Getting into swing easy as 1-2-3

By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer

The idea behind USA Tennis 1-2-3 is that it doesn't take a rocket scientist to teach it or play it. It is so simple you can't even misspell it.

Under the watchful eyes of a crowd of co-students, Brian Liu, 9, keeps his eye on the ball during introductory tennis lessons at Kilauea District Park. USA 1-2-3 Tennis, an economical series of lessons, starts its 2002 season on O'ahu next week. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Why not?

The U.S. Tennis Association's low-cost instruction program to bring kids and adults into the game — or back into it — is kicking off again next week at sites around O'ahu. Tennis 1-2-3 is made up of six classes designed to teach basic tennis skills.

The cost is $24. The teachers could be your neighbors. Pelletier is a recreational player who was volunteering as an aerobics instructor when he got the call because the Kailua Rec courts were overflowing with kids.

The 1-2-3 emphasis is on games and getting better. Drills and repetition are out. Bouncing balls and "mini-tennis" — inside the service boxes — are in. The tennis might not be pretty, but the USTA has discovered it is pretty effective.

"We want them to learn games first to make it fun," said pro Arnold Yuen, who trains instructors and teaches players who graduate from the first session. "Once they're hooked, we teach them to master the skills."

The program is accelerated, with team tennis the goal after a dozen classes. But it is also designed to introduce the sport to players from 5 to 95, at any level of athleticism. The return rate has been high. Yuen figures he can take in only 20-30 new players a year at Kailua.

"We can't handle more than that," Yuen said. "I don't lose very many, so the program gets pretty big. Some grow out of us and move on, but I don't have time for private lessons."

Those that actually introduce the game initially are often intermediate players recruited by the USTA's Hawai'i Pacific Section. Pelletier, 60, who retired from the military after 23 years, worked seven more on a project at Johnson Atoll, then happily graduated to tennis bum status.

"Armand is the bait," Yuen said. "He hooks them and I get them totally involved."

To his surprise, Pelletier was hooked on teaching almost immediately. He has continued to take teaching workshops and just came back from the Big Island, where he instructed 28 physical education teachers on the finer points of teaching tennis.

"What I wanted to do was impart my love of tennis to them so they could impart it to the kids," Pelletier said. "Tennis is such a wonderful sport, a sport for a lifetime. I've been playing 50 years and I hope to play another 20.

"How many basketball, football and hockey players can say the same thing? Very few. With tennis, a lot of people in their 60s and 70s are very active."

Part of the teaching attraction for Pelletier is his theory that people "will get high on whatever they can find." He wants tennis to be the source of that "adrenaline rush."

He starts his classes by helping kids learn to hold the ball on the racquet. They advance to rolling the ball counter-clockwise without dropping it, then bouncing it on the ground 20 times without moving their feet. Eventually, they hit over the net and the challenges get more complicated.

In a group of eight, he might have four different skill levels, or he might have eight.

"The trick of it is to keep kids moving at every individual level," Pelletier said. "One thing about tennis is that no matter how good you are, you can always have fun. And, you can always be down on yourself.

"What you've got to do is find others at the same level and have fun where you are. And always try to get better."

The payoff for Yuen is seeing kids run from cars to his classes, or having them beg for more as time winds down. For Pelletier, who has taught for five years, that payoff can be collected in a stolen glance.

"When kids come because their parents made them and you make them fall in love with tennis because they're getting this high," Pelletier said. "You nurture them and all of a sudden they fall in love with the game ... you can see it on their faces. That's a thrill."