Youth Is Served by Tennis Program

Bradley Smyth and Ashley Lampman played tennis in high school. And both say playing is easier than teaching children to hit forehands, serves and volleys. They worked this summer as instructors for Slammer Tennis World in its partnership with the New Canaan YMCA.

"I love tennis, but it's hard teaching little kids,'' says Ashley, who played at Norwalk High School. It was her first summer teaching tennis. "I find it hard to get them to concentrate on what we teach them,'' added Bradley, who played at Stamford High School. "They want to go back to their old ways."

Lampman, 18, and Smyth, 20, taught children ranging in age from 7 to 14. Ashley also taught at Scalzi Park in Stamford. She heads to Marist College to begin her sophomore year. Smyth, 20, transferred from DePaul to the University of Connecticut and is entering his junior year.

Both came through the Slammer Tennis World program run by Marvin Tyler. He runs affordable programs for players of all abilities, and his instructors are players who have come through his program. Bradley and Ashley saw noticeable improvement in the children after just a few weeks of instruction.

"Their strokes are crisper,'' Ashley says. "By the end of two weeks you can actually see them playing with each other."

Smyth likes the United States Tennis Association's QuickStart programs, which let kids play on courts and with equipment that's appropriately sized for them. "The QuickStart allows them to see that they made progress,'' he said.

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