Thank you for taking the time to consider the Kids’ Tennis program at a school in your community.

Kids’ Tennis is a free program and provides an opportunity for children in all schools across Ontario to participate in Progressive Indoor Tennis. The program teaches students about the importance of regular physical activity, general physical literacy and movement skills. For many students this will be their first exposure to tennis. This fulfills the mandate of the OTA to gain new participants at the grassroots level and help surrounding community tennis clubs raise awareness about opportunities for students to continue to play. Both teachers with general and specialized Phys Ed qualifications can feel comfortable implementing this program with the assistance from OTA staff. To enhance and broaden the potential impact of the program, Kids’ Tennis encourages coaches and volunteers from neighboring OTA member tennis clubs to participate in offering these classes to schools in their community. An OTA coach may attend to help introduce the program if the coach or volunteer from the club is less experienced. We encourage both teachers and tennis coaches to continue to build the relationship between the school and tennis club to have best results of continued participation for the students. Resources such as introduction letters, equipment, and lesson plans can be made available upon request. Schools interested in this program can contact OTA if representatives from their community tennis club are unresponsive.

It is important for our OTA member clubs to recognize the importance of becoming involved in community initiatives to best support their club and the sport of tennis. These relationships do take time to establish but have proved in many cases as a bonified method improve the number to junior participants in playing tennis and helping to create a vibrant culture at the tennis clubs. The distribution of promotional materials from the club is most commonly prohibited on school grounds, but is subject to the individual school policy.

This program is volunteer based and requires the efforts of coaches at the club level. Club pros/volunteers should understand that a minor commitment to this program can have a large impact participant retention and registration in the spring and summer.

For more information please contact David Lea OR Ely Schwartz at 416-514-1100 or by email at dlea@tennisontario.com | ESchwartz@tennisontario.com !

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