Ten year old Gloucestershire Tennis player Oliver Palmer attended the Lawn Tennis Association’s (LTA’s) National Talent Identification Camp at the Bolton Arena from the 1st – 4th June.
Players born in 2001, 2000 and 1999 from the Midlands, North West, North East, North Wales and Scotland were invited by the LTA’s Talent Performance Managers having achieved the appropriate standard at Regional Talent Identification sessions.
The LTA’s Talent Team ran each day, and were supported by a world class team comprising of Greg Rusedski - LTA Talent Ambassador, Dr Anne Quinn – LTA Head of Sport Science, and members of the LTA Sports Science Team. Each day the players were involved in physical assessment with LTA sport science staff, tennis tests and matchplay with the Talent Team.
Dr Ann Quinn and Andrew Lewandowski - Head of Talent Management delivered a parents session, discussing player programmes and the challenges of balancing tennis with a healthy lifestyle.
Parents also received a presentation from Venetia Cosier – LTA Education Support Manager regarding education and tennis training.
Matt Allen, Talent and Performance Coordinator for Gloucestershire and Herefordshire & Worcestershire commented “throughout the four days we observed an overall improvement in technique and tactics and overall depth of standard within the majority of the three age groups. This is a result of players using the appropriate rackets, balls and court size.” He further added, “Players demonstrated all court skills and qualities, especially on the orange court. Players used a variety of strokes and tactics, allowing ‘total tennis’ to be played, this would be difficult to achieve on a full size court.”
Oliver trains at St Peter’s Junior Tennis Club and Oxstalls Indoor Tennis Centre. His individual coach is Keiran Montagu who has coached Oliver for a number of years and has given Ollie a great foundation for the future as well as a real appetite and love for tennis.
Highlights of the year so far; earlier this year Oliver helped the Midlands Regional team win inter-regional matches against both Scotland and South West. Ollie competed very well throughout the Winter; qualifying for a number of Grade 3 tournaments. So far this summer Ollie has had some very good results, he lost narrowly in the Quarter finals at the Nottingham Open grade 3 event, he was runner- up at the Cheltenham Junior grade 3 event and recently won the BLTSC Junior Grand Prix grade 3 event at Bristol.