Holiday Tennis Camps at Ramsgate Beach: What to Know Before You Book

If you've already decided a holiday tennis camp is the plan for the school break, this guide covers everything you need to actually book with confidence: what a camp day looks like, how kids are grouped, whether a single day or the full week makes more sense, and what to pack. For current dates and to book a spot, head straight to the Holiday Tennis Camps programme page, this guide is the detail behind that page.

What a Camp Day Actually Looks Like

Camp days run 9am to 3pm. In practice, days built like this typically follow a similar rhythm: a warm-up and skills block in the morning while energy is highest, a midday break for lunch, and an afternoon built around game play and rotations rather than more drilling, kids get restless if the whole day is instruction. Coaches then use the last session of each day to reinforce whatever was introduced that morning through actual play. Regular shade and water breaks are built into the day too, six hours outdoors is a long stretch for a young child, and coaches pace the day accordingly rather than running flat out from 9am to 3pm without pause.

How Camp Differs From a Regular Lesson

A regular Hot Shots term lesson is usually an hour, once a week, with a tight focus on one or two specific skills. Camp is a different format entirely, five consecutive days (or a single day, if that's what you've booked) with far more total court time than a normal week of lessons gives. That extra time changes what's possible: coaches can let a skill genuinely bed in through repetition across the week rather than reintroducing it fresh every seven days, and there's enough time for proper match play, not just drills. It's also more social by design, kids camp alongside the same small group all week rather than rotating through a single weekly class, which is part of why so many kids end up asking to come back the following holidays.

Age Groupings: How Kids Are Split

Camps run for ages 4 to 14, and like our term Hot Shots programme, kids aren't lumped into one mixed group regardless of age. Grouping by age and current stage keeps a 5-year-old from being overwhelmed by 12-year-olds hitting full-pace shots, and keeps older, more experienced kids from being held back. If you're not sure which stage your child is currently at, our Hot Shots Stages Explained guide walks through the Blue to Yellow progression that camp grouping is based on.

Pricing: Single Day vs Full Week

Families may also be eligible for the NSW Active Kids Voucher on eligible programmes, confirm current eligibility for camps specifically with our team when booking, since voucher eligibility can vary by programme type.

Friday BBQ and Round Robin

Every camp week finishes with a Friday BBQ and round robin tournament, a relaxed, social way to close out the week rather than just another day of drills. Kids get to put what they've learned into an actual competitive format, and it's genuinely one of the moments parents tell us their kids look forward to most across the whole week.

Wet-Weather Plan

What to Pack

Camp days run outdoors for six hours, so packing right matters more than for a single one-hour lesson. Bring:

• A racquet (or let us know in advance if you need to borrow one)
• Court shoes with a non-marking sole
• A hat that shades the face, neck and ears, plus SPF50+ broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen, reapplied through the day
• A refillable water bottle, kids need to top up regularly across a full camp day
• Lunch and snacks for a full day, plus a morning and afternoon snack
• A spare shirt, six hours of outdoor activity in Sydney's climate means kids often need a change partway through
• Comfortable, breathable sportswear they can move freely in

Camp Calendar by Term

Camps run during NSW school holiday periods rather than on a fixed annual calendar, so exact dates shift from year to year with the school term calendar. Rather than publish specific dates here that would go stale within a term, the programme page always carries this term's confirmed dates and booking availability, that's the page to check for exactly when the next camp runs.

What We See During Camp Week

In practice, the kids who get the most out of camp week aren't always the most experienced players, they're the ones who show up for the social side of it as much as the tennis. A full week gives coaches far more time with each child than a single weekly lesson does, which is often when we notice a genuine jump in confidence, not just stroke technique. The Friday round robin tends to be the moment that sticks, kids who were nervous on day one are often the ones celebrating loudest by the BBQ.

We also see a real difference between kids attending their first camp and kids who are back for a second or third holiday period. Returning campers tend to settle in within the first hour, they already know the routine and often end up helping newer kids find their feet, which coaches actively encourage rather than just letting happen by chance. If your child has already done a term of regular lessons, camp is usually a natural next step rather than a big leap, the framework is the same, there's just a lot more of it packed into a week.

Before You Book

Prefer to try tennis first on a normal term session? Sign up now and get a FREE TRIAL lesson before committing to a full week of camp, or if you'd rather start with equipment and etiquette basics, our Beginner's Guide to Kids Tennis covers what to expect before lesson one. Still deciding if tennis is the right fit at all? We've also covered what the evidence actually says.

Frequently Asked Questions