Participants and facilitators commence six-day regional tennis course
Antigua & Barbuda is hosting a six-day Regional Tennis Course at the Rex Halcyon hotel, which commenced yesterday morning.
The course was originally slated for T&T, but due to some technical difficulties, the course was shifted to Antigua with a two-day notice, and was facilitated by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs in such a short time frame.
“Antigua for this course came in at the last minute, the course was originally slated for Trinidad but because of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting taking place on the same weekend, we had to shift the course to Antigua in a two-day span,” said the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Development Officer for the English speaking Caribbean, Anthony Jeremiah.
“We chose Antigua because of the U-13 development championship that was held last year right here, and the president of the Antigua & Barbuda Tennis Association (ABTA) and the body want us to do more in Antigua as well.”
The course will accommodate 12 coaches from the region. The youngsters will be tutored on how to play tennis from a beginning stage and then impart what they learnt to 16 participants from here.
The coaches will be able to use this course to take back to their respective countries and teach physical education teachers the art of the game so they can help develop the young athletes from the grass root level.
Three different balls were used in the training course. To start out the stage, the red number 3 ball was used, which is a soft and slow ball that cuts the speed of the ball by 75 per cent for the beginner.
The orange 2-ball then comes into play. It is a little faster than the red one and cuts the speed by 55 per cent.
The green ball is the number 1 ball, and at this stage, the athlete can determine whether or not he or she is ready for the next level. The green ball cuts the speed by 25 per cent.
“At the end of the course when the coaches have successfully digested what they were taught, they can take it into the school and educate teachers that want to help in running their progammes from the grass root level,” Jeremiah added.
“The first three days are all about teaching the coaches and the other three will be used for the coaches to administrate what they have learnt to 16 participants from Antigua.”
The regional tennis course is sponsored by the ITF Olympic Solidarity.
Since the reintroduction of tennis into the Olympic family in 1988, the International Tennis Federation through its Tennis Development Department has collaborated closely with Olympic Solidarity on a variety of programmes designed to grow tennis around the world.
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