Welcome to the new Graves Tennis Newsletter, keeping you up-to-date with all that is happening with tennis at the centre. Following this initial issue the newsletter will be sent by email during the first week of each month, and of course I welcome all feedback and any news articles/results that you would like to see included.
The Future’s Bright, the Future’s Sheffield Tennis
Graves Tennis Centre has recently been successful in gaining accreditation onto the LTA Performance Club Network. Graves have been awarded Performance Club status, which means that they are able to provide top quality Performance programmes for 11 and under players. At Graves, Head Coach Mike James
is the man tasked with driving Performance tennis forwards. With this in mind, Mike has been instrumental in growing the programme and settling up new links meaning more players from more clubs across Sheffield are able to access the programme. Also bringing coaches together (including Jason Torpey – Hallamshire TC, Pete Ledbetter
– Beauchief TC) is vital in growing this new era for tennis in Sheffield. Mike is positively driving Sheffield forward in a more co-ordinated fashion and is growing the performance side of the game within the city. With hard work and dedication from all concerned, I’m sure we will begin to see the fruits of this in the coming months and years…….
by John Loughton, Yorkshire LTA Talent & Performance Coordinator
In May 2012 the Super Mini Tennis programme was introduced, since then the programme has gone from strength to strength with 15 attending county talent ID and then 3 then being selected for regional talent ID. This vast improvement in the playing and training level of the mini players has lead to a further step in the programme being introduced – the Mega Mini Tennis programme, for players in the development programme showing good physical and technical attributes which could lead to them being the next generation in the Super Mini Tennis programme.
As a Performance Club building the ‘base’ i.e. Mini Tennis is our main targeted area with the LTA, however we also strive to move up the LTA performance scale and be able to further support the development of players 12 & over. To kick start this in January 2013 we started the Sheffield
Tennis
Academy
, for this up to 4 players from each of the 12 & Under, 14 & Under and 16 & Under age groups were invited to train twice per week.
Selection is based on the following criteria:
- Player ranked inside the top 50 in the UK for your age OR
- is in the following ratings for the age group:
12&U Division 7
14&U Division 6/5
16&U 5.1 or above or inside top 1000 ITF
AND
You train per week:
|
|
12&U
|
14&U
|
16&U
|
|
Squads
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
|
Individuals
|
2
|
3
|
2
|
|
S&C
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
|
TOTAL
|
15
|
18
|
19
|
If there are more players who are of the level than there are spaces in the squads, places will go to the players with the highest RATING first, followed by players TRAINING the most amount of hours.
Development Plans
December brought the very exciting news that Graves has been awarded over £800k from the Lawn Tennis Association. The funding will be used to build 2 further indoor tennis courts as part of the wider development plan to increase tennis participation at Graves and across Sheffield. For players accessing Graves it will mean further coaching, competition and hitting time available and will bring even bigger tennis events to the centre. The investment in tennis will also boost opportunities across other SIV venues where mini tennis, cardio tennis and touch tennis will become widely available.
Talent ID
Well Done to Frasier McKinney who recently got invited to a LTA North East Training Camp. Frasier was one of 7 players who trained for the day with Yorkshire TPC John Loughton. Well Done Frasier!!
Luke Hoyland has been selected to attend the next round of LTA regional talent ID in March.
Graves 2012 Awards
Congratulations to the following players who were selected by the Graves Coaching Team for the following awards:
Player of the Year
Mini Tennis Red Ashleigh Mallows
Mini Tennis Orange Jack Keen
Mini Tennis Green Reuben Newman-Billington
Junior (11-18) Joseph Newman-Billington
Most Improved Player
Mini Tennis Red Sophie Roe
Mini Tennis Orange George Janes
Mini Tennis Green Charlotte King
Junior (11-18) Ben King
Team of the Year
AEGON Mini Green
Fair Play Award
Louise Holtum
County Successes
Congratulations to all the Graves Tennis Centre players and coaching team who had a bumper year in 2012 with 26 of the players representing 3 different counties in the National County Cup Competition. The ages ranged from 10 & Under all the way through to 18 & Under, which bodes well for the future of the tennis programme.
