Impressive turn up for tennis training at Emakhandeni
THE future stars of tennis heeded the call by turning up in numbers for a free, one-day coaching session targeting young players that was held at Emakhandeni Tennis Club last Wednesday.
Emakhandeni Tennis Club in association with some of its former greats who are now based outside the country conducted the coaching session.
The coaches that took the young stars through their paces were Wellington Sibanda now based in Namibia, Mkhululi Khuphe and Nqobilizwe Moyo, who are all beneficiaries of the National Tennis Development which dates back to the 1980s.
According to Sibanda, the training session covered important aspects of the game like strokes, which pertains to techniques in striking the ball, the footwork basically covering proper movement on court, physical fitness and conditioning which includes the strength, flexibility, speed, agility and stamina.
When asked about the intention of the training session Witness Jiyane, the chairman of Emakhandeni Tennis Club expressed hope that the children will benefit a lot from the skills taught as well as advice from the coaches.
“We expect our kids to do better, these facilitators are qualified Level 2 coaches, qualifications which some of us don’t have, they have vast of experience in what they are doing having coached in Namibia and Botswana respectively. Therefore, as a result of such interaction we expect our kids to learn then go on to do better employing skills learnt,” said Jiyane.
Sibanda was impressed by the level of talent shown by the juniors including their willingness to learn more such that when asked he had this to say:
“These boys and girls have great commitment plus talent, given the necessary support I have no doubt they can make a name for themselves in tennis circles.”
To keep the institution going Sibanda donated balls while Khuphe worked tirelessly to see the donated goods which include balls among other equipment arrive in Zimbabwe by providing transport from Namibia.
Sibanda has coached a number of local players who have gone on to make an impact in international circuits tennis, among those are Dumiso Khumalo (late) who played at Junior Wimbledon during his stint in Spain and Swiss based Fadzai Madzimbamuto.
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