[LESS INFO] 84 VIEWS | ADDED 19:58:36 11/04/11
Download file (right-click and "save as...")
The "Keiki 65"
Developed by USPTA pro, Lee Couillard, exclusively for tennis' tiniest players.
About the racquet designer: As the Head Tennis Professional at Punahou School (Honolulu, Hawaii), Lee has spent more than 20 years guiding the development of the school's kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades tennis students. He has a "Little Tennis" certification from the United States Professional Tennis Association and is a National USTA QuickStart Trainer.
As a coach and player, Lee understands how critical the "right" racquet is to an athlete's success. Observing how his young students struggled to play with adult racquets, Lee searched for a racquet designed (in size and weight) for a young child. No such racquet existed, so Lee decided to design a racquet that would transform the experience of tennis' youngest athletes. The racquet he created is the "Keiki 65."
About the racquet: The "Keiki 65" is the first racquet designed specifically to meet the performance needs of "8 and under" athletes. It corresponds with the decision points for adult racquets, which are personalized according to athleticism, size and strength.
Philosophy: The "Keiki 65" was designed according to philoproprioception, which is essentially a person's body position sense in which action is associated with natural instinct and is achieved through awareness of limb placement rather than as an intentional and conscious act. A properly scaled racquet allows young players to develop stronger tennis fundamentals (e.g., athletes develop a stroke that achieves the correct contact with the ball; it is a process quite similar to developing a proper baseball swing).
Performance characteristics: The "Keiki 65" is designed as a proportionally sized racquet. Its overall length, head and grip size as well as the racquet's weight are suitable for a child but do not compromise strength, durability, responsiveness, and shock-absorbance.
The "Keiki 65" has a longer shaft, which forces the contact point away from the body. As an athlete's grows and his contact point becomes more consistent, a larger personalized racket can be chosen. Because a good swing is dependent on using the entire body properly, the "Keiki 65" is designed to support consistency through scale as athletes are working with a racquet that is appropriately small.
Scale = Performance & Safety: As the popularity of tennis grows, so does the pressure to "recruit" and train ever-younger athletes. The "Keiki 65" is designed exclusively for performance and it will prevent injury to tiny players.
Success, in every sport, results from passion, commitment - and the proper equipment. The lightweight, properly scaled "Keiki 65," is the equipment for players' aged 8 and under. It will help them to love playing tennis, to learn proper technique and (perhaps) to develop the passion and commitment for competitive success as well as a lifelong love of the sport.
button. The show will be added to your My Playlist page and updated 24/7 with new videos.
