Enhancing tennis in the community
AcademySwindon Tennis Club |
Wiltshire Performance Tennis Academy
British TennisSince Roger Drapers arrival as Chief Executive many changes have been implemented at the Lawn Tennis Association. Please find listed below some of the key area the LTA have highlighted in the Blueprint where improvements can be made and how we are aiming to address them through the Academy and Swindon Tennis Club. Currently in Great Britain we have 8,400 juniors competing regularly. In France this number is an amazing 80,000 plus. In the past we have always been over protective of our juniors and were worried that if they lost they simply wouldn't want to play anymore. This is just not true, kids love to [play and compete and if they did it from an early age it wouldn't be such a shock when important tournaments and matches came along. Typically British players lag behind players in other countries in terms of fitness, strength and conditioning. We currently employ David Parker of the fitness academy at Swindon College to run 3 tennis specific fitness sessions per week. Our school to club link programme is excellent at the tennis club and in the past year we have visited over 30 primary schools in the area. In total we were lucky enough to see over 3,000 children and get more than 100 of them back to the centre for follow on sessions. Almost all of the players in our performance programme have entered it through this system. Academy NumbersWe currently have 23 players attending the Academy and would like to see this figure rise to over 30 by the beginning of the September 2008 tennis season. We also have a further 10 players from within and just outside Wiltshire accessing the programme to meet the needs their own clubs can't provide. We are confident this number will increase due to the success our players are having Player Achievements
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