toy shops I think. They're a really good way to start to introduce your child to the sport of tennis if you haven't got a proper racket. So I'm going to move around and I'm going to use my racket. Mirror the kind of movements that we would see in a tennis match, so there's going to be lots of stretching up and lot of crouching down low to play different shots. Now again, remembering to be really safe around here, so making sure we got a good space and there's nobody around us and the things I'm going to do, I'm just going to slowly walk around and I'm going to stretch up and play some shots. And I'm going to crouch down and play some shots. So walking and moving around your space. This could be in the garden. It could be in the kitchen, anywhere within your house. Practise some shots as we're moving around, try backhand shot there, so just walking around and you can turn that into a jog and you could call out "Stretch" and you could play a big tennis shot there. Keep moving around your space and we could say, "Crouch down" and we go down low as if we're playing a shot off the ground in tennis. So keep moving around and stretch. You could even turn that into a jump, so a forehand smash in tennis, which is a really exciting shot, so as I move it around, we can say "Forehand smash", jump up, and slam the ball down. Moving around our space and crouch, have a try at that, that's probably a three, four even five minute warm up there of walking, moving around the space, and just getting those crouches down, getting the forehand smash, the big stretch shots in the air. It's a really good way of getting your heart rate going and being ready for exercise and for tennis. And it just gets your child used to the feel of a tennis racket or a bat or whatever you have in your hand. And some of the different shots and movements they'll be making. So I think we are ready for our tennis. Pause the video to complete your task. So the next part of our lesson, we're going to practise our tennis shots against the wall. Again, this could be inside or outside in whatever space works best for you in your house. Now I've got my foil line for my tennis net there. You could have a table in front. I've got my coloured card that I've used for my targets there and we're going to try and build those skills of striking the ball and keeping it over the net. Now, things we're going to look for in this part of the lesson is going to be the power of our shots. We're going to try and concentrate on the direction of our shots and try and have really controlled movements. So, remember the safety aspect that have we got anyone around us. I've got a good, clear space. I'm going to use a sponge ball to start with. I might then progress onto using a tennis ball. So the first thing I'm going to do a nice, simple shot, just going to throw the ball up and over the net and keep practising there. So I'll see if I can try and hit some of my targets there. I can go around the different targets. Some of the targets might be smaller and a bit more difficult. After lots of practise of that, I might start to try and move on to a rally where I might try and have two, three or even more shots without stopping. So, I'll try that now. Two, back across, three, four, five. So to start to get into a rally and have different shots there. Your child might start to explore different power within their shops. So they might hit the ball a bit harder which will mean it will bounce back at them faster or they might start to hit it a bit softer, so I'll try and see if I can have some powerful shots there. Still keeping control movements, but just some more force in my shot as I strike the ball. So, and you can see, as I strike the ball harder, it's coming back at me faster and nearer to me. So really hard shots there, equally so, I can hit the ball a bit softer and we'll start to get into thinking about how we use tactics within tennis, so if I hit the ball softer, and get into that just over the net there, it might bounce down. It's going to be difficult for the other player to get the ball. So I'll try some shots and try and do some softer ones and see how that goes. So, softer shots there and then if I hit it really soft, you can see how the ball just drops down and we call that a drop shot in tennis. So, we've got our harder shots, we've got our softer shots, our drop shots, you can start to experiment with the forehand and then the backhand there, so hitting the ball with our backhand. So have a quick try of that. My backhand shot's higher there. I need to go back around. My backhand shots, aiming for my target, back to the forehands, different shots. You can start to think about the direction of your shots too, so you might have a case where if I hit the ball over here, it's going to go there. So if I'm playing against my opponent, the other player, I want to move them around the court. So start to experiment and explore the different directions that you can have on your shot, so you can see that, if I go, it's getting me moving. Come to the side there. So again, really good for exercise in thinking about the different movements, directions of movement, moving to the side, really working on your child's agility and how they will move in different ways. So lots of opportunities to stretch up for some shots and to crouch down for some lower shots. So lots to be practising with there. Have your targets on the wall, make your tennis nets. You could do this over a table where you're having a bit of a match against your child. So you can be striking the ball to each other and get a rally going. There's lots of things to explore and enjoy for you. So, have fun playing tennis. All of the lessons in physical development can be adapted using the STEP principles to meet the needs of your child. If your child is a wheelchair user the activity would be the same. You might want to think about adjusting the height of the nets and the targets. I put a table in. You could play tennis over the table, so using that as the net with a balloon could be lots of fun playing a game with your child there. They could practise on their own. So I'll have a go with the balloon. I've got some rice in the balloon as well for that sensory feedback. So, I'll have my shot. There we go, so practising there, and then move on to the use of the sponge ball as well. So again, thinking about hitting those targets, maybe different kinds of shots that you will use. So, I'll have a practise again there. Think about those different targets. Moving, still moving, from side to side, stretching, some harder shots and I can have a softer shot there that's just bounced underneath the table and the net Please do check out a master class session with the amazing Samantha and Mark Bullock where they will give you some fantastic tips on how to improve your tennis game even more. I really hope you've enjoyed our tennis lessons and that your child find them really motivating and engaging and that they'll continue on with practise in their tennis skills. It's a great sport and helps us to be really active and healthy. You might introduce the concept of scoring here. I've created my own scorecard here for the Oak National Open. As you can see in the first round, it was me against my mum and she won five three, so I need some more practise I think with my tennis, but that could be another great way in which you could maybe practise your child's number skills, their counting, and just adds another layer to the fun of the tennis lessons that we do. Pause the video to complete your task. To make our lesson easier, you could use a larger ball or a balloon and practise your hand to strike and make contact. You could focus on fewer skills and movements and progress at a pace most appropriate to your child. To make it harder, you could look at our masterclass and explore top tips from an international tennis player and coach. You could ask your parents or carer to search for local opportunities to play, or watch tennis. More ideas, ask your parents or carer to search for and watch tennis specific content online. And finally, you could design your own Wimbledon Tennis trophy. All of our activities can be adapted using the STEP principle That's looking at the space, the task, the equipment we use, and how people can help us. For example, a balloon with beads or rice to support visually impaired learners. We can use bigger, brighter resources that might be tactile too. You can adapt the space and activity to suit wheelchair users. For example, adjust the targets you use and keep score with an accessible method, for example, coloured counters Brilliant tennis, everyone. Bye, see you next time. Share your work with Oak National. If you'd like to, please ask your parents or carer to share your work on Twitter, tagging @OakNational and the #LearnwithOak. We'd love to see your brilliant work.

Tennis (Part 3): Scoring

Tennis (Part 3): Scoring

These resources will be removed by the end of the Spring Term 2026.

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