Tag Archive for 'tennis coach'

Teresa the tennis coach extends tennis centre marketing to schools

Published on February 10, 2009 in tennis. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

Buoyed up with our success distributing leaflets about the tennis centre at the sport, sports and sporting activities centre in the high street and talking to the public which had produced such good results, Max and I decided we should approach the local schools with a view to making presentations to the children about the benefits of playing tennis and opportunities for tennis development available to young people from government tennis schemes.

Max afterwards explained to me that it had been quite a battle with the local schools to get them interested. They felt they already had access to tennis expertise and development through their existing channels and the amateur tennis club.

In preparation for our meeting with the headmasters, Max and I took lots of photographs of the tennis centre and put them on a laptop as part of the presentation. The local tennis club has fewer tennis courts and generally plays to a strong club tennis standard which is not always ideal for beginners. We felt that there were things that the tennis centre at the sport, sports and sporting activities centre had to offer that weren’t available from the local tennis club, in particular support for beginner tennis players and stronger level of integration of tennis with other sports at the centre. We felt it was a plus that, while the children were receiving coaching, their parents could go for walking the grounds or participate in one of the other sporting activities we are able to offer.

I was particularly nervous but Max seemed confident and our presentations went well. In the end, all the headmasters allowed us to leave our leaflets and promotional material prominently in their schools reception and promised to check the diary to see if there was a time that we could attend to talk to their pupils, either individually or or in groups.

On the way back, Max asked me if I would like to go out some time to see a film. I said why not? He said he would check to see what was on and let me know.

Looking back over my time out of the sport, sports and sporting activities centre, Max is one of the few good things that have happened there.

Tennis coach Teresa talks about tennis clubhouse passion, tennis marriage and confessions of a tennis pro

Published on February 6, 2009 in tennis. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

They say that married couples that play together stay together. My parents both played tennis and I’m sure it held their marriage together, especially in later years. It was a common interest and a common bond. Indeed, my mum once told me that she met my dad on the tennis court. She caught him looking at her legs and found she enjoyed looking at him too. Once she even hinted about a tennis story involving a local tennis tournament win, an empty tennis clubhouse and – as my mum described it – passion!

My mum wouldn’t tell me much but I think I can guess.

For my moment of tennis clubhouse passion, I had to wait until I got a vacation job at a Spanish tennis centre. Ricardo, the lead tennis pro was a hairy gorilla of a man with loads of muscle and a clay court game that was based on consistency and a gruelling attrition of the opposition. I was the assistant tennis professional in my first paid job as a qualified coach.

It had been a long hot day during which we had been running a tournament for the people on tennis holidays at the centre. We were both overheated and stressed. However, the strains were mainly organisational as we had mainly spent the day sitting around keeping running scores of results and had little way of exercise.

When the last players had departed, I went off into the tennis clubhouse to put away the first aid box that we had kept handy in case of emergency. Absentmindedly, I dropped the box and was just bending over to pick up the contents when Ricardo came around the corner of the kitchen and barged into me.

I was even slimmer in those days and would have catapulted face-first into the refrigerator if he hadn’t have grabbed hold of my hips to save me. By the time we recovered our balances and I had straightened up, the effect I’d had on Ricardo, still holding me to him, was obvious.

In the heat of the moment, to me, it seemed the most natural thing in the world give him a sideways smile, lean forward again onto the kitchen work surface and give a little wiggle of my hips.

Ricardo needed no more encouragement. As I said, he was very strong, and in an unbelievably short time he had efficiently pressed our mutual stress release buttons magnificently.

Unlike my parents, it was an experience that we didn’t repeat. I was almost at the end of my summer work contract and, apart from this moment of passion, we had little else in common. However, it was a truly memorable experience.

Perhaps one day I will tell my daughter – without giving too many details of course.

I wonder if this is the sort of  thing that Max wanted me to write in my tennis professional blog. It does rather seem to be turning into the confessions of a tennis pro which probably wasn’t what he intended. Perhaps I’ll ask him whether I should delete the bit about Ricardo. On the other hand, after I have spent the time to write it down, it seems a shame to waste the effort. Perhaps nobody will notice.

Teresa the tennis coach, sulking after losing a tennis match and tennis playing boyfriends

Published on February 3, 2009 in tennis. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Soon after I came to Devon to work at the Sport, Sports and Sporting Activities Centre, I was interviewed by the local radio station. I think it was because they thought it was unusual to have a kiwi tennis player living locally. People are very insular in this part of Devon. Or maybe it was engineered as a bit of public relations by the management of the sports centre where I work.

Anyway, one of the big things that the interviewer talked about was how angry he gets when he plays tennis with his friend on the local recreation ground tennis courts. He says that if he wins, he feels good, but if he loses, he gets really angry and refuses to talk to his friend for several days. Usually his friend has to buy him a drink in the local pub so that they can make up and become friends again – until the next tennis match.

All of which, is something I absolutely didn’t understand. At the end of a tennis game, club tennis tradition is for the players to always shake hands. It marks the end of the battle. Sometimes I don’t want to shake hands, if I have had a bad match, but it is a ritual that everybody follows and afterwards I always feel better.

I suppose that the hand-shaking bit at the end, is a formalised way of ending the conflict. As soon as we shake hands, we can talk about other things and continue with normal friendly relationships.

I tried to explain this to the local radio interviewer but I don’t think he was listening. Just about the time I was talking about shaking hands, I made the mistake of uncrossing my legs and I was wearing a short tennis skirt at the time. This simple action seemed to take his whole attention.

Afterwards, he tried to make a date but he was too short and balding. Plus, I don’t think I would like anybody who was so immature enough to sulk after losing a tennis match – or perhaps even somebody who makes a habit of losing games of tennis, for that matter.

