Fun the rally cry in battle for tyros

By Johnny Watterson

On Tennis: It does not always have to be fire and brimstone in tennis. It is not always about elite players doggedly wearing a trail around the most exotic corners of the world in an effort to gain ranking points, to win Federation and Davis Cup matches, or to make it into the main draw of one of the four Grand Slam events.

Tennis for the most part is down at the club during the holidays, killing afternoons. It's looking for a municipal court when the sun shines. It's watching Wimbledon on television and getting the bug. It's socialising after some exercise, a preamble to other things.
It's a little fitness, a little booze, a little tea and coffee. It's where you can play in the same environment as the kids, play with them and play against them. It's where you can leave them for the day and feel comfortable doing it.

Tennis has always been firstly for enjoyment. The impulse at the start has always been to pick up a racquet because you want to (okay, it's because you fancy someone in fifth year or the semi-finalist in the club's over-40 singles).

Explaining why someone picks up a rugby ball, a hockey stick, a cricket bat or a tennis racquet is as esoteric a pursuit as divining water.

Why the same person puts the racquet down, never to ever again pick it up, is perhaps a more pertinent and vexed question.
Recently Tennis Ireland endorsed what the international tennis community are pushing in order to draw players into the game and keep them there. The underlying idea is simple: tennis is easy and enjoyable.

On the day of the women's final at Wimbledon the formal Irish launch of "Tennis . . . Play and Stay" happened in Dublin.
This worldwide campaign, partly devised by Dave Miley, an Irishman working full-time with the International Tennis Federation, is aimed at increasing tennis participation and has as its slogan, "Serve, Rally and Score".

The campaign involves all the major tennis nations and tennis manufacturers as well as the men's ATP and women's WTA tours and is primarily aimed at coaches of tyros young, middle-aged and old, encouraging them to use the slower red, orange or green balls in training and competition.

The campaign aims to demonstrate tennis can be easy and fun if beginners - from their first lessons - use the slower balls on smaller courts to serve, rally and score.

Coaches are encouraged to use innovative formats and scoring systems adapted to the ages and lifestyles of the players. There is little point in playing three full sets if you are 45 kilos overweight and have not played since your schooldays 20 years ago.
The scheme also promotes the obvious health benefits of tennis and proposes proficiency ratings designed to help players find partners of similar standard.

"It promotes a simple but strong message that can improve the way tennis is introduced by coaches and dramatically change how tennis is perceived by prospective players," says Roger Geraghty, Tennis Ireland's director of development. "We strongly believe the future for starter tennis players is slower balls, smaller courts, easy games."

Think kids playing mini-rugby, adults playing non-tackling tag rugby or the use of coloured dots on squash balls that determine their bounce; the whole idea to make the game less daunting and more accessible for kids and adult beginners.

The first stage involves using sponge or felt balls that are larger than normal and are recommended for four-to-eight-year-olds.
At stage two the orange balls are again less compressed and about 50 per cent slower than standard ones.

The final stage uses a green ball 25 per cent slower than standard. All stages also involve suitably graduated court and racquet sizes.

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