QuickStart PRO . . . Coach Rich's Excellent Adventure with Cumberland  Elementary School Students
June 2015

QuickStart PRO is an innovative QCV program that sends 10 and under tennis-teaching resources to elementary schools in rural counties in central Virginia. Using the QuickStart format, tennis is taught to elementary school students as part of the summer school curriculum during the school day. This summer is the fourth year for QuickStart PRO in Cumberland County. Veteran QuickStart PRO Rich Michaels, PTR Scholastic Coach and USPTA Recreational Coach, is leading this summer's session.

Week One -- Day One

Wasn't planning on blogging when I got home after a high-speed tennis adventure once again with Cumberland County Public Schools. Was thinking more along the line of a similar-sounding word starting with "n" that rhymes with "tapping".
 
Superintendent Amy Griffin stopped by during the first class, camera in hand. Photos are likely to materialize on the Cumberland County Public Schools' website home page relatively soon I reckon. And she asked whether or not I would be blogging again. So maybe this whole thing should be called Summer School Blogging rather than Summer School Tennis.
 
Nowhere close to the 106 kids as advertised. Probably more in the mid-fifties range. That 106 figure may have been the figure for total summer school enrollment. I'll try to get a more accurate count tomorrow.
 
Sharing the middle school gym with volleyball. All morning long. Gonna be problematic when the nets go up tomorrow in some of the classes.  Summer school coordinator is checking to see if tennis or volleyball can relocate to the high school gym. The high school gym has a partition, but for the first time, is running its own recreational activities for its own kids. So we'll see. Might just have to reorient the direction the nets face on my allotted side of the middle school gym.
 
And good thing I brought some balls. The 13 provided were all the red foam ones. I don't know why those are the preferred balls for five and six year olds since they have trouble catching them in one hand when we're practicing sending and receiving activities.

Week One -- Day Two

Got the whole middle school gym to ourselves . . . and was told it would remain that way for the duration. So three nets are up, and everybody is using a racquet already.
 
For the smaller kids, it was roll ball, tunnel ball, and Alligator River. That latter activity has never failed to please the kids every time I've used it.  If only the whole sport of tennis was modeled after Alligator River. Told the kids, as they lined up to head to their next class, they could tell everyone at dinner later on they helped save their teacher from the jaws of a hungry reptile today. That conversation ought to cause quite a stir in the county.
 
For the bigger kids, forehands today, a number of them hit with depth. Maybe too much depth though. Might have been OK on the 78-foot court but on ours, the ball sailed some 40-feet over the baseline. That's OK though. I'd rather have that than have the ball go into the net because you never know when someone is going to take a whack at a ball that most people would consider clearly going long. That option is off the table if the ball goes into the net however.
 
Got a better attendance headcount today than yesterday. 78 kids showed up, which uniquely enough is about the midpoint of the school's number (106) and my number (mid-fifties).
 
And as an aside, I got a text from my eldest daughter Tracy yesterday morning asking me what I wanted for Fathers' Day (which is this coming Sunday). She sent the text right in the middle of one of the tennis classes. So at the first break, I texted her back and told her I was in summer school and would have to get back with her -- which I forgot to do. So this morning she sent me another text (at a more opportune time), which read, " Well then, it sounds like you could use a new backpack, lunch box, and milk ticket".

Week One -- Day Three

So far I've been hugged about five or six times already.  Even though I pretty much just got there.
 
Apparently the word had gotten out that tennis would be offered in weeks two and three of Cumberland's Summer School Program. According to one of the teachers, that was all the kids talked about the first week. What an inducement to get the kids to show up for the second week of summer school! How the school administrators plan to top that offer in weeks four and five I have no idea.
 
I had to discipline two kids in the same 3rd Grade class today for two different infractions. Both spent the last part of their tennis class as "seated observers".  The kids did apologize afterwards and all is forgiven. And it does get a bit discouraging when I have to tell the kids to "hug" or "ground" their racquets in order to remind them of some activity or procedure I just told and showed them a minute ago. I keep telling them that every time we have to stop, this eats into the 30 minutes of class time during which they could actually be playing.
 
The overall summer school tennis program learning curve is stretched out too since I'm doing all the elementary grades. So Racquet Quickness and Lobster Trap were today's events for the little guys, while backhands were the day's activity for the rising 5th Graders, for example.
 
