How Junior Players Can Improve Their Game This Summer

By Ajay Kumar

Summer is just around the corner! And with COVID hopefully on the decline, now is the time to think about summer tennis training that may be beneficial to aspiring junior players. Many NYC parents of players in the Gotham Stadium Tennis Academy ask me for advice on whether it is beneficial to send children to tennis camps in Europe, Florida, California, or Vermont, to name a few. There are so many options and it can be confusing for parents and talented players.

Going away to a new environment away from home offers many opportunities for personal growth, and I encourage going away for a brief period of time. However, from the standpoint of purely improving one’s tennis game, I have found that spending time at home training with a coach or team of coaches who already know the player offers the best opportunity to improve.

The biggest issue with sending players away to a tennis camp is that your child may not receive personal attention. Some tennis camps can be more like a “factory” where some players can get lost in the mix. Other tennis camps may try to overhaul a game in too short a period of time, which can be detrimental. By contrast, using the summer to strengthen the ‘bond’ between a player and a coach or a team of coaches who know your child year-round can be a critical ingredient in player development, no matter what age or level of play.

I have found that the process of improving requires an athlete to push themselves. There is no substitute for hard work. Summer is a critical time to focus on specific skills and training without the pressures of school and homework. It is a time to ramp up strength and conditioning, on-court strategy and tactics, and build up mental toughness.

To sum up, in my experience, summer is a great time to further develop a stronger bond between a player and a coach or a team of coaches who know the player well. This bond between player and coach can be instrumental in helping the player to attain new heights and reach their full potential. Therefore, going away to a tennis camp for a brief period of time, such as one or two weeks, can be beneficial. Developing a stronger bond with your coach or a team of coaches at home for most of the summer will yield the best results in the long term.

Ajay Kumar is a Director of Tennis at Gotham Stadium Tennis NYC. During the summer, he directs Gotham Stadium's High Performance Tennis Camp. He can be reached at ajay@gothamtennis.com.