TSA hosts 12-day Olympic Solidarity (OS) / (ITF) Regional Coaching Advanced players course

Tennis South Africa (TSA) hosted a 12-day Olympic Solidarity (OS) / International Tennis Federation (ITF) Regional Coaching Advanced players course at TuksTennis, University of Pretoria earlier this month.

Twenty-five coaches from the Southern Africa region attended the course, with nine being women and fifteen men. Twelve coaches were from South Africa and thirteen coaches from various African countries including Mozambique, Botswana, Malawi, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Kenya, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe. The course was spearheaded by local coaching experts, Andre de Beer and Ghizela Enslin

OS technical courses aim to offer short-term training opportunities at different levels for active coaches officially recognised by their National Federation (NF) and working in their own country. TSA would like to extend their gratitude to Olympic Solidarity, SASCOC, ITF and ITF development officer representative, Tapiwa Masunga for the support and financial contribution to ensure coaches development in the Southern Africa Region.

Regional courses also grant an opportunity for coaches from the Region to meet, interact and start building relationships to strengthen the Region.

The aim of the course is:

The ITF CAP course is the follow-up course to the ITF Coaching Beginner & Intermediate Players Course to enable coaches to teach tennis to advanced players involved in competition.

• To understand and be able to apply the necessary training principles for coaching beginner, intermediate and advanced players
• Plan the training and competition programme for advanced players
• an 88-hour blended learning course with face-to-face (80 hours over a recommended 12 days) and online subjects (8 hours) included in the course.
• assessed by means of a 30-point ‘multiple-choice’ written test, a 30-question open test, a tennis ability test, group lesson and individual lesson test at the end of the course.

Some feedback from the coaches:

“One of the most amazing things about this course was that we were with participants that were from different countries which made us always see things from different perspectives and get to know what other people are doing in the other countries, we were also sharing ideas and keeping in touch with the people from the other countries,” Anesipho Mgcawa, South Africa

“I am so thankful to have been invited for the OS/ITF CAP Regional course as this course has helped me to gain greater knowledge and confidence from a coach’s perspective. It has opened my eyes to see tennis through a biomechanical lens, helping me to be able to identify and find methods to improve players technically through interventions. It has also helped to largely see the player pathway from a coach standpoint, a path I had gone down as a player but can now understand the inner dealings from a coaching point of view,” former professional tennis player, Ilze Hattingh, South Africa.

“I had an amazing time from start to finish. Everything was organized well; hospitality to the lecture room and on court. You(tutors) were able to deliver/present in a very clear way which made it easier for us to understand,” Neo Makhakhe, Lesotho.