Tennis holidays for kids

It’s never too early to start learning! We include the chance to try some  tennis activity for all children in our Sea Urchins club for tots aged 2 to 4 years old. Our main aim is to make the sessions fun and engaging so that your toddler associates tennis with having a good time. Just getting on the court is a good start, so that your toddler is familiar with the environment and the equipment.

Through games and ball play we work to develop hand eye coordination skills, making sure there are lots of laughs along the way. Our favourite game for under fives is ‘Popcorn’; all the kids balance their ball on their racket and when coach shouts ‘Popcorn’ they have to throw them in the air as high as they can, then run to pick their own ball back up. It helps kids to track where the ball goes, a key skill in tennis.

With one Sea Urchin’s club team member per four children, you can be sure your little ones are well looked after. Our Sea Urchins club is available to all children aged 2 to 4 years old free of charge.

Our tennis coaches work closely with our children’s club team members to show younger children just how much fun tennis can be! Every child in our Sea Badgers, Surfbusters, Stingray and Sharksters clubs will have a session of tennis every week.

From the reception aged kids to those in their final year of primary school, our experienced coaches start to teach ball-receiving and ball-returning skills through a range of games designed to develop anticipation, perception, movement, decision-making and footwork. Enjoyment is still the main focus, making sure that their experience on the tennis court is the best it can be.

A great game to practice receiving and returning skills is ‘Get out of jail’. The coach throws the ball over the net and each child takes a turn to hit it back. If they're successful, they go to the back of the queue and take another turn. If they miss, they go to to ‘Jail’. They don’t stay there for long, they can get out of jail by catching a ball hit by another child. It’s fun for adults too!

Once they reach secondary school age, our coaches can start to work on stroke development with a focus on groundstrokes. We work on forehand and backhand, keeping the sessions flexible, so that everyone stays motivated. Both our Surf Squad and Wave Riders clubs, for children at secondary school age, have a tennis session every week.

You might think that tennis is harder to pick up than football or other sports. That’s why our coaches make sure that all sessions are enjoyable and encouraging so all of our youngest guests have a great tennis experience. If every child leaves their tennis session with a smile on their face, then our coaches know they’ve done their job.

We also encourage families to make the most of our facilities and hire courts for ‘free play’ when they’re not in use for coaching sessions. You can share what you have learnt during your tennis lessons and have fun as a family. All our children’s clubs are included in the price of a family holiday.

If your child has a passion for tennis or is looking to be the next Andy Murray, we run junior group coaching sessions in for children of any age. These are in addition to the hour-long group sessions included as part of the children’s clubs.

To run these sessions, we'll need a group of four or more children of a similar ability, the level of coaching will depend on the ability of the group, but in all groups our coaches will keep the kids motivated by hitting as many balls as possible. Beginners will learn the basic techniques and movements of the game. For more confident youngsters, we’ll work to refine technique such as how to serve with confidence and accuracy. Group coaching is still fun and we use games to develop skills so that kids want to keep playing.

The sessions are led by our expert tennis coaches. They take place at all our beachclubs where we have courts and run for an hour per day with at least five sessions per week. We need a minimum of four children to run the junior group and sessions can be arranged at a cost of approx €56 per child by speaking to the tennis coach at your beachclub.

If your youngster is in Wave Riders or TAG, they can join in with the inclusive adult group coaching sessions.

Discover more about our Tennis Holidays