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A young brother and sister (we'll call them Amy and Fred) arrive on a court a few courts away from me, lugging a pair of racquets and a can of balls that they've excavated from the dark corner of a closet. They take their places at opposite ends of the court. Fred lines up his aim to hit straight to Amy, bounces the ball, and takes a swing. Amy dashes the 20 feet to the ball and makes contact, but her shot lands in the net.

Not to worry: the can still has two more balls.

Moments later, Fred is searching the tall grass for the second ball, while Amy collects the one in the net and the third by the fence.

They try for another 20 minutes, then leave.

When Fred and Amy get home, their parents ask, "How was tennis?"

Their reply: "Not that much fun."

My first advice to Fred and Amy would be to take some lessons. But, not everyone believes in lessons as much as I (a teaching pro) do, and some people simply can't afford them.

So, the next time Fred and Amy come out to the court, how can they have more fun playing tennis together without any training in strokes, positioning, footwork, or strategy?

The trick is to start small. Here's a sequence of hitting challenges (adapted from PTR and USTA ideas) that will be fun and help them work their way up to the full-court hitting that proved so difficult at their previous outing:

1. Toss, tiny volley, catch: Fred stands at the net, Amy a few feet inside her service line. Amy tosses gently to Fred's forehand. Fred uses a very gentle volley to hit the ball so that it bounces once to Amy, who tries to catch it. Their goal is 10 balls that Amy catches. Then they switch roles.
2. Toss, tiny groundstroke, catch: Fred stands at the net, Amy a few feet inside her service line. Fred tosses gently so that the ball bounces to Amy's forehand. Amy uses a very short, controlled swing to hit the ball so that Fred can catch it. Their goal is 10 balls that Fred catches. Then they switch roles.
3. Short-court rally: Amy and Fred stand at opposite service lines. Using short, gentle swings, they try to hit to one another so that the ball lands around halfway between the net and the service line. Their goal is 8 consecutive hits.
4. Three-quarters-court rally: Amy and Fred each stand halfway between their service line and their baseline. Using medium-length swings, they try to hit to one another so that the ball lands near the service line. Their goal is 6 consecutive hits. This can be pretty tough.
5. Full-court rally: Amy and Fred stand at opposite baselines. Using full, but slow strokes, they try to hit 4-5 feet above the net and make the ball land around halfway between the service line and the baseline. Their goal is 4 consecutive hits. This will still be tough, but it will be a lot easier than it was the first time they tried it.