The recent achievements of several tennis players involved in TuksTennis showed the organisation was doing something right.

This provided a light in the darkness of many questions about the state of tennis in South Africa and its inability to produce world stars on the tennis court. Kobus Botha of TuksTennis said he believed he had the right formula and the experience to prepare players from a very young age for tennis at the highest level. The frustration was that not everyone understood the concept necessary to succeed.

TuksTennis had in its curriculum six different programmes to guide and train players from a very young age to be ready for the top tournaments of the professional arena. TuksTennis preferred to start working with players as young as three to six years in the Future Slammers Programme. At this stage it was still using specially modified balls designed for use by younger players.

The next stage (age six to 10) was the Junior Aces to focus on assisting children on the fundamentals of tennis, such as agility, balance, coordination, serving and returning, learning to play matches with the emphasis on fun and enjoyment, developing consistency and understanding certain concepts of tennis.

In the Super Group (age 11-13) the focus was on “learning to train” principles of tennis. These included the development of ball control, quality practices, speed and reaction, supervised match play and live ball drills. The players in the Junior Excellence Group (age 14-16) focused on principles of “train to train”. The development of speed, power and acceleration, the development of weapons in line with the player’s strengths and weaknesses, the development of an own style of play and individual goal setting. The ideal was for players at this stage to start playing tournaments and build a ranking.

In the Excellence Group (age 14-18) the focus was on “training to compete”. This is just a more advanced stage than the previous group where players were more exposed to competition. Botha said top players in this group had to be exposed to ITF tournaments (from age 14) and Junior Grand Slam tournaments (for those over 16).

The High Performance Elite Group was a full-time programme for players who had progressed through the ranks to the “train to win” stage. This was for players with high aspirations seeking to take their tennis to the top or international tennis level. The programme was individualised for the personal development of the player according to the periodisation plan of the player. In this programme all aspects of development of the player were covered – like technical, tactical, physical and mental.

Botha told Rekord the objective was to accompany their players to most tournaments in order to prepare them for a higher level of match play and tactical play. The programme was unique because everything they needed was in one place, he said.

The HPC provides all other services needed such as sport science services, psychology, nutrition, Dartfish video analysis and medical doctors.

Botha believes that, especially with the possibility that top players may be entered at the Tuks Sport High School, there will be enough time to give quality attention to such players who are really serious about their tennis careers.

For more information about the tennis programmes at TuksTennis, contact the club at 012-420-6083 or visit their website at tukstennis@up.ac.za

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