We're at, or very near. a point of discrimination among agility, balance, and coordination within each age group. Some seem to get it (or have a hang for it) while others don't (and maybe won't ever).  And I can categorically say that sustained rallies (of three or more balls) still remain more fiction than fact right now.  But we'll get there eventually (my target goal is seven).
 
That is if I can convince most of the boys to stop hitting so hard. I try to emphasize collaborative rallies by saying, "Let's see who can have the longest rally in the next 30 seconds". After I've mentioned and demonstrated (more than once I might add), "Use a shorter backswing for smaller spaces" (like the gym).

Week One -- Day Four

I may have blogged a little prematurely yesterday because today, two kids in a rising 3rd Grade class crossed the four-ball rally threshold. And both players were boys!
 
Things were a lot more pleasant and way more fun today as well. And why not? It's the half-way point for Cumberland County Summer School Tennis and another three-day weekend for the kids.  But no such time off for me.
 
I start giving private lessons tomorrow, using a coaching approach based on the USTA's Early Development Camp initiative. This is a new program for orange ball players who can rally (as young as age seven) that seeks to introduce them to competition earlier in their player development progression. I'll be running my program on successive Fridays through July 31st (less July 3rd) from 11:00-12:30 at the Buckingham County High School courts.
 
The rising 5th Graders practiced service tosses today. Also showed them how to trap the ball between the racquet strings and in this case, rather than a fence, the gym wall. Showed each kid how to put his or her left foot (for right-handed servers) at a 45-degree angle against the base of the wall (our baseline). And with the racquet up in the air, toss the ball up above the tip of the outstretched racquet and trap the ball on the strings as it's on its way down. Can't toss the ball out in front of you (the wall's there).  Can (and did) go left and right of perfectly vertical. But I was pleased that there were no tosses behind their heads.
 
Speaking of the rising 5th Graders, for the last couple of days, the kids have been straggling into tennis class. Their class is right after lunch, but that turned out not to be the problem. It was - ice cream. The teacher apologized for all the kids not showing up at the same time and said that they were waiting to finish their ice cream before coming into the gym. She wasn't sure how to control this, but I was!
 
Ice cream is an everyday thing following lunch, for those who can afford the fifty cents. I told the teacher that if a kid couldn't afford fifty cents on Thursday, they also were unlikely to be able to afford it any other day of the week either. So to get away from this potential have-and-have-nots issue, make ice cream available to the kids only on Thursday, providing that all behavioral and learning objectives for the week were met by the students. This seemed like a logical approach for a county in which over 70 percent of the kids are already on free or reduced-price lunches (NOTE:  In summer school, ALL kids eat free -- breakfast and lunch. Likely underwritten by the USDA, ice cream is not on the free-issue list. I don't think it's even on the food pyramid).
 
Finally, stopped by the school board office to fill out a new form for automatic deposit of my summer school tennis pay.  New bank = new routing number and new account number. The secretary asked me if I wanted to fill out a new W-4 Form as well. Sure, why not. I was pleasantly surprised because since I first taught summer school tennis in Cumberland County in 2012, I now qualify for an additional personal deduction that Virginia allows for age (over 65) and/or blindness. Won't mention the name of my significant family member who qualifies for one of these deductions. But I will tell you she (1) forgot my birthday this year, and (2) isn't blind!
 
Week Two -- Day Five

One boy told me early last week he enjoyed playing baseball and basketball. And though he didn't say it, his face betrayed what I suspect he was thinking: that tennis is the worst sport ever invented, at least for boys. So I complemented him on his interest in other sports. especially baseball, since he's probably going to be swinging at a fast-moving incoming ball with a bat that has a significantly reduced hitting service (compared to a tennis racquet). But I reminded him that in baseball, if you hit the ball, no one keeps throwing more balls at you (like in a tennis rally), and all you need is one more person to play tennis. Baseball has three people (oftentimes four in youth baseball) just in the outfield.
 
This morning at breakfast, one 1st Grade girl asked me if I was 84. Really? But perhaps I misheard her. Maybe what she really asked was whether or not I was BORN in 1984 (surely not 1884!). Yeah, I like 1984 better.  We'll go with that.
 
