Love, Fifteen, Thirty
Three short lessons for tennis watchers: reading the score, why a small edge on points becomes a big edge on matches, and why nobody is sure where 15-30-40 came from.
For grown-ups, from what ScorePals teaches children at Spark & Anvil.
Keep the score on the sofa
You'll need: A tennis match on TV or a backyard rally, paper.
- One person calls the score aloud after every point: love, 15, 30, 40, deuce, advantage.
- Another keeps a tally of who won each point.
- At the end of a game, count the points each player won and check them against the calls.
- Talk about a game where one player won more points but lost the game.
A little history, and what nobody knows
Fifteen, thirty, forty
Counting a tennis game as 15, 30 and 40 goes back to medieval France. One story says the score moved a quarter of the way round a clock face, and that 45 was later cut to 40.
Where the numbers really came from is not known; the clock story is a guess.
The same idea at every age
- Ages 3–5My Turn, Your Turn
- Ages 6–8Call the Score
- Ages 9–14From Points to Games
- Ages 15–18Nested Races
Your child will meet this idea again at every age. The tools and courses here are the part for you.