Youngsters attend tennis course

Chakalisa Dube | Friday October 17, 2014 14:12

Dominique Raguin the owner of the school said that among the 30 will be 15 private coaches from as far as Zimbabwe and Namibia as well as other SADC countries.

Italian Inaki Balzola who is the PTR International Director will conduct the three day workshop. He has trained more than 350 tennis teachers in 60 countries. “The remaining 15 participants will be made up of teachers from private and government schools as well as local tennis masters. The “10 and Under” Certification Course emphasises the importance of creating a coaching environment in which junior players of ages 10 and below can learn to play quickly,” he explained in an interview.

Raguin said that this is the first time the course is held in the SADC region in five years.

Elements of the Certification Workshop include: communication and organisation skills for the coach, stroke parameters, structure and content of tennis lessons. Furthermore, Raguin said the course will also focus on the skills and game development for juniors as well as, serve, rally and scoring as quickly as possible and appropriate competition for the different ages.

He also stated that coaches will studying as well as understanding how and when to progress players from red to orange to green courts together with the proper transition equipment.

The PTR was founded in 1976, by world renowned coach Dennis Van der Meer. He came up with PTR to develop a universal language and progressions for tennis teaching.

PTR’s mission is to educate, certify and service tennis teachers and coaches around the world in order to grow the game. Each of the 30 participants has paid P2,500 for the course whose facilities have been provided by the Francistown School of Tennis.