A 'QuickStart' To Playing — And Loving — Tennis

If you walk past the Crystal Street Courts this summer, don't be surprised to see groups of kids repeating drills with different sized balls — and sometimes without a tennis racket.

It's a whole new ball game — literally — with the Melrose Recreation Department's Tennis Director, James Renier, who teaches the sport through QuickStart, a program created by the United States Tennis Association to mimic the highly popular sport of skateboarding, where kids learn by participation not demonstration.

"Players are broken into groups where they practice skills imitating the real game and are constantly moving station to station," Renier explained. He added, "It's like coaching within coaching."

The tennis program, historically run by college and high school students, is in its second season under Renier, who hopes to gain several younger players who will stick with the sport through high school.

"I would love for some kid to come walking by the court, seeing other kids playing tennis, and decide they want to do that too," Renier said. "A lot of kids come into sports today because the parents have pushed them into it. Then, they eventually drop out."

So fond of the sport is Renier that he remembers his first tennis racket, which he found in the garbage when he was a young boy.

"It was a wooden racket with broken strings flying around," he recalled. "I fixed it by tying off the loose strings. From that day on, I knew I wanted to learn how to play tennis."

Perhaps Renier's best 'match' was in Vienna, Austria, where he moved after graduating from the University of Iowa in 1983 to attend post-graduate school at the University of Applied Arts. In addition to attending school, Renier owned a tennis school where he and three other pros taught lessons.

"Every Tuesday at 7 p.m.," Renier smilingly recalled, remembering the weekly lessons he gave Uschi, the woman he later would marry.

Melrose has eight tennis courts available to the public that were resurfaced two years ago. Renier considers this amazing for any town when compared to Europe, where courts are typically private, expensive and difficult to reserve.

When asked what he'd like to see in the future for the tennis program, Renier said, "It would be great to have a group of kids start playing for a few years so they can develop, then go on to play in high school or compete in teams together."

Monday, June 28 marked the first day of the summer tennis program. For the program's schedule, read the PDF attached to this article. To register, visit the Melrose Recreation Department's website, and to learn more call the Recreation Department at (781) 662-9511 or e-mail recreation@cityofmelrose.org.

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