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I am always for the idea of learning something new every now and then. Firstly, I get bored pretty easily, which is why you will always see me dabbling with new hobbies just to keep myself occupied and sufficiently entertained. Last November, just when I was wondering what we could do as a family during the school holidays that would be fun and meaningful, I was approached by Banana Tennis Academy to review a month of lessons with them.
Seriously, I have never thought of learning tennis. I did try tennis once during my JC days, and I failed quite terribly at it, with my PE teacher commenting that some of my classmates had the flare for tennis but that was definitely not me. This time round, I thought it would be fun and interesting to learn the sport together with my husband and kids and just have fun. It would be the kids’ first time trying tennis and who knows where this can lead us? It turned out to be a whole lot more fun than I thought!
Meet our tennis coach from Banana Tennis Academy! He’s very funny and patient, especially when the girls started losing their concentration and got into one of their incessant chatters about everything under the sun. I was glad he ‘spoke’ their lingo and was able to connect with them really quickly. His step-by-step and clear explanations about posture and the different strokes made it really easy for us to catch on. Yes, even for noob tennis students like us, we could follow without getting lost or confused. That really made a big difference in the whole learning process.
This was us during our first lesson on the tennis court, acting as professional as we could. Truth be told – Tennis rackets are not the lightest things on earth, and I left the court an hour later with aching arms. If you are looking for a sport to tone your arms, this is it!
During the four lessons we had with Banana Tennis Academy, we learnt the basics about tennis. Basics may sometimes be boring, but they are the most important. Once we get the right posture and moves, we will be able to learn the sport much easier. From learning how to hold the racket correctly for forehand and backhand strokes, we learnt how to move our bodies in the correct sequence to hit the ball when it comes and eventually, to learning how to do a proper serve. Everything was pretty tough at the beginning, but we slowly got the hang of it and started enjoying playing!
As a family of four, we took turns to hit the balls, practise the sequences until we got them right, pick up balls and repeat everything again. It was definitely fun because we learnt together as a family, and even when the school holidays are now over, we still talk about the tennis lessons we had. Now that we’ve all got the basics covered, we are thinking of booking a court and playing on our own soon!
Our coach gave us feedback during as well as at the end of every session, so that we can work on our weak areas and hone those parts we were good at. Some friends ask me why I needed to learn how to play tennis formally when I could probably pick it up by myself, and this was why. I didn’t want to just play the sport – I want to learn to play it properly. Constant feedback helped me to know what my blind spots are, and improve on them.
The kids are used to hitting everything as hard as they could in any game in order to win, but tennis is not such a sport. So, one of the best takeaways from our four weeks of lessons with Tennis Banana Academy is teaching my girls patience and how precision and techniques are more important than strength when it comes to winning in tennis. Personally, I enjoyed the family bonding time with them and was glad that as a family, we achieved yet another new milestone together. Have we become professional tennis players? No, of course not! But, we definitely learnt how to focus and coordinate better, and not be too hasty in our every movement.
Best of all, I saw how much fun my kids were having at every lesson. They were even happy to pick up all the balls several times within an hour of practice! Great workout under the sun once a week while picking up a new sport was just fantastic. :)
Thank you, Banana Tennis Academy, for the fun and engaging lessons, and for teaching us how to play a good game of tennis! It has made the year end school holidays in 2016 a very memorable one!
Banana Tennis Academy offers different packages and lesson types for different needs, so check out their website for more information! If you would like to find out more about their Family Tennis Lessons Package, you can get more details here. So, wait no more - Get your tennis coach today!
