Parks tennis coaches are put through paces

PETER FARRELL, the Tennis Ireland Leinster Regional Development Officer, gave a four-hour coaching session in the beautiful hot sun in Hillbrook Tennis Club Enniscorthy recently.

The aim of the session was to co-ordinate and standardise all the Parks coaching throughout the country.

Eighteen coaches from Wexford took part with Peter outlining the core elements of stroke, agility, balance and hitting. Then each coach in turn had to step forward and teach a small group, or the whole group, either one of the manual games or one of their own games.

Peter has written two books on tennis coaching, yet he acknowledged that he thought some of the games the coaches had were very relevant and new to him.

Despite the heat, there was great enthusiasm right to the end and this made the afternoon so successful. Parks coaches play an important leadership role in teaching children the basic strokes and rules, but also essential qualities of fair play, enthusiasm, and playing to the best of your own ability, all in a safe and fun environment.

The new strategy in the camps this summer is to help the children play matches quicker, so the one and a half-hour programme has been extended to two hours to allow children to play short matches for the last half hour. The rate for children 10-16 years of age is €55 for two hours per day for four weeks.

There will also be match practice for those who can serve overarm on Thursdays from 2-5 p.m. for an extra €3 per day.

Many thanks to the members of Hillbrook for the use of their courts.