sweden and indonesia promote tennis Play and stay
Sweden launched the Tennis…Play and Stay campaign, which promotes tennis as easy, fun and healthy, on 24 August at its annual coaches conference. Over 200 coaches from all over Sweden attended the conference, held at the GLTK club, Gothenburg.
The three-day conference included on court presentations on the Play and Stay and ITN by the ITF’s Mark Tennant, and demonstrations of the Tennis…Play and Stay website, found at www.tennisplayandstay.com.
Each of the clubs represented at the conference was given an equipment bag by the Swedish Tennis Association, containing equipment to help support the Play and Stay campaign and ITN on court assessments.
Following the conference, Mark said “it was great to be able to share the information about the Play and Stay campaign with such a great team of coaches. I have no doubt that Sweden will have a great programme using slower balls and smaller courts with starter players of all ages, and that more players will be encouraged to play and stay in the game”
Indonesia also launched Play and Stay to their coaches with a series of Play Tennis courses run between 18-30 August. ITF Development Officer for Asia, Suresh Menon ran the events along with Ferry Raturandang from PELTI (Indonesian Federation) in Jakarta, Aceh, Pekanbaru, Makasar and Balikpapen. Many attendees their first experience of how easy tennis can be for starter players when using the slower red, orange and green balls on smaller courts.
MTA chairman Mr Ma Iao Iao was very pleased with the response from the local coaches. He was pleasantly surprised that the course not only attracted so many participants but also the enthusiasm that was displayed by the participants. Mr. Ma Iao Iao hopes to organize a Level I Coaches Course once the present coaches have gained a greater understanding of the Play Tennis concept of introducing tennis to starter players. He is confident that this is only the beginning and more ITF activities will be organized in the near future.
“Tennis…Play and Stay, which promotes tennis as easy fun and healthy, will involve the ITF, over 30 major tennis nations (including all 4 Grand Slam nations), manufacturers, coaching bodies, the ATP and WTA tours as well as other key organisations, getting behind a worldwide drive to increase tennis participation.
The campaign centres on the slogan of ‘serve, rally and score’ and will improve the way that coaches introduce starter players, both young and old, to tennis. The messages promoted in the campaign are:
Tennis can be easy and fun…if coaches working with start players use the slow red, orange or green balls
Start players should serve, rally and score…from the very first lesson
Tennis competition can be fun…and formats and scoring systems exist to suit all lifestyles and abilities
Tennis is healthy…research conducted in 2006 by the ITF on the physiological demands of tennis supports this
Tennis is a sport for all…and all players should have an ITN tennis rating
Using the right ball is a crucial element of this campaign. A number of slower balls are available and by using these balls on an appropriate sized court with an appropriate sized racket, starter players have more time and more control, which makes the game easier and more fun for them at the introductory stage.”