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Descent Dube, Sports Reporter
TOMASIK Tennis Club head coach Khumbulani Tembo said this year his club is mostly focusing on teaching, supporting and developing youngsters as young as six years old.
He said they will be implementing coaching methods adapted to meet a tennis player’s unique needs and stage of readiness.
“Coaching a six-year-old beginner athlete should be very different from how you coach an 18-year-old. As a club we’re hoping to take every player to a stage of development and we believe the club has quality coaches that always consider basic principles of learning when designing practice sessions,” said Tembo.
Tomasik was founded by Fadzai Madzimbamuto and held its inaugural tournament in March last year at the Bulawayo Athletics Club.
The club will be hosting the Swiss-based Madzimbamuto and Frau Michelle Aslaksen on February 9 at Emakhandeni Tennis Club.
“The benefits tennis players gain from quality training will be wasted unless they are concurrently prepared to perform at their peak in competition, thus we’ve decided to groom them from an early age. The visiting coaches have solid coaching credentials and have played the game from their own childhoods and they will help the youngsters to be constantly open to learning new techniques.
“Now more than ever, the club has learnt that this game requires proper teaching ratios in order to be effective. Having one coach to do it all can be too much on one person and not very helpful for a player.
“From a young age, players need encouragement and guidance for proper skill development. As a result, Tomasik has opted to come up with a number of coaches to assist children by holding one-on-one conversations with them to better their chances of understanding,” he said. — @DecoDecent2
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