Not that I wouldn’t like a little bit of boyfriend activity, if I could get it. Living and working in the Devon countryside is all very well but a girl’s got to think of her social life and for me recently it’s been a big zero.

In fact the last real relationship I had was in New Zealand with a sleaze-ball rep for a tennis equipment manufacturer. I suppose I had hoped I would get some free equipment and maybe some sponsorship, as well as a little loving, but he wasn’t really interested in how I played tennis. Instead, he was more interested in how he could play me along.

When I discovered he already had a wife and two kids, I dropped him like a brick. I always regretted not getting back at him. I should have done something dramatic to teach him a lesson but I couldn’t think of anything at the time and, anyway, I’m not usually vindictive. I suppose we had some good times and the relationship had perhaps just run its course.

It was soon after that I cane to the UK and the Sport, Sports and Sporting Activities Centre.

Tennis coach Teresa organises Rusty Rackets tennis session at tennis centre

Published on February 2, 2009 in tennis. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

I suppose about top of my list of successes at the tennis centre moment is the Rusty Rackets tennis group.

They are a nice bunch of people, mainly middle-aged, who responded to our tennis advertising recently in the local newspaper. Most of them had played some tennis before but had let it fall by the wayside.

We’ve had one Rusty Rackets introductory tennis session so far and they seemed to enjoy it very much. They were all keen to get fitter and, although they didn’t know each other at the beginning of their tennis games, they were all laughing and joking by the end and having fun.

Max tells me I need to identify the things that are beneficial about the game of tennis so that I can convey these benefits to potential tennis players through this blog. It’s a new way of looking at things for me. Because I’ve grown up in a world of tennis, tennis equipment, tennis clubs and just everything tennis, I’ve always assumed that tennis would be part of my life.

It is quite difficult for me to imagine that, for other people, tennis does not play such a central part.

Max also tells me that I need to identify the negative aspects in other people’s eyes about the sport of tennis. He tells me that, for many people, tennis is a highly competitive game that for them involves losing.

This is another aspect of tennis that I don’t understand. When I have played tennis I have always been a winner. Playing tennis doesn’t scare me. If anything, it is an opportunity for me to win and feel good.

Max on the other hand has explained to me that others might not feel the same. In fact, as beginner tennis players, they are more likely to to be on the losing end.

Max tells me that I need to emphasise that playing tennis is not about winning or losing but is about other things such as enjoying the curve of the ball as it flies from the racket, the pleasure of perfecting and making a great shot, the camaraderie of the tennis club and the pleasure of meeting lots of different people from different backgrounds who share a common interest – perhaps even partners in future relationships.

Speaking personally, I’ve often found relationships through tennis, although that was before coming to the Sport, Sports and Sporting Activities Centre in Devon where it all seems a bit too quiet at the moment for much of a social life.

Teresa the tennis coach – my background, Mr Right and why I am keeping this blog

Published on January 30, 2009 in tennis. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

When I think about it, my whole life has been about tennis since I was a young child and my father, a keen tennis player, put a small tennis racket into my hand and started hitting balls with me on the patio in the back garden.

My mum was also a keen tennis player and played with my dad in the local tennis club at Auckland in New Zealand. She used to watch me and my dad playing sometimes and I could see that she wanted to join in but, eventually, she would just sigh and go back to washing the dishes and cleaning the house. I’ve always said that, if I ever meet my Mr Right, he will definitely be the one to wash the dishes and clean the house and I’ll be out of the tennis courts with my kids.

Talking about Mr Right, Max is quite a juicy prospect! I’ve not really see much of him but he is one good looking guy, although perhaps a bit young for me. He is tall, dark and those heavy eyebrows give him a strong neanderthal look that really could make my legs go weak. I have a strong suspicion that he is attracted to me from the way he keeps looking at my legs. Max makes a change from the usual crowd at the Sport, Sports and Sporting Activities Centre where the average age of the management is around middle age.

I had a game of tennis with Max today and he’s a strong tennis player. Maybe together we could breed some great professional tennis players who would win Wimbledon, the US Open, the Australian Open and all the other tournaments and keep us in our old age – well a girl can dream!

Anyway, back to the reason for keeping this blog. Max tells me it’s a good way of meeting my public. He says that by recording all the tennis things I do and the places I go which are to do with tennis, I will be able to link up with people who are interested in the tennis services my tennis centre provides.

Welcome to Teresa the tennis coach’s blog – a free online serialised novel / novella about a tennis centre by Rob Hopcott

Published on January 29, 2009 in tennis. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Max from the Sport, Sports and Sporting Activities Centre sport marketing department suggested that I keep a tennis blog. He’s a whiz kid that has just completed a university degree in Sports Science and is here working as an intern. Perhaps he knows what he’s talking about perhaps he doesn’t – but since business has been so bad recently at the tennis centre for which I am responsible, I am willing to try anything.

Let me introduce myself. I’m Teresa the tennis coach. I’m a kiwi with blond hair and blue eyes and am currently visiting Britain because this is where my roots are. Maybe it was a mistake and maybe it wasn’t but my dad and my mum came from Britain and I have always felt that I needed to spend some time here. Not that I’m seeing much of Britain. Life for me is much the same as it was in New Zealand. It’s all about tennis courts, tennis balls, tennis rackets and providing tennis tuition. Or at least it would be, if I could solve my tennis centre marketing problem.

The tennis centre is situated in the Sport, Sports and Sporting Activities Centre which itself is situated in a beautiful converted country manor in a beautiful rural part of Devon. It would be a lovely place  to retire but is not exactly going to win a prize as rave location of the year.

The tennis facilities here, however, are fantastic and I hope to be able to talk about the tennis courts and lots of other things to do with tennis here in this blog.

If you too are interested in tennis, I look forward to seeing you back here often.