FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

It is an acronym for Red, Orange, Green, which are the progressive court sizes and ball colors recognized by USTA. Those different stages are often incorrectly viewed as indicators of a players’ tennis skills. This is only partly true since it is also based on multiple factors like physical and biological stages of development. Using incorrect equipment or being in the incorrect environment (court size) will, in most cases, have profound negative effects on the player’s development.

All of the concepts used for developing ROGace are in line with leading American and International tennis organizations. Youth tennis is a constantly evolving field, and we are deeply passionate about constantly learning and adapting ROGace to represent the most advanced thoughts and techniques. Our program uses unique elements based on the combined experience of our team, as well as the most successful practices observed in our industry.

We are big supporters of children playing multiple sports. We recommend hockey and soccer as the best supplemental sports for tennis, as well as some throwing sports like baseball, to help with a serve. We believe that being the best at something at age 10 is much more of a curse than a blessing, and our training methods are focused on creating a strong foundation for performance at 16+ years of age.

In general, we believe that private lessons should be treated as supplement to being part of a group program. In our program, players constantly play with each other, which allows coaches to have an individual view on each player in the group. This also allows players to learn within the most realistic environment since they are constantly exposed to less-than-perfect shots. Private lessons could help with addressing a specific technical aspect or getting a more in-depth explanation of a particular shot or a tactic. However, we believe that children being motivated by their peers, games and a fun environment can correct many mistakes without detailed instructions. Small group lessons are also budget-friendly option for parents.

We believe that one of the best things about sports is competition. We aim to incorporate games into every practice, and from the earliest stages, start introducing different types of point play. That being said, each player is unique. For example, our experience shows that boys are quicker and more eager to compete in tournaments, whereas girls like to first feel very competent with their skills before they feel comfortable competing. Of course, all children are going to be unique and ROGace will work with every parent/guardian individually to develop a personalized plan for their little champion.

There is no minimum, but as with every other skill in life, doing something very sporadically will not provide great results. Optimally, we suggest two organized practices per week. We encourage your child to play more tennis with friends or parents/guardians (it has to be a fun, light time, in the proper environment and with proper equipment, but without coaching). The best athletes often mention playing pick-up sports for hours and hours daily, and never getting tired of it. But the crucial distinction is minimal adult supervision, and the intrinsic motivation of the child (for further elaboration on this type of motivation, please refer to the question about motivation in the “Player” section in this FAQ). The maximum amount of times ROGace is going to allow their players to participate in any organized practices (that includes private lessons) will be three times a week. Ultimately, one of our core principles is to ignite a life-long passion for tennis, and we are not going to allow any of our players to burn-out at a young age.

Typically, we aim for 90-minute sessions, during which players will be grouped together based primarily on their skill level. During each session, players are going to follow a specific lesson plan adapted to the needs of a particular group. There will be a coach assigned to each small group, as well as one main coach supervising all courts. Players will mostly practice with each other, with coaches serving as facilitators. This approach allows for the most individualized coaching approach, since the coach is not tied down to one spot on the court. By avoiding traditional coaching “feeding” methods, we avoid the lines and time spent waiting/standing around.

Each session has a specific lesson plan and it is based on our system of badges. Each moment spent on court will have a well-defined purpose that will be shared with parents, through the portal, on a weekly basis, as well as face-to-face for those watching during each class.

In general, we are going to try to keep the groups the same during a 9-week session. We will also try to keep the same coaches so players can create a positive relationship with their coach.

From our collective experience as tennis coaches, we believe that in majority of cases, it is much better for all parties if parents are not on the court. That being said, there are few things to keep in mind: with the youngest players we are willing to work with parents/guardians to do whatever it takes to overcome the fear of separation. Transparency and communication with parents are two pillars of our approach. We promise that parents/guardians will never feel like they are under-informed.

In order to provide maximum transparency and a collective understanding for players, parents and coaches alike, we have developed a unique system of merit badges that explain, in plain language, our goals for each level. This system has been built on a foundation of our collective experience and it is continuously updated and revised. We have identified six badges/areas of focus: Forehand, Backhand, Offense, Defense, Serve, and Sportsmanship. Each of those categories will have three levels of mastery in the red level and three levels of mastery in the orange level. Members of the program will have access to a detailed explanation of the expectations for each level. Evaluation, planning, etc. will all be based on those badges. Also, the badges will be printed on the shirts of each program participant, so there will an external sign of player’s progress.

