PERFORMANCE TENNIS
This page is for our juniors playing in our teams and competing regualrly.
Here is a video recording link to a PERFORMANCE PARENTS EVENING June 2024
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REGULAR WEEKLY TERMTIME SESSIONS for our stronger players:
8&U Red (born 2018 or earlier)
- Tuesdays 4-5.45pm at OTTC (div 1&2 players)
- Thursdays 4.30-6pm at ABSTC (div 1&2 players)
9&U Orange (born 2017-2018 + strong 2019)
- Tuesdays 5.15-7pm at OTTC (S&C 5.15-5.45pm) - ORG & GRN+ (div 1 players)
- Tuesdays 4-5.30pm at ABSTC - ORG & GRN DEV+ (div 2 players)
- Wednesdays 5-6.30pm at ABSTC - ORG & GRN+ (div 1&2 players)
- Fridays 4-5pm at ABSTC - ORG DEV+ (div 2 players)
- Fridays 4.15-6.30pm at ABSTC (gym 4.15-5pm) ORG & GRN+ (div 1 players)
10&U Green+ & 12&U (born 2014-2016 + strong 2017)
- Mondays 5-7pm at ABSTC (S&C 20 min) - 10-12&U (div 1&2 players)
- Wednesdays 5-6.30pm at ABSTC - ORG & GRN (div 1&2 players)
- Fridays 4.15-6.30pm at ABSTC (gym 4.15-5pm) - ORG & GRN (div 1&2 players)
Yellow+ 11-18&U (born 2015 and later + strong 2016)
- Tuesdays 5.30-7pm at ABSTC (12-14U) development+ (div 2 players)
- Thursdays 6-8pm at ABSTC (12-16U) Yellow+ (div 1&2 players)
- Saturdays 11am-12.30pm at OTTC (12U-14U) Yellow+ (div 1&2 players)
- Saturdays 1.30-3pm at ABSTC (14-16U) Yellow Dev+ (div 2 players)
Saturday squads (fortnightly)
We provide some free squads on Saturdays 11-12.30 at OTTC for our younger players to get the essential match experience in to help gaining confidence for competition. Get signed up on SPOND for this - 12 places weekly first come-first served.
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INDOOR TENNIS at DL Westbury
As you probably know Toby is 'performance coach' at DL Westbury so if you think it's time for your child to transition indoors then please reach out and ask Toby how to join and session options. Toby can likely sort a 25% membership discount too.
Many of our TH Tennis juniors are enjoying uniterrupted training indoors at DL Westbury as part of the same curriculum with added strength and conditioning sessions run by qualified gym coaches.
Current schedule:
9&U Orange (born 2017-2018 + strong 2019)
- Thursdays 5.30-7pm - ORG+ (div 1&2 players)
10&U Green+ & 12&U (born 2014-2016 + strong 2017)
- Mondays 5.30-7pm - 10-12&U (div 1&2 players)
Yellow+ 11-14&U (born 2015 and later + strong 2016)
- Wednesdays 5.30-7pm (div 1 players)
- Thursdays 5.30-7pm (div 1&2 players)
FREE Strength and conditioning sessions in the DL gym:
- Thursdays 5-5.30pm (10-14U)
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CURRICULUM
We run to a curriculum which structures tennis for your children. On the JUNIOR NOTICEBOARD in the ABSTC clubhouse is a schedule for the current term - gives info on what we're working on each week with the children.
Also, we structure the week a bit like a mini-academy in that Mondays and Tuesdays when kids are likely to take more information in we do more 'learning', towwards the end of the week more drills and playing points. This is lifted from the PERFORMANCE section of our website:
We run our performance GROUP programme* as follows which is loosely based on the tennis academy format:
Mondays and Tuesdays - LEARNING & PRACTICE - learning something new inline with the curriculum set out by head coach Toby. Practicing through closed and semi-open drills in order to hone the particular skill being introduced.
Wednesdays - PRACTICE - set drills to further practice the curriculum content
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays - PRACTICE & PLAY - drills, tactical scenarios and point-based practice
*It is therefore advised that players who are part of our coaching programme do a minimum of two sessions weekly - ONE LEARNING and ONE PRACTICE session. E.g. If a player only does a session in the latter half of the week then content taught in the first part of each week cannot be applied.
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SCHEDULE
How much should my child be doing? It's a question that comes up all the time!
Here are some guidelines:
- Top county and regional players tend to TRAIN around the same amount of hours as their age. E.g. A good 9 year old should therefore be doing on average three groups (6 hours), 1 private (1 hour) + 2 hours of hitting (self-organised practice/organised hit) - S&C should be incorporated into the groups. Additionally fortnightly tournaments on average (20 per year) + local league fixtures.
Middle county squad level - normally your all-rounder good at all sports. Two groups, 1 private lesson and 1 hour of 'hitting. Additionally monthly tournaments (10-12 per year) + local league fixtures
Good club/low level county squad - Two groups, fortnightly private lesson, sporadic tournaments + local league fixtures
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TOURNAMENTS
External tournaments really help in terms of getting into/staying in county and regional squads as it's the main way for external (county and regional) coaches to track how a player is doing. All players as part of our + programme should be playing regular tournaments (monthly if possible or at least 6 times per year)
Which grade?
Division 1 players - Grade 3,4,5 (get the points to get into G3&4!) - can you get into a Grade 1 or 2?
Division 2 players - Grade 4,5,6 (get the points to get into G4)
Here is the link to LTA tournaments and use can use 'ADVANCED SERACH' to filter age group and location: https://competitions.lta.org.uk/
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JOURNALS
We hope these provide a good link between coach, player and parent in terms of understanding how your child feels about their tennis - what they like, what stresses them out and how they rate themselves. We hope this reflection makes them better decision makers on court during matches and tournaments.
Please persuade them to fill in a page when they go play matches especially away from home including tournaments. These are for our 9&U players and older.
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RACKETS AND STRING EDUCATION
Please ALWAYS ask us coaches if you're going to buy a new racket for your child - it's often that the cheap ones are a complete waste of money. We get a very good discount scheme with Gyle Brothers in Bristol, ask Toby. As your children start to hit green/yellow balls well you need to think about a restring too - the strings racket manufacturers put in are usually the cheapest and therefore worst and are also brittle as they've been in a cold warehouse for some of their life. We restring for around £20 which breathes new life into a racket. Ask Toby!