County representatives were :
U10 Yorkshire - Abigail Wild
U10 Yorkshire - Ronan Sahni
U10 Yorkshire - Reuben Newman - Billington
U12 Derbyshire - Ellis Corbett
U14 Derbyshire - Christian Mills
U14 Yorkshire - Conor Tordoff
U14 Yorkshire - Kate Eastall
U14 Yorkshire - Jonathan Gray
U14 Yorkshire - Finn Ranson
U14 & U18 Nottinghamshire - Ben King
U18 Yorkshire - Simon Howson
U18 Yorkshire - Molly Reed
U18 Yorkshire - Olivia Noble
U18 Yorkshire - Liam Earnshaw
U18 Yorkshire - Rob Da Costa
U18 Nottinghamshire - Chris Wood
U18 Derbyshire - Jacob East
U18 Derbyshire - James Riley
U18 Derbyshire - Danny Lea
U18 Derbyshire - Mark Eastall
U18 Derbyshire - Tom Bywater
U18 Derbyshire - Tom Buchan
U18 Derbyshire - Louise Holtum
U18 Derbyshire - Katy Wilson
U18 Derbyshire - Mary Langen
U18 Derbyshire - Emily Hewland
British Tour at Graves - 27th December – 5th January
The British Tour over the holiday period was a great success for players who train at Graves. We had 11 current or past players from the programme in the qualifying and main draws. With current academy players Georgia Lawson, Olivia Noble and Louise Holtum all reaching the main draw. Olivia went on to reach the Quarter Finals losing out to top seed and former Graves programme pupil Anna Fitzpatrick. Great effort for all who competed from Sheffield.
ITF Futures Sheffield Wheelchair Tour – 15th – 17th March
Alex Jewitt secured a home town victory on Sunday at the Sheffield Wheelchair Tennis Tournament when the current British No. 4 beat fellow two-time Paralympian and top seed David Phillipson in the men’s singles final at Britain’s third world ranking event on the 2013 NEC Wheelchair Tennis Tour.
“It’s a very special win, to do it with my wife and our babies watching me play tennis for the first time since they were born and to also do it at my home tennis centre,” said Jewitt. “I’ve been based here at Graves Tennis Centre for the last 14 years, since I first took up wheelchair tennis, and it’s nice to be able to do it for the centre and everyone here who has supported me so much over the years”.
(Marshall Thomas, LTA)
Achievement Corner
Martin Folger
has completed the LTA Level 4 Senior Performance Coach Award in December having taken 4 months to complete. Congratulations.
Charlotte King was runner-up in the Yorkshire Winter County Tour Event at Graves on 16th December and won the under 10s girls chesterfield county tour grade 4 on 13th January.
Upcoming Competitions/Matchplays at Graves
Road to Wimbledon 2013 – 18th May – Girls and Boys Singles
This competition is for all players age 14 & Under (on 31st Aug 2012) playing full ball tennis – in a change to previous years we will be doing this event on 1 day (2 days with 19th May if large draw), rather than over a set period of weeks. The competition is open to all playing abilities and we encourage all players in the age group to play.
Details on how to enter will be available shortly.
Matchplays:
Mini Red 23rd March, 12th April
Mini Orange 23rd March, 12th April
Mini Green 12th April
Ratings 10.2/10.1 2nd April
Ratings 9.2/9.1 3rd April
Ratings 8.2/8.1 4th April
Ratings 7.2/7.1 5th April
Ratings 6.2/6.1 31st March, 6th April
Ratings 5.2/5.1 30th March, 13th April
Ratings 4.2/4.1 30th March, 14th April
Open 24th March
Easter Grade 4 Tournament
12 & Under 10th April
14 & Under 8th April
16 & Under 11th April
18 & Under 9th April
Please enter via www.lta.org.uk
For further information contact Sheila Sherwood
on
sheilasherwood22@aol.com
Coaching Programme Information
Block 2 Lessons
Commences: 11th March
Ends: 19th May
Squads will take place as usual on Good Friday
Adjustments:
Mondays
1st April Sessions between 4-7pm as usual, lessons commencing at 7pm or later are cancelled
6th May Sessions between 4-7pm as usual, lessons commencing at 7pm or later are cancelled