Teaching tennis to little tykes

Susan Schell

of the Gateway

Rick Johnson doesn’t have an ordinary three-car garage. In fact, there are no cars in it at all. The floor is painted green with white stripes to resemble a miniature tennis court, complete with a net.

As the rain comes down in sheets outside, siblings Alec, Elliott and Chloe White, all students at Voyager Elementary School, can still get a winter tennis lesson in the toasty garage warmed by space heaters.

The students go through drills, practice coordination skills and learn about the baseline, the service line and the alley.

Johnson teaches tennis to youngsters in his garage in Gig Harbor and to those of all ages at the Key Peninsula Civic Center in Vaughn.

Johnson is a USPTA Certified Teaching Professional with more than 30 years of experience. His youngest students are 4 1/2 years old and his garage court is designed solely for teaching the game to youngsters at their level.

Everything is miniaturized — the space is shortened, the balls are soft and the net is kid-sized.

“Wilson has been making these short nets since 1978,” Johnson said. “But the USPTA has finally found the magic potion for getting youth interested in tennis — bring the equipment down closer to their size.”

Johnson said the “transition balls” bounce only to the height of the student.

“They’re just starting to see what soccer figured out years ago,” he said. “Six-year-olds don’t run on the same size field as the professional players.”

The White children have been taking Johnson’s class for two years, and their enthusiasm shows no signs of letting up. Johnson coaches the students through their movements, lets them choose their favorite drill during “recess” and rewards them with stickers for a job well done.

“First and foremost, you have to make it fun,” he said. “It has to be recreational and fun. If it’s not fun, the kids won’t want to do it.”

Johnson picked up the game when he was 15 and attending Everett High School. He worked for court time at a local tennis club, where he was offered a job as a tennis teacher.

The club launched him on a tour of all the greatest tennis pro schools in the country.

Johnson trained with tennis greats like Harry Hopman and Pancho Segura.

By 2000, Johnson had settled in Gig Harbor and was tired of “working for other people.” He rented space at the Rosedale Community Hall to teach lessons and then converted his garage into the miniature tennis court.

Johnson’s students help decorate the walls with their artwork and photographs. He keeps the class sizes small in order to focus on individual students’ needs, and he has a checklist of skills for each student.

When the students “graduate,” they can move on to the next level. When they outgrow the little court, they can start playing on the full-sized court in Vaughn.

“He teaches us how to play instead of just saying ‘Do this,’ ” student Karlie Mullen said. “He shows us how to do things, like how to control the ball and how to play the game.”

“The practice keeps them focused,” said Karen White, the Whites’ mother, who is enrolled in Johnson’s cardio tennis class. “Elliott (White) is always asking me, ‘Do we have tennis today?’ ” she said.

The Whites have a tennis court at their home and Johnson’s class helps the children develop skills they will use on the court.

“I like playing on the tennis court in the summer,” Elliott White said. “But not when it’s raining and snowing.”

Alec White said he enjoyed the drills of hitting the tennis ball against the wall with his racquet. Chloe White said she liked playing with the “squish ball.”

Elliott White didn’t have a specific drill he liked during the class.

“I just like to play tennis,” he said. “I like everything about it.”

Tennis lessons

Phone: 253-857-8424 or e-mail rick@gigharbortennis.com

Web site: gigharbortennis.com.