Performance Tennis

What's the difference between our regular sessions and our Performance programme?

 

Whatever a player's experience or ability, we will do our best to develop their skills and instil a love for the game. We want tennis to become everyone's lifetime sport. Our Performance programme is set up for gifted and motivated players who are suited to pursuing a competitive pathway. We will share our passion for competition and equip players with the robust technical, tactical and mental skills to enjoy matchplay.

 

Our Performance programme is highly individualised

 

Our coaching team spends a lot of time each week discussing all our young performance players. They have different priorities and our team needs to go on court with a clear understanding, and agreement, of each player's technical, tactical, emotional and physical needs. These are specific to each player and will be slightly different in each case. On top of individual priorities, there will be general themes running through all our sessions – these themes are universal and apply equally to all the youngsters.

 

A Performance player thrives in a competitive environment

 

To give young players the best chance in tournaments, we make all our sessions highly competitive and look for individuals to rise to the occasion. Even the best players do not always play well, often they win due to having a great attitude and positive competitive behaviour. We therefore put a lot of emphasis on these qualities. Coping positively with frustration and always giving 100%, whatever the circumstances, are some of our core values. 

 

Sportsmanship, respect and appreciating others

 

Children will improve faster if they are 'good sports' on court and recognise the achievements of others. There is no shame in losing to a great shot. Acknowledging an opponent's good play is important. We must encourage children to be supportive and respectful to others.

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How much should an ambitious young player play?

 

It depends on a player’s age and stage of development. Tennis is a highly competitive sport. A top County player needs to be playing roughly as many hours a week as they are old. A little 6 year old showing real promise ... maybe 3 sessions a week? 

 

However, don’t forget about quality. An hour of really high quality work is worth a lot more than an unstructured hit. Our group performance sessions are very much ‘coached’ and should be regarded as shared individual lessons. We do not subscribe to the common model of larger groups with lots of player pair work. This simply doesn’t work! Our lead coaches are experienced with a proven track record of producing results. Our model of ‘high quality’ group coaching, delivered by a team of coaches who are on the same page, offers the most effective and best value approach.