The little guys did a lot of stuff today: Applause, Racquet Splat, Red Light-Green Light, and Clear the Court. (NOTE: If there's one activity that needs no demonstration it's Clear the Court). The rising 4th graders did backhands and the rising 5th Graders a full service motion.
 
Half my clientele (the younger half) are going on a field trip Thursday, so only have two days left of tennis. Introduction to forehands and backhands is on tap for them, while the rising 4th Graders will be doing serves and volleys. The rising 5th Graders will experience volleys and "match play". And I'm seriously considering debuting Skillastics for them the last day.
 
Week Two -- Day Six

Just Fantastic! There are few superlatives to describe what happened this morning in the rising 4th Grade tennis class just before lunch.
 
The schedule today was to introduce the complete service motion, inasmuch as we had already worked on the service toss. Watching the tosses yesterday, I didn't get all warm and fuzzy that things would go well today once we brought the racquet into the equation. And for about the first ten minutes of our 30-minute class, during which time the kids were trying to hit a forehand first serve off of a dropped ball or hitting underhanded, I was spot on in my assessment.
 
But when I called a time out to review and show them the steps of the service motion again, it was like the proverbial light switch had been turned on. Not only were almost all 11 kids tossing the ball up consistently, but they also were making solid contact with the ball during the hitting phase, the ball was going over the net into the correct service box, and their serves had a moderate amount of pace. All accomplished within a span of less than 20 minutes. As much as I'd like to take all the credit for this, keep in mind - at no time was I the one swinging the racquet. THIS is sure to be my favorite summer school tennis moment of all time! Although there once was this marriage proposal from a rising 3rd Grade girl in Buckingham County a couple of years back . . .
 
The little guys played a game of "Jail" (called "Survivor" in the Rally and Play book). Half the kids are placed on one side of the net in "jail" and the only way they can be freed is if the kids on the other side of the net can hit a forehand off a ball they drop themselves and it goes over the net so that the "prisoners" can catch it. If the ball is caught in the air, the entire jail population is released to the other side to join their buddies with the racquets. If the ball is caught after one or two bounces, only the player who caught it is released. However, if the kid misses his forehand (wide or into the net) that kid himself has to go to jail. Then someone tries to get him released too. The last kid not in jail is the winner. As we left it in one of the three classes today, all of the boys are in jail and it's the girls who'll have to try to spring 'em tomorrow by hitting a backhand.
 
Volleys today for the rising 5th Graders. Also showed them a volley rally. Only managed a three-ball rally with another boy. Decided a little later to forego the racquets and see if we could just keep the ball in play (without it bouncing) by throwing and catching it back and forth. Class Championships for these guys tomorrow if I do Skillastics on Thursday (the last day).
 
And I gave the TEACHERS an assignment. Told them that we were running out of time and kids if they wanted to get them memorialized in the blog. Suggested they bring their cell phone or a camera to class and take a picture of their own kids. Will establish a central "photo pool" from which these pics can be extracted and matched to the relative narrative the photo depicts. No guarantee that the photos and narrative will be from the same day but they should be synched in the blog.

Week Two -- Day Seven

Virginia plays Vanderbilt later this evening in the College World Series for bragging rights as the best men's college baseball team in the country.  Third game tonight for all the marbles - winner take all. Like a super tiebreak third set in tennis. If UVa wins, it will be the first school from the ACC to win the title in 60 years. It would also be the UVa men's baseball team's first national title. If Vandy wins, it will be their second world series title in succession (they beat UVa last year). When the Commodores won last year, it was only the second national title ever in any sport for the university. The first was - women's bowling (are there athletic scholarships for bowling?). But in Vanderbilt's defense, their women's tennis team this year was the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Team Champion.
 
I'm not a real fan of baseball, because it takes forever to play, and a lot of the time, there are a bunch of guys standing around doing nothing. But I did watch the first six innings of Game 1 before somebody told me to turn the TV off and go to bed because I had to be up early tomorrow for summer school. And while I watched, I was wondering how these guys got their start in the sport, I do the same thing when watching tennis matches on TV. I guess what I really just want to know is whether or not any of them were total klutzes when they first started playing Tee-Ball (baseball's QuickStart), for example. But let me try to refocus and not go off task.
 
