Want to be a great adult? Be a QuickStart kid!

Middle School can be a very difficult time for many kids. Finding a passion for something positive at this time in their lives is essential.  QuickStart Tennis offers that and more. QuickStart Tennis of Central Virginia has "repackaged" QuickStart for older kids and incorporated principles of Positive Youth Development. Middle School QuickStart is taught in PE classes and after-school.

Henley Middle School, Crozet, Virginia

QuickStart kids are encouraged to:

• Play lots of tennis
• Eat like a tennis player
• Train like a tennis player
• Live by the Five Cs
• Give thanks and give back 

The Middle School QuickStart model - Relate, Empower and Mentor - will help QuickStart kids become better adults. Having middle-school kids relate to something positive and fun that builds character, confidence and self-esteem is very important in these formative years. QuickStart Tennis is an excellent vehicle to help shape the lives of middle-school kids. Using a station-based approach, dividing kids into teams and giving the teams the responsibility to successfully complete all stations empowers kids to do well. Mixing up team assignments and assigning new team captains at each session give all kids an opportunity to lead. Kids with underdeveloped social skills learn quickly with this approach and kids with good social skills have them reinforced. The team approach creates a connection for kids, requires the exercise of care and compassion for teammates and builds character. In addition to adult instructors, coaching and mentoring by older accomplished junior players, primarily high school tennis team players, makes playing tennis seem more reachable to middle-school beginners. While all this is happening, the kids are learning to play tennis, getting lots of exercise and having fun. Want to be a great adult? Be a QuickStart kid!

Check out the inaugural after-school program -- Albemarle Middle School Tennis - Fall 2009. 160 kids in five middle schools participated in the twice a week, five-week program. The kids at Henley Middle School went "bananas" for QuickStart and requested another five-week winter session. Now they're asking for a spring session.

FOR INFORMATION about Middle School programs, CLICK HERE