QuickStart

Ferris State University Racquet and Fitness Center

What is QuickStart Tennis?

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QuickStart Tennis (originally called 36/60') is a competitive play format that features modified equipment and courts to allow kids to actually "play"the actual game of tennis. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) has modified six different variables: age, court size, net height, ball speed and weight, racquet lenght, and scoring.

or check out the right QuickStart class for your child

What is the Bull Dawg Court System?

The Bull Dawg System is our developmental system that features three different size courts and three types of balls. QuicStart Tennis is for competition, league and tournaments. The Bull Dawg Court System is our system of developing players to feed into leagues and tournaments. With the BDTS, your child can be serving and rallying with the first few lessons, regardless of age.

The Bull Dawg Court System is broken down into three different phases

Scrapy Dawgs and Under Dawgs

All players, regardless of age, start on the 36'court with foam balls or larger low compression balls (red ball). The court is 36'X18' and is laid out across a regular court. For competition, this court is limited to kids 8 and under.

Mighty Dawgs

The Mighty Dawgs now progress to the 60' court with low compression balls (orange ball). The singles court is 60'X21' and is played inside of a regular court. For doubles, the dimensions are 60'X27', using the regular court singles lines as the doubles lines. For competition, this court is limited to kids 10 and under.

Top Dawgs

The Top Dawgs progresses to the regular 78' court with a "green ball". This ball bounces 25% less than a regular ball and is used in training only. The green ball is not a part of the USTA QuickStart format. Finally, players will move to a regular, "yellow ball" on the 78' court. All USTA sanctioned competition for kids 11 and over is played with the regular ball.

Why all these different courts and balls?

Traditionally, tennis has been a difficult game to learn, especially for younger, smaller kids. The ball bounces too high, the court is too large to cover, and the kids are forced to use bigger rackets to make up for the strenght difference. Now with a smaller court, a slower ball, and appropriate rackets, kids can learn faster than ever before. Instead of contacting the ball above their heads, they can hit the ball at their waist, allowing for much better stroke. Instead of barely getting to wide balls, they can actually get to the ball and control the direction. This leads to the kids actually using strategy and tactics at a young age.

Click here for more information on USTA QuickStart website