Companies urged to support tennis
Chakalisa Dube | Tuesday October 21, 2014 16:54
Inaki Balzola, from Italy, was speaking in an interview with Mmegi Sport on Sunday at the close of a ‘10 and Under’ tennis certification coaching course he conducted in Francistown.
The course was facilitated by the Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) and organised by the Francistown Tennis School.
Balzola, who is based in America said tennis in the country is lagging behind and needs the support of the corporate world to reach greater heights.
“In order to train more coaches and build good structures there has to be more support from the corporate world.
“This is the only way the country can reach competitive heights in the sport.
“There is also need for Botswana to constantly host competitions in order to develop tennis in the country. “The reason I am saying that the country should invest in more facilities is because it enables the country to host more competitions thus develop the sport,” he said. In addition the Italian said that there is need for the government to build state-of-the-art tennis equipment in schools, starting at a primary level in a bid improve development.
He stated that most countries in Africa have young tennis players who have potential but unable to realise their full talent because they are exposed to poor development structures.
He also emphasised that there is need for more Batswana to be trained to coach tennis.
“From my own observation most of the tennis coaches are foreigners, which is not a good situation.
“I am not saying that foreign coaches should be chased away. All I am saying is that more local coaches have to be trained.
“What if the foreigners leave? It will mean total demise of the sport in Botswana. Foreign coaches in Botswana should also be used to train local coaches,” he said.
Of the 30 coaches who participated on the weekend course only three were Batswana. The rest were Zimbabweans who are also coaches in most of Botswana schools.
Balzola is the PTR International Director. He has trained more than 350 tennis teachers in 60 countries.
The weekend PTR course focused 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.
Coaches also studied how and when to progress players from red to orange to green courts as well as the transition equipment they should use during progress of players.