If the embedded player does not function for you click here to listen on CBC.ca.

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***Ricky Twynam starting playing sports at the age of 4. At 13 years old, after excelling in baseball and basket-ball, Ricky began to play tennis. His uncle and coach, Alex Shields initiated Ricky to the game that has now become his passion. He competed at the provincial and national level and was ranked in the Canadian top 5, in the category 18 years and under. Then began his professional journey.

Ricky Twynam has traveled far and wide from Canada, starting in Europe where he got his first taste of professional level tennis. He had the opportunity to train with the world’s best; The Spaniards. Their philosophy to training was something he had never seen before. The intensity, work ethic and “never quit” attitude were what made them one of the world’s most dominant forces. Still today, they represent a great source of inspiration for Ricky’s coaching. Ricky also trained at the Bill Adams’s tennis academy in Florida, which was his home base during the years he competed.

He trained and competed with players such as Marat Safin, Igor Andreev, Dinara Safina, Frank Dancevic and David Ferrer, to name only a few.. He has competed across the United States, South America, Central America, the Caribbeans and Europe in both doubles and singles, accumulating ATP points. After gaining knowledge and experience from many renowned professionals, Ricky returned to Canada with a new dream: helping our young Canadian athletes develop and evolve as athletes, and as individuals. Ricky now shares his passion for sport and the game of tennis with students from all backgrounds, always aiming at helping them finding the best within themselves.***

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This is an e-mail that Ricky sent in frustration of the state of the current tournament structure and player development policies in Quebec which was sent earlier this week:

As you are aware Miss D’agostino has shown frustration towards the rule and explanation given on why Josh Mosseri cannot join our team for the CDT event.

I also have many frustrations… So I take the opportunity to express them.

1. Tournament planning in our province.

Placing major provincial selection events during final exams and minister exams. How does this encourage participation? I have 45 competitive kids that will NOT be playing the 1st or 2nd selection event towards summer nationals due to tennis Quebec’s poor planning. All kids are currently ranked players in the province of Quebec. The Commission des entraineurs voted and pushed back nationals by two to three weeks finally, yet the provincial selection events are scheduled at the same time as last year or even sooner than last year. Weird. Also after our meeting a year ago on the “competitive structure” we had identified that we have a great volume of participation in the 10′s, 12′s and 14′s and then what happens? We have no volume in the 16′s and 18′s category and tennis Quebec still has no idea why? There are no futures/satellites or money tournaments anymore. Its obvious that the emphasis is put on the 14 and under instead of the 18 and under. There remains a huge conflict between the LTAD (long term athlete development) and the way we have structured our events and where we put our attention. We have 12 girls signed up for the 18 and under 1st selection event. I have six girls in my club that can’t play due to their school schedule and only their school schedule.

2. Ranking system in our province.

We remain the only province in Canada to continue to use this negative head to head system, instead of a round by round ranking that will encourage participation. You don’t seem to want to deal with facts. Fact is our system is discouraging and negative. We went from the number one province in Canada to three or four in my eyes. After attending over 20 different national events in the last seven years in all categories 12, 14, 16 and 18′s. I have noticed and identified our issues. Our issue is a lack of leaders. A lack of vision and most important when dealing with sport and children a lack of openness and humanism.

3. Tennis Quebec. What is your role and objective as a federation? What is your vision and mission? I have read it on your website but I would like you to clarify with me as I feel it must have changed.

4. Fees paid to tennis Quebec annually.

I pay 5000$ and more a year to tennis Quebec to be affiliated. The only reason I pay this is because apparently my players can’t compete in the province of Quebec if I don’t…. Where does this money go and how come my academy can’t vote at the commission des entraineurs when Orize is obviously a crucial partner for tennis Quebec financially and physically. I was told it takes a coach level three to have the right to vote. What does a coach level three have to do with a director or president of an association?

5. CDT protection list.

What is the purpose of this? This is an amateur event and not a professional event. So why would I not be able to play a player from my rec programs? I recently spoke to David and Francois concerning the sign up of my 10 and under and 12 and under teams. I had two boys and girls in the 10′s and same in the 12′s. One girl from each category was not on my “list de protection” because they joined us late in the season or showed interest to compete only late in the season. They don’t come from other clubs. They started from scratch with Orize or were independent players that were playing with there parents due to lack of funding. Because of this decision there are six kids being penalized. See example.

10′s boys / girls

1. Xavier Jansen
2. Louis Phillipