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The organization has 26 students enrolled, though because of homework demands only 22 were on hand Wednesday.
“They’re dong basic group lessons and they’re doing introduction to tennis and they’re loving it,” Pittman said.
Youth lessons have changed over the years and now no longer use adult-tennis anything but the courts.
“We are using equipment that is age appropriate, balls that bounce to the right height for the age group and training techniques that are designed for kids in these particular age groups,” Pittman said. “All this was the work of the UTA improving outreach to kids.”
“All of our coaches working with this program area all very experienced, very capable and very good at relating to kids and that’s crucial,” Pittman said. “We’re trying to give them coaches who are both good instructors and good role models.”
The group’s goal goes well beyond just tennis.
“We’re trying to combine with organizations that do academic work because eventually we want to start doing some academic work as well with kids,” Pittman said.
“We’re part of the national junior tennis and learning network and our mission will be to use tennis as a vehicle to incentivize kids to do better academically and at the same time give them some of the great life lessons you have in tennis to try to make their lives better,” Pittman said.