Judy Murray has been named as the official patron for EBAT (Elena Baltacha Tennis Academy) at the Ipswich Tennis Club.
Judy gave a couple of hours of her time hitting first with a group of EBAT Girls, doing some media interviews with founder and former British No.1 Elena Baltacha. Then it was more on court time with 24 children (boys and girls) from six different local schools.
Just two years ago the Academy (the only one catering especially for young girls ages 7-11 in the country) started life on half a court at the club with just 10 players. Now it has grown to over 150 players in that short span and continues to inspire more young girls to take up the sport. EBAT is funded by parent donations, fund raising, commercial and private sponsorship, as well as LTA support.
Baltacha explains: "Our focus and purpose is to unearth future professional tennis players from the deprived areas of Ipswich, emerging through the volume of players we attract. EBAT has developed a schools network that we believe is one of the best in Britain. Through this network we deliver our EBAT Road Shows and create a very strong flow of numbers into our Academy. These numbers are streamed into LPG clubs and the academy structure. Once our new players join, they are all offered a trip to the National Tennis Centre (NTC), the last trip included a sold out 92 seater luxury coach which ferried a large group of players, parents, grandparents and great grandparents to the NTC."
"The academy base rule is discipline at the highest level at all times, through this level of discipline we can deliver high quality coaching to high numbers. The LPG programme is for nurturing and preparing young seedling players for the academy, once they join the academy the programme structure is delivered through two pathways: Excellence and Sparta. We expect all our players to train with discipline and commitment. For the ones who show the traits of Sparta we elevate to a programme that demands much more. EBAT’s aim is to create enjoyment through self-pride and achievement when on the court; the numbers seem to indicate that children are stimulated by discipline, they commit and respond."
Find out more about the Elena Baltacha Tennis Academy.