16yr old wildcard @Taylor_Townsen records her 1st career #WTA win with a 36 76(1) 63 win over Lucie Hradecka. pic.twitter.com/HKWuao2LvK
From Parenting Aces (Twitter posting referring back to their Facebook page – HERE):
Posted by Coach Craig Cignarelli: Since no one seems to have any research to determine which one is better, over the last few years, I’ve done the following. I’ve trained a group from age 7 to 9 with ROG and another group from age 7 to 9 with yellow balls. Here’s what I’ve found: The kids who trained with ROG are consistently beating the yellow ball kids when they play with the green ball. The kids who trained with the yellow ball are consistently beating the ROG kids when they play with the yellow ball. Tactically, the ROG kids have a better sense of angles and coming forward. The yellow ball kids hit with better depth and can adapt to different ball heights much better. The ROG kids have much better drop shots. The yellow ball kids have more power. After almost three years of doing both, I’m sticking with yellow balls. If you are going to master a saxophone, it’s probably better to just start playing the sax than to start on a kazoo.
Some Comments:
Yvonne Gallop Great work Craig. Here is what I discovered. For the 5 to 8 year olds when we are working on stroke mechanics we train with the ROG balls. Once the stroke is fluid or the shot is smooth and fluid we then work part of the time with the regular yellow balls. Some of the smaller kids find the yellow ball very heavy on the racket and they have to fight off the ball. Point is we use both depending on the lesson plan! However, I agree with you. GREAT analogy with the kazoo. Unfortunately if the kids play tournaments they are being forced to use ROG balls.
Patrick Barbanes Good stuff, but note he also added, “As to your question, (of which group will grow into better players) ,I cant answer it yet. I wish someone could but no one did a proper study to find out. Talk to me in three years.” And I don’t necessarily agree with the kazoo thing. Give a regular sax to an 8-year-old? A regular size bass? etc.. Scale up seems to work (smaller guitars, learning music with a Recorder – do they still use those? LOL).
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