For one week in May 2009, ten children from different areas of Cornwall, who all train at the LevertonWilliams Academy in Bodmin, visited the prestigious Manchester Athletic Club Bollettieri tennis programme to receive intensive tennis coaching by some of the top coaches in the sport. The brainchild of Guy Leverton and Adrian Williams the “lucky 10” experienced a fantastic week of tennis coaching and training.
It began at the start of the year with the creation of a partnership between the Manchester Athletic Club and LevertonWilliams Tennis through a professional relationship between Adrian Williams and Sandy Mittleman, Head Coach at the Academy. Leverton and Williams saw an opportunity to increase the level of competition locally by offering players the opportunity to train in Boston at the Academy.
So the ten children set out on the trip of a lifetime with supervision from Guy Leverton, Adrian Williams and Mr & Mrs Barriball-Saw.
The schedule for the children involved 5 hours per day of tennis and fitness related activities making full use of the ample facilities on offer. On the court Sandy Mittleman, who has worked with numerous top WTA and ATP Tour players including being a hitting partner for Jennifer Capriati on the pro tour, and Francisco Montoya who has worked with a host of top players including Xavier Malisse, Martina Hingis, Tatiana Golovin, Anna Kournikova, trained the children on all areas of their game. All of the children stayed at a local hotel under the supervision of Guy Leverton and Adrian Williams of LevertonWilliams Tennis. This gave the children a unique insight into what life might be like should they realise their potential and get to travel the world playing tennis.
With one day off all week the children made the most of it and took a trip into the amazing city of Boston and a ride on “Godzilla” a 1200 horsepower speed boat for a once in a lifetime view of this historic city. Enjoyed by many celebrities and professional baseball and basketball players, the tour was a unique way of seeing the oldest harbour in the USA.
The week was a tremendous success on every level and the children benefited and developed not just on the court but off it as well with many making friends who they will surely remain in touch with for years to come. Sandy Mittleman said; “I have the utmost respect for how hard the children worked when they were with us. It is not easy to travel 4000 miles and produce high quality tennis for 5 hours every day. We worked them really hard and pushed them to their limits and every time they responded. Off the court I couldn’t have wished for a nicer group of kids. They were so polite and respectful and I think I enjoyed the week as much as they did!”
Adrian Williams said, “This is the culmination of a lot of hard work organising and creating this opportunity and to see the kids working so hard and loving every minute of it was the icing on the cake. This is definitely the start of something really good and we hope to return sooner rather than later.”
All of the children received T-Shirts as a memento of their time at the academy as well as being filmed hitting their strokes that they are able to view online.