In general, we are focused on well-rounded development of each player. ROGace believes that all of the basic shots, ball rotations and directions should be covered, before a player advances to the next level. This is why each player will work on all their badges in parallel, not being able to advance in any particular badge more than one level ahead of the other badges.

At ROGace, we believe that players on the red court should be capable of learning all of the strokes, rotations, directions and basic tactics, before moving to a bigger court size. In general, you can expect your child to know how to volley, slice and serve with the proper grip, as well as be able to rally with both hands, and be able to play one and two-handed backhands before they move to orange environment. Playing on a bigger court does not make someone a better player, but instead it requires significantly increased speed and strength to properly play the game. Without the ability to succeed in the red environment, players are assured to struggle with the increased court size and equipment.

Players who will receive a ROGace certificate of program completion are going to be small versions of high-performance players, with an ability to hit every single tennis stroke (well, Nick Kyrgios style “tweener” might not be a part of curriculum, but all other shots will), understand tennis etiquette, basic tactics and strategy, as well as be able to successfully compete (if desired) in tournaments. This is the ROGace promise and we believe whole-heartedly that, regardless of player’s athletic abilities, with a sufficient amount of time (in most cases at least 3-4 years of participating in the ROGace program with a minimum once a week frequency) every single player is going to be able to achieve the skills described above.

Proper equipment plays a major role in the correct development of young tennis players. We will gladly advise you on the right racket and have some available at the club for purchase. The key is to have the correct size and a good quality racket. Rackets sold in various non-tennis specific department stores are, in majority of cases, not the correct rackets. Regarding size, even in tennis specific stores we often observe a lack of a proper understanding of what young children need. Most of the advice (if any) is based on biological size of the child, which is not always the right approach. Also, non-specialized people often advise changing the rackets to a larger size way too early, which has a very negative effect on the strokes that require more strength to begin with, like slice or volley. Having larger and heavier racket will only make those shots more difficult. In all, please give us a chance to advise you before making any final decisions.

Currently we do not offer any rental options. The correct tennis racket is very important and it is relatively inexpensive to purchase.

Every situation is unique, but as a general rule, players will be able to use a racket for around 1-3 years, before they outgrow it.

It is not necessary to have tennis-specific shoes to participate in the ROGace program. However, for safety reasons we require each child to have sport sneakers with covered toes and non-marking soles.

Working with children requires a high level of empathy, understanding, energy and experience. On top of that, we are looking for people who are passionate about tennis, even if they are not themselves exceptional tennis players. Being a coach versus being a player requires a very different set of skills and character traits. Searching for the best coaches, we focus primarily on the candidates who radiate passion for educating and positively impacting children, as well as for the sport of tennis.

We take the promise of the highest coaching quality very seriously. To achieve that, we have multiple training mechanisms as well as quality control mechanisms. Once the coach-in-training meets the objective training criteria, as well as is able to translate the theoretical knowledge to practice, they receive a ROGace Coaching Certificate, and are ready to join our coaching team as Level 1 coaches.

We have no illusion that we can learn everything that there is to know at any given time. Furthermore, we live by the same philosophy that we are trying to instill in our players: the path to superb skills or knowledge is a never-ending journey, where every step forward reveals a new area for improvement. We love what we do and choose to work with people who have a mind-set of lifelong learning. Part of our core philosophy is to ensure that our coaches stay at the forefront of the latest in tennis training and coaching children.

We believe that choosing the right people and providing them with proper coaching education is the cornerstone for superb quality. Additionally, coaches teaching a particular group will always be joined by a “supervising” coach unassigned to any particular court or group of players. This allows for an unmatched level of attention paid to coaching quality, the performance of group of players, as well as the development of individual players. This helps to improve the quality of the program across the board.

