Tennis must rank as one of the greatest games ever invented, simply because it allows men and women to play together, writes Sean O’Connor
‘Love” is not a score in tennis by accident. Apart from the romatic possibilities of mixed doubles, those who play tennis often play it for life. Tennis is an intensely social game, but it suffers from a relatively low profile.
Followers have long acknowledged that a black tennis role model is needed for the sport to really take off in South Africa. Fortunately, the possibility of such a player emerging soon is looking increasingly likely.
The South African Tennis Association (SATA) started a tennis development programme many years before most other sports did. According to Leon Freimond, SATA’s senior manager for development, ‘a number of initiatives are currently in the pipeline, although it’s the basic story: we’re massively underfunded”. However, the International Tennis Federation has given financial support to SATA’s Schools’ Tennis Initiative, to launch mini-tennis in schools.
A mini-tennis programme has been running in the Western Cape for a number of years, where the culture of tennis in previously disadvantaged communities remained relatively strong during the apartheid years. Fred Kiewiets, development officer for the Western Province Tennis Association (WPTA), says that their development programme takes mini-tennis into 66 primary schools in Khayalitsha, Mitchell’s Plain, Heathfield, Belhar, Gugulethu, Langa, Athlone and Elsies River.
‘At each school, two teachers are trained at a centre away from school. We supply nets, poles, balls and mini-tennis bats, while the schools draw their own courts on the ground. From September to March, an inter-schools mini-tennis league pits future champions against one another.”
The second tier of the WPTA’s development programme involves 11 schools selected for their proximity to existing club facilities in previously disadvantaged areas. There are six such centres in greater Cape Town, where the WPTA contracts a coach to provide weekly training sessions. Over 150 youths between the ages of eight and 17 come to these squads at least once a week. From here, talented youngsters are invited to join a full Saturday morning session at the WPTA’s headquarters.
Drawing from the Saturday session, an elite squad meets for coaching at the centre every weekday afternoon. Players from this group might then be selected for the ITF Academy in Johannesburg, where they are fast-tracked towards the big-time, according to the Director of WPTA, John Passmore. Two players who have graduated through the WPTA’s development programme who hold immense future potential are Peter-Jon Nomdo, one of only six players selected from 90 developing countries to train at the Olympic Solidarity Centre in Barcelona, Spain; and Raven Klaasen, 19 years old and already among South Africa’s top 10 players.
Teachers who wish to coach mini-tennis needn’t have played the game. Our national tennis body will offer the requisite support. New balls please!
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, July 2001.