Tennis drills at home for 12 year olds

At a glance

At 12

23 tennis drills the app opens for a 12 year old work at home, across 6 skills.

How long

One home session of about 40 minutes; SSTracker never plans more than 60 minutes for a 12 year old.

How often

At most 5 training days a week, with rest days between. Organized sport in all: no more hours a week than the child's age (NATA), so at most 12 hours for a 12 year old, with two rest days a week.

What you need

Most used: racket (16 of the 23 drills), soft balls (7), balls (4), tennis ball (3), wall (3), jump rope (1), mirror or window (1), net or rope (1). 11 are for two, and a parent can be the partner.

Safe at home

One child and one parent in a room, garage or yard. Never tackling, contact, diving or head-first falls, no stunts or loaded lifting, and nothing that needs a coach, rink, pool or court. Stop when anything hurts.

23 at-home drills

Tennis drills for 12 year olds to do at home

Every drill below is one the app opens for a 12 year old and one that works at home: a room, garage or yard, one parent as the partner, no venue. Each drill's page has the steps, a diagram where the setup can be drawn, three ways to make it a game and a log to print.

backhand

Backhand

• Shadow Backhand SwingsAges 7 and up · 6 min
• Towel Backhand ShadowAges 7 and up · 8 min
• Backhand Wall RallyAges 7 and up · 12 min

net play

Net Play

• Volley Keep-Up MinutesAges 11 and up · 10 min
• Volleys at the NetAges 11 and up · 10 min
• Backhand Volley CatchAges 7 and up · 8 min

serve

Serve

• Trophy Pose and TossAges 7 and up · 8 min
• Trophy Pose HoldsAges 7 and up · 8 min
• Overarm Toss to ServeAges 7 and up · 8 min

footwork

Footwork

• Jump Rope EnduranceAges 7 and up · 10 min
• Ready Position and HopsAges 7 and up · 6 min

forehand

Forehand

• Forehand Wall RallyAges 7 and up · 12 min
• Toss, Catch, Then SwingAges 7 and up · 8 min

A 36-minute session

A home tennis session for a 12 year old

A warm-up, 2 drills and a cool-down, 36 minutes in all. Do it up to 5 days a week, with rest days between.

1. 1Tennis Warm-Up, Ages 11 to 13A 10-minute moving warm-up for tennis players aged 11 to 13: running, moving stretches, plank, balance, landings and build-up runs, then tennis moves, with a note on growth spurts.10 min
2. 2Volleys at the NetShort punch, firm wrist, move your feet.10 min
3. 3Jump Rope EnduranceLight bounce on the balls of your feet.10 min
4. 4Tennis Cool-Down Stretches, Ages 11 to 13A 6-minute cool-down for tennis players aged 11 to 13 after training: stretches for the legs, hips, wrists and sides, each held 15 to 20 seconds, never to pain, with growth-spurt notes.6 min

At 12

What changes in tennis training at 12

From 12, a home session can run to 60 minutes and the plan can have 5 training days a week, up from 45 minutes and 4 days at 11.

The app opens the same 23 at-home drills at 12 as at 11; the ones below are a different selection from that list.

Organized sport in all: no more hours a week than the child's age (NATA), so at most 12 hours for a 12 year old, with two rest days a week.

The week

Fitting tennis into a week at 12

At 12 the limit is 12 hours of organized sport a week. If you count home sessions against it to be safe, 5 sessions of 40 minutes is 3.33 hours, which leaves 8.67 for team practice and games. Even 5 days at the app's longest, 60 minutes, is 5 hours.

The research behind it

• Ages 6 to 12 are the "sampling years": high play, low deliberate practice.

  Côté and Vierimaa 2014

• Organized sport should total no more hours a week than the child's age in years, with two rest days a week.

  NATA youth sport specialization recommendations

Questions and answers