Welcome to the Junior Tennis Camp Summer 2009

The Junior Tennis Camp, at the Avenue Tennis Club,  kicked off on the first day of the school holidays on 23rd July.

Head coach Vinny Duddy took the Mini Reds and was more than impressed with some of the players and their positive attitude to training despite being so young.  Emily Rossiter and Rhiannon Parson took on the larger group of 8 to 11 year olds at Orange ball and had a great time.  Barry Ramsden took on the older kids with yellow balls and was more than suprised with the improvements in just two days of training.

 

26th of July, Monday, the first real day of the summer holiday saw some tired youngsters turn up at the Avenue Tennis Club to be met by Vinny, Barry, Emily, Rhiannon and Courtney who had obviously been partying too over the weekend……….so the warm up was a real eye opener with the yellow balls going straight on court with Barry.  Vinny and Emily took the Orange and Red group through their paces, playing several warm up games that were linked to movement.

Head Coach, Vinny was really pleased with the numbers as they far exceeded his expectataion but the most important thing that he banged on about was safety on court, which, was taken serious by all the participants. 

Tuesday 27th July, Day 4 of the camp and every turned up ready and raring to go.  According to all the coaches the progress being made is great and the common feedback to Vinny is that everyone is really concentrating and trying to do everything that they are being taught.

Wednesday 28th July, day 5 of the camp and everyone is here with their rackets but so are the rain clouds.  We managed to get an hours tennis in for the reds and orange with mad Baz and the older yellow ball kids braving the rain when it was reasonably sensible.  The coaches were just as bored as the players although they did make every effort to make the most of the day organising a Horse Race, Picture Pick Up, Crazy Golf, Blue Rollerball, Tennis Skittles and a really good quiz set up by Heather Duddy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 6, thanks the heavens the weathers better.  We all got out on court and things went well.  The reds are really coming on with Emily and Rhiannon pushing them to keep trying; although the games at the end of the session seem to be the most popular part of the lesson.  Vinny has gone into mean tennis coach mode and had reduced the time for games and is carrying on with his “practice, practice, practice – repetition, repitition, repetition” quote.  Barry’s mob are doing fantastic but seem to be doing a bit of training around the court – must be something they’ve said or done.

Day 7, Friday – this is the last day for some of the players who are off to sunny climes next week or to Scotland (might not be as sunny there!!!).  The week or 7 days for many of the players has gone really well and Vinny, Barry, Emily, Rhiannon, Courtney and Heather have all tried really hard during the sessions to make them fun and interesting – the players have tried even harder and seem to have got some benefit from the coaching.  Thanks to the seven players who joined up as members… see you at the club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Day 7, was also Oliver Cashmore’s birthday and his mum very generously brought in some cake to celebrate – thanks to mum and Happy Birthday to Ollie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 8, it’s the first day of the week, Monday and there’s only a few people from last week still on the camp – the die hards or the ones who were not going on their summer holidays this week????  The groups quite a lot younger this week with the oldest being nearly 12 and the youngest nearly 6!!!  Once again Emily is taking the Reds but this week she is being helped by Kerry Matthews as Rhiannon is away playing a tournament.  Vinny is on the orange and Barry is doing green balls this week, although that might change as Barry does bring his players on quickly.