On October 3, the "Little Tennis" project exhibition activity initiated by the Chinese Tennis Association and jointly promoted by the Middle School Student Sports Association of the Ministry of Education ushered in a player meeting jointly held with the China Soong Ching Ling Youth Science and Technology and Culture Exchange Center. This event was held during the China Open in the small tennis interactive exhibition area in front of the lotus court of the National Tennis Center and the children's art exchange exhibition area of the State Grid Research School.
With the theme of "Small Tennis, Big Future", the event invited famous tennis stars and young tennis players at home and abroad to participate, promote and popularize small tennis projects to the whole society, and promote the organic combination from young children to adults, from beginners to professional athletes through "big hands holding small hands, small hands with big hands", and realizing the interactive exchange of parent-child affection within the family.
In the afternoon, the two exhibition areas welcomed two famous stars, Zheng Jie, a famous Chinese female tennis player who won the women's doubles championship at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and Zhu Lin, a Chinese female tennis player who won the runner-up in women's singles tennis at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
In the State Grid Research Children's Art Exchange Exhibition Area, the young docents enthusiastically introduced the cultural characteristics and activity space of the State Grid Research Base of China Soong Ching Ling Youth Science and Technology and Culture Exchange Center through Chinese and English bilingual forms, and shared the colorful Chinese net paintings created by the young painters of the Chinese Grid, and the children's Chinese net paintings full of different colors and imagination were praised by the guests one after another, showing the children's enthusiasm and love for tennis.
In the interactive exhibition area of small tennis, the young docents introduced the innovative features of the "small tennis" project to the guests in detail from the concept of small tennis to the promotion connotation, and highlighted the "artifact backpack" of small tennis. At the scene, the guests expressed their great agreement with the development concept of small tennis, and expressed their strong interest in the "magic backpack" in the exhibition area. Under the guidance of the on-site staff, the stars personally experienced the fun of playing tennis anytime, anywhere.
Finally, the two stars also had wonderful tennis doubles interactions with 9 young tennis players from Beijing, Tianjin and Fujian, experiencing the unique charm of small tennis, and presented interactive certificates and commemorative group photos to the young tennis players together with the leading guests.
Player autograph session.
Since entering the era of the Open, tennis has been ahead of most sports in terms of globalization, and the promotion and popularization work has made leaps and bounds in China and other countries, and there is also a lot of room for the development of children's and junior tennis.
In view of the characteristics of children's physical and mental development and load capacity, the international tennis world has long established and implemented Mini tennis suitable for children aged 4 to 10 years old according to the principles of tennis. As early as 2002, the International Tennis Federation set up a special working group to study the key factors affecting the sustainable development of tennis. The study found that the key to increasing the tennis population is to solve the problem of loss of tennis enthusiasts, especially beginners. As a solution, the International Network launched the Tennis Play &Stay program globally in 2007. As an important member, the Chinese Tennis Association was the first to participate in this promotion work, and at the end of 2008, it launched training materials and activities based on Play & Stay. In order to further explore the basic age of tennis popularization and break the restrictions of age, venue, space and other conditions of tennis popularization, the Chinese Tennis Association launched the "small tennis" project in a timely and appropriate manner, and jointly promoted it with the Middle School Student Sports Association of the Ministry of Education, through the development of new rackets, nets and courts, so that children aged 1~3 can also participate in tennis in a fun way, improve children's enthusiasm for tennis activities, thereby further expanding the mainland tennis population base and making up for the market gap in this age group.
The "Little Tennis" promoted by the "Little Tennis" project is a sports project that conforms to the characteristics of children's physical and mental development and sports load, which can greatly promote the physical and mental health development of children and scientifically and effectively experience and master the basic skills of tennis. It has the characteristics of early enlightenment, less investment, short beat, soft ball, small field, simple and easy to understand competition rules, and flexible and diverse competition methods. Currently, the development and design of the racket and field is underway. "Little Tennis" makes the playing scene more diversified, makes playing portable and convenient, without geographical restrictions, improves public participation, not only meets the needs of home practice, promotes family parent-child interaction, but also can be carried with a bag at any time to achieve tennis anytime, anywhere.
It is reported that during the 2023 China Open Tennis Tournament, the exhibition activity of the "Little Tennis" project invited more than 30 junior tennis enthusiasts from all over the country to present wonderful small tennis performance activities for tennis audiences from all over the world and show the fruitful results of the popularization of small tennis. As early as the 2014 China Open Tennis Tournament, the Beijing Station of this "Little Tennis" project exhibition activity was strongly supported by the State Grid Research Base of China Soong Ching Ling Youth Science and Technology and Culture Exchange Center, which as early as the 2014 China Open Tennis Tournament, jointly initiated the establishment of the China Junior Tennis Development Fund, and donated tennis equipment to carry out tennis interest classes in primary and secondary schools in Beijing. It is hoped that through diversified activity content, the connotation and significance of the "Little Tennis" project will be displayed in a three-dimensional manner, forming an organic combination of the whole society and forming a good atmosphere for joint participation.
From October 2nd to October 15th, the "Little Tennis" project will also be unveiled at the 2023 Shanghai "Rolex" Masters, where children from tennis schools in Shanghai will be invited to participate. In fact, as early as the first National Preschool Sports Conference, Children's Sports Carnival and the first National Preschool Sports Science Paper Report held in Hefei, Anhui Province in September, the "Little Tennis" project made its debut at the conference site, and was well received by visiting children, parents and invited guests.
In the next step, the project will take the "five advances" of "small tennis" into families, kindergartens, schools, communities, and villages as the core, and promote the rapid and healthy development of "small tennis" through a series of system improvement, mechanism innovation, standard establishment, and activity implementation.
Editor-in-chief: Chen Hua
Source: Author: Gong Jieyun