QuickStart tennis program makes the sport more fun for kids

Some of the world's best men's tennis players, including Andy Roddick, will be playing in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic at the FitzGerald Tennis Center in Washington starting this week.

Tennis is a hot sport -- and not just because it will be played in the nation's capital in August. Statistics show 43 percent more people are playing tennis than in 2000. And tennis is becoming a lot more popular with one very important group: kids. According to statistics from the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA), the number of children ages 6 to 17 who are playing tennis has grown from 6.8 million to 9.5 million between 2003 and 2009.

One reason is QuickStart. In this terrific program, kids ages 6 to 10 play on smaller courts with lower nets. They swing smaller rackets and hit balls that don't bounce as fast and as high as regular tennis balls.

Sports can be tough for kids unless the sport is made kid-size. So children play baseball on smaller Little League fields. They get more touches and more action in four-on-four soccer games. And many start playing basketball using eight-foot-high baskets.

That's what QuickStart does: It takes the big court and blazing serves of professional tennis and makes them kid-size.

Even the scoring is different. In matches for kids younger than 8, the first player to win seven points wins a game. The first to win two games wins the match. So any match should not take more than 20 minutes.

Games for older children are a little longer. But no match should be like the John Isner-Nicolas Mahut match at Wimbledon last month. That match, the longest in professional tennis history, took more than 11 hours.

There's another USTA program I like, too. High schools get discounts on equipment and a training guide from the USTA in exchange for allowing every kid who wants to be on the school team to practice with the full squad. That's right, everybody -- from the best player to the beginner -- makes the team. To date, 3,000 high schools have signed on to the USTA's "no-cut" program.

Tennis is a great way for kids to have fun and stay active for life. If you are interested in learning more about tennis, including the Quickstart program, there will be demonstrations during Kids Day on Saturday and Family Day on Sunday at the Legg Mason tournament.

In addition, the Washington Tennis & Education Foundation (http://www.wtef.org), which has been helping kids achieve great things in tennis and in school since 1955, has begun a QuickStart program.

Tennis, everyone?

Fred Bowen has written 15 sports books for young readers, including a recent picture book, "No Easy Way: The Story of Ted Williams and the Last .400 Season."