Not sure what all our programming options mean?   This page will help break down all of the terms.   The age ranges listed below are guidelines for each level of player.

Red Ball (5 – 8 year olds)

Red Ball tennis is where a lot of children start their tennis journey! It uses a decompressed ball so that it doesn’t bounce above shoulder height of a 5 – 8 year old. It’s played on a mini court.

At this stage children develop tracking skills and hand eye coordination to enable them to use a racket correctly. They learn to serve and rally and score on their mini court! A Red Ball match is tie-break scoring to 10 points! 

Participants in our red ball program would compete in Rogers Rookie Tour events or club tournaments.

Orange Ball (7 – 9 year olds)

Orange balls are decompressed so that they do not bounce above shoulder height of most under 9’s. It is lighter, so that children can develop very good technique at a young age and the typical orange ball court is a smaller area for them to cover.  However, there are few orange ball courts in the province, so we often play on a full court.

A key point is that before the age of 8 children should have learnt basic tracking skills, catching, throwing, turning, hitting…with the Red Balls. 

Participants in our orange ball program would compete in Rogers Rookie Tour events or club tournaments.

Green Ball (9 – 10 year olds)

Green balls are typically used for 10 and under players or adults new to the game. They are still decompressed like the red and orange but to a lesser extent. The players play on a full sized tennis court at this stage.  Green balls are useful for any level of beginners to help develop technique and timing.

When matches are played with green balls they typically use normal tennis scoring, 15, 30, 40 etc and they play sets to 4 games instead of 6. 

U10 Green Ball matches usually a format called Fast-4 scoring (a short set to 4) and is best of three sets. Sets are short sets with normal tennis scoring to four games. If they get to 3 – 3 they play a 5 point tie break to see who wins that set and at 40-40 (deuce) they play a sudden death point instead of deuce-advantage.

Green ball players would play Rogers Rookie Tour events, or Rising Star U10 events, along with club events.

Yellow Ball (11+)

Following these stages above children will move onto playing tennis with yellow balls.

Children begin tennis at different ages. If they have started the pathway young then tennis at the yellow ball stage is all about fine tuning technique, developing movement and building their tactical game. It is also working with their strengths and weaknesses to develop their game.

If children/teens come to tennis at an older age then on the yellow ball we will be developing some of the skills covered in Orange and Green (and perhaps using Green ball to start out).

Typically Normal Tennis scoring is used at this level. Sometimes the Fast-4 format will be used in beginner tournaments or consolation draws.

New to tennis Yellow ball players would play in Roger Rookie Tour events while more experienced players might want to play the provincial circuit of 2* and 3* events.  Advance players may want to play in the Atlantic Tennis Alliance series of 3.5* and 4* events.

High Performance

High Performance is a term given to our programming targeted at seasoned Junior players looking for additional court time each week and a more competitive environment.  Yellow ball would be used for this lesson group and this group includes structured league time each season.  HP Junior players may also be invited to the adult leagues.

HP Players would play in the provincial tournament series and the ATA series of tournaments.  They may also appreciate the additional challenge of adult Open tournaments.

Introduction to Pickleball Lessons

Our Pickleball programming is new and aimed at players brand new to Pickleball.  Here we will review basic hitting techniques for each of the major shot types, rules of the games, and basic strategy.  We have introduction junior, adult and parent/child programming.

We currently have two Pickleball courts at the club and will be conducting our programming at Stephen Thistle Park in Mount Pearl on Park Avenue and Commander Place.