TH TENNIS / PERFORMANCE TENNIS

PERFORMANCE TENNIS

This page is for our juniors playing in our teams and competing regualrly.

PERFORMANCE EASTER CAMPS

10-12U green/yellow Monday 1st - Wednesday 3rd April 11am-4pm daily

9U orange Thursday 4th & Friday 5th April 9am-4pm daily

REGULAR WEEKLY TERMTIME SESSIONS

8&U Red+ (born 2016 or earlier)

Course (14 weeks) - Tuesdays 4-5.45pm at OTTC

Course (14 weeks) - Thursdays 4.30-6pm at ABSTC - includes 9U transtition players

Saturday squads (fortnightly)

are provided FREE via generous funding through the Luke Wheaton Legacy Trust and are for the following players (booking links below):

RED/ORG+ (rotating Saturdays 12-1.30pm) - for 8&U and 9&U players (born 2015-earlier)

10-12U+ (rotating Saturdays 3-5pm) - for very strong 9U, 10U and 12U players (born 2011-2014)

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.

1. CURRICULUM / SCHEDULE

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:

Wednesdays - PRACTICE - set drills to further practice the curriculum content

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays - PRACTICE & PLAY - drills, tactical scenarios and point-based practice

2. SATURDAY SQUADS FORTNIGHTLY

- Dates are up for the FREE Saturday squads next term and we're splitting it as follows to allow for as many players coming:

10-12U+ starts Saturday 6th January 3-5pm runs fortnightly - for children part of Mondays 5-7pm, Tuesdays 5.30-7pm, Wednesdays 5-6pm and Fridays 4.15-6.30pm (Green+ and Yellow dev+)
8-9U+ starts Saturday 13th January 12-1.30pm runs fornightly - for children part of Tuesdays 4-5.45pm or 5.15-7pm, Tuesdays 4-5.30pm org dev+, Thursdays 4.30-6pm & Fridays 4-5pm org dev+ (Red+, Org+ and Org/Grn dev+)

Please ONLY book onto these if you plan to come because thay are FREE - we will allow more guided matchplay and allows all coaches on our programme to coach our players.

3. SUNDAY JUNIOR CLUB SESSION 1-3PM WEEKLY

This a parent-driven session. The club have let us have the courts 1-3pm every Sunday but it is up to YOU as parents to use the session. It's NOT supposed to be a coached session - rather let the kids rally together, play matches, champions and their favourite games - it'd be good to see some of you parents start to link up with others to get your children playing together and enjoying tennis without a coach!

4. RACKETS AND STRINGS EDUCATION

Please ALWAYS ask me 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. I get a good discount at local sports shop Gyles Brothers (top of Blackboy Hill) and am happy to go see what they have and pick one up for you. As your children start to hit green 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. I can restring for around £20 which breathes new life into a racket. Ask Toby!

5. JOURNALS

I 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. I 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.

6. TOURNAMENTS

Please ask me what grade and age level you think your child should do. 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)

Here is the link to LTA tournaments and use can use 'ADVANCED SERACH' to filter age group and location: https://competitions.lta.org.uk/

7. COMPLIMENTARY INDOOR SQUADS AT BRISTOL UNI

Bristol Uni are to start some INDOOR squads before school on Mondays and Wednesdays at Coombe Dingle Sports Complex – most likely 7-8.30am costing approx. £15/session. Ollie Bendall (who will run the squads) said that if players need to leave before the end of a session in order to get to school on time then that’s fine. Maybe you could have a word with your schools to see if your child can come in 15 minutes later once a week?