Previous playing experience is a plus (the founder of ROGace has been a high-level tennis player with a history of competing in multiple professional tournaments as well as on the NCAA Division 1 level). However, our expertise shows that familiarity and the ability to successfully work with children is much more important than tennis ball striking ability. As a result, we focus primarily on the candidates who radiate passion for educating and positively impacting children, as well as for the sport of tennis.

Parents/guardians are a very important member of a player’s tennis team. ROGace wants parents to be involved and have as much information available to them as possible. One of our primary goals as a company, is a high level of transparency towards all of the involved parties, which we are trying to achieve by: an initial conversation with every new parent/guardian, a “Welcome” presentation for parents, a “Welcome” package that includes all of the important information, follow-up conversations during the session, written badges/progress feedback during each session, and a dedicated Parents Portal section on the website.

There are multiple avenues, including face-to-face, Parents Portal communication, parent/guardian feedback in the end of a session, email or phone call. Whatever method you prefer, we make sure someone is always available to field your comments or concerns.

Parents/guardians have an essential role in their child’s tennis development. Their support, encouragement and involvement are very important from the youngest age. Parents/guardians will steer their child’s career for an extended period, making crucial decisions like coach/program selection, providing economical and psychological support, etc. The key for parents/guardians is to focus on encouraging, praising and rewarding hard work, commitment, and proper behaviors, instead of results and comparisons to others.

Tennis is a sport where agility and coordination are very important, so doing any kind of exercises that can improve those traits is beneficial. From a technical complexity point of view, serving is the most difficult, but at the same time, the most important shot. We recommend playing catch with your child making sure that, in most instances, he/she uses an overhead throwing motion. Being comfortable with a throwing motion directly translates to a better serving motion. The best advice that we can give to parents/guardians is to always try to lead with an example, because children are much more receptive to “do as I do”, instead of “do as I say.” Try to join your child in any of the activities or exercises that you would like them to be a part of, and you might not only solidify your position as a shining star in your child’s eyes, but potentially also have some fun yourself.

There are two primary types of motivation: intrinsic (self-driven) and extrinsic (focused on outside factors like doing something to please others). A majority of children are going to be very extrinsically motivated with anything they do. They draw energy from seeking praise and acceptance from people who they care about, primarily parents/guardians, but also coaches and other figures they respect. Initially, this is expected and that is why ROGace’s coaches are well trained in understanding how to be a positive, motivational factor for all of the players. Eventually, children, through process of maturing, become more intrinsically motivated, often enjoying doing things that at which they’re competent. We believe that the source of motivation and drive are much better predictors of potential for high performance, than the elusive “talent” that is not easily and universally identified. Do not expect this intrinsic motivation to show up immediately or even within the first few years of any activity your child takes on. But it will be very easy to spot, when/if the shift starts happening. Using tennis as an example: the moment that they are ready and excited to go to play tennis, without any need for reminders; they get genuinely sad when they miss a lesson due to circumstances that they did not have control over; or start talking more about tennis and getting more interested in watching professional tennis.

This can be a rather confusing and complex question, without having a proper understanding of the subject. This is why competition and tournament play is one of the topics that ROGace will address in periodical parent presentations offered to all of the members. On top of that, we are going to be providing individualized recommendations.

Using professional tennis players as indicators for when all of the pieces come together, and when players hit their peak performance, we can learn a very valuable lesson. As of mid-2018 to mid-2019 when this text was written, there are no male Grand Slam winners under age 30. Stan Wawrinka, Swiss professional tennis player, multiple Grand Slam winner, started playing at age 8 once a week until age 11, when he started playing three times a week. For female players, peak performance comes much earlier, however significantly later than 20-30 years ago. Tennis requires an incredibly long career and a motivation to keep improving, often for over 20 years, before achieving peak performance. As adults, understanding this perspective should help us look at an 8 or 9-year-old child in an appropriate light. Children should be children and have a chance to be exposed to many different activities, before/if they decide to fully commit to one or two selected activities.

We are always looking for passionate people who want to become a part of the ROGace coaching team. We would require the same detail of training and commitment as from any other coach but having parents who are involved is fantastic. Our experience dictates that coaching your own children (that includes professional tennis coaches and long term ROGace team members) is a very unique and extremely difficult task which often leads to very difficult situations.