For those of you who were worried yesterday when I blogged that at the end of one rising 2nd Grade class, all the boys were in "jail", you didn't have to worry. None spent the night in the slammer (some work release/study release thing no doubt). And the girls got them out this morning with their backhands. Only to find themselves incarcerated just a couple of minutes later when they hit errant shots into the net. From a "men's prison" to a "women's prison" in a matter of minutes. But I thought it was cool that some of the kids wanted to try their luck at hitting a backhand off a ball they dropped themselves. I offered to help them swing the racquet if they wanted me to. The more risk-averse took me up on my offer while the more adventurous went it alone. Mostly without success. One boy even blamed me for his repeat encounter with the "justice system". But the kids are now back with their "parole officer" (teacher) and all is right with the world once again.
 
BTW - those foam balls gotta go. At least half of them have big pieces of foam missing from them. So trying to predict their bounce is like trying to predict with certainty the direction a football will go after it bounces.
 
Group picture following lunch today. Everybody was there except for one rising 4th Grade class who went on a field trip. Don't know where they went but I thought I heard something about Wimbledon Qualifying? All the little guys are off on their own field trip tomorrow, so the last day of summer school tennis will start an hour later than normal. Could use that hour to sleep-in but probably will apply it to watching that baseball game tonight. But now I'm off task again.

Week Two -- Day Eight

Virginia 4, Vanderbilt 2.  Coincidentally the same score as UVa's win over then-ranked No. 1 Oklahoma in this year's NCAA D-I men's tennis team national championships. UVa also won the men's soccer national title this year as well, but I don't know what the score was or who they played.
 
Game started at 8:00 and lasted until a little before midnight. That's about 240 minutes, divided by nine innings, giving us an average of approximately 27 minutes an inning. I told you this sport takes forever to play! Vanderbilt didn't do me any favors time-wise either. Late in the game, they brought in a new pitcher who threw - one pitch. Then they replaced him too, with one of the other bazillion pitchers they have on the roster. So let's recap the two most important points we've learned from these latest blogs: Women's Tennis National Team Champions - Vanderbilt; Men's Tennis National Team Champions - Virginia.
 
Most youth tennis coaches would have incorporated some type of match play into their last day of "tennis camp". But I thought I'd rather try to peg the FUNmeter and get the rising 4th Grade kids all giggling, laughing, and yelling (not to mention hot, sweaty, and stinky) by introducing them to the "Jail" game AND ending with Clear the Court. I think that what a kid does last is what he or she remembers most. What better way could there be than to finish up like this? Particularly in a school setting where after all, it is MY last day of summer school and I have an unlisted number!
 
And yet another special summer school moment. The Skillastics wrap-up class for the rising 5th Graders. Using tennis as the vehicle, Skillastics teaches the kids cooperation, teamwork, and problem solving (for those activities depicted on the player mats with which the kids may not be familiar). Two teams of four players each. EVERYONE was actively participating.  Made it around the board once and was on the second time around when I called time. Both groups ended up on exactly the same activity spot. Invited Dr. Griffin and Dr. Jones to come over after lunch to check this out since Cumberland County has never seen Skillastics and since the game itself was developed by educators FOR educators.
 
Cumberland County will always be special to me. For it was me who coached their first-ever summer school tennis program back in 2012, and it was the first county in which I ran a summer school tennis program other than in my own (Buckingham). And the kids are pretty special too, especially the littlest ones. One girl, a rising 1st Grader, came to tennis class every day this summer with a big smile on her face, almost like it was painted on. Since tennis was completely new to her, I wonder what she thinks about it?
 
In closing, Dr. Griffin asked me about after-school tennis. Some parents of students who weren't even in summer school had asked her about it.  I told her that would be a great idea. I said the goal was to eventually get the school district to run it in-house (like Buckingham County now does).  Might suggest offering another School Tennis Workshop in the county to help generate some possible volunteer on-court support. Since the last one in 2011, QuickStart Tennis has morphed into 10 and Under Tennis which, in turn, has become Youth Tennis. Any after-school program will take place in Cumberland Elementary School's carpeted gymnasium/activity space.
 
As for me, I'm with Albemarle County Public Schools starting next Monday for summer school tennis at B.F. Yancey Elementary School in Esmont.  Three 45-minutes classes per day (M-Th) for two weeks.  43 kids, Grades 1 through 5.

An EXCELLENT job Coach Rich! Looking forward to following your excellent adventure at Yancey.