They may not be ready for wimbledon, but, at the age they’re starting, they could be there sooner than later.

Tennis pros Bill Champion and Joey Keeth, along with the help of “coach” Alán Valdez, have been teaching 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds the game, using larger, softer tennis balls, a shorter net and a shorter court at the McCluskey Tennis Center.

The Hotshots are Champion and Keeth’s budding tennis players, some of the youngest in the county. It’s like T-ball without the tee.

“Hold my racket,” yelled Charlsie Reed, 4.

Like the other rackets, it’s one of the smallest that Wilson makes.

The left-handed girl was one of five standing behind a small net, waiting for Keeth or Valdez to throw the soft, Nerf-like ball at them. Shruthika Muthukumar Veena, 4; Ivey Portis, 6; Milly Criswell, 5; and Carson Huff, 6, also waited for their coaches while Champion watched over them.

The afternoon was warm, and the sweat was pouring off their faces.

As the group of children ran around the corner to grab a Gatorade slushie, mother Ashley Reed said, “That’s the best part, apparently.”

The weather takes a toll on the instructors as well.

“I tell you, it’s hot,” Keeth said.

This is the second session of Hotshots that Champion and his crew have conducted this year. There were about 20 youngsters in the first session, and they can all play surprisingly well, the coaches said.

“It helps them work on hand-eye coordination,” Champion said. “They can hit it. It’s pretty cool. They’ll surprise you.”

A lot of Champion’s older players started off in the Hotshots program, some even moving up to tournament level through the six-week program.

The children work on their forehand and backhand shots. Some make it over the net, some hit it and fall, and some fly far into the next court.

“If you don’t rotate your hips, what happens,” Keeth tells the players. “We don’t have no power.”

The parents brave the heat as well, watching their children play the game.

“For her, it’s good,” Veena Kesavapillar said of her daughter Shruthika Muthukumar Veena.

Reed said the program is beneficial.

“Anything that keeps them active and outside,” she said. “Every week we get a little better.”

For now, the coaches will continue to do what they can with the children. They’ll work on their strokes, teach them the correct way to hold their rackets and do their best to dodge errant tennis balls that fly at their heads.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Champion said. “It’s kind of like their introduction to tennis and all. We get pretty good production out of it.”