Inside Junior Tennis Podcast; QuickStart Tennis
In the latest edition of Inside Junior Tennis, Kevin McClure of the Tennis Podcast and I talked about the Kentucky ITF, whether Bernard Tomic would be wise to accept an Australian Open main draw wild card (if offered) and the advantages of 36/60 or "QuickStart" tennis for getting new players into the game.
Back in December, USTA High Performance Managing Director Paul Roetert mentioned in a speech at the ITA Coaches Convention that the program was a significant factor in Belgium's training program and for a country of its size, you can't argue with the success they've had.
The Chicago Daily Herald has an in-depth story on how the system, which has been in place at the Midtown Tennis Club since last year, works--how it gets players as young as five playing, not just drilling.
Kevin mentioned that while he was at the Tennis Teacher Conference in New York, he was impressed by the breadth of support for the concept; there was none of the usual adults vs. juniors or high performance vs. recreational dynamic.
The USTA has dubbed the program "QuickStart" and promises a website dedicated to it by the end of this month. For now, there is an excellent synopsis of the concept at usta.com.
2 comments:
Colette,
Not sure if this link (to the Tennis Australia website) will work for you but it does have a small piece on Bernard Tomic's chances of an Aus Open wildcard:
http://www.tennis.com.au/pages/News.aspx?id=4&pageId=11499&HandlerId=2&archive=false&newsid=3416
In short, Craig Tiley has said that Tomic will likely require some results on the pro tour before being given a wildcard into the Open and that, at present, older juniors are ahead of him.
If, as expected, Tomic doesn't get one for 2008, I wouldn't be surprised if he makes his ATP debut in Brisbane (Tomic's hometown) at the beginning of 2009 when the Australian Men's and Women's Hardcoourt Championships (combining the current Adelaide men's and Gold Coast women's events) is played for the first time.
For the link to the above mentioned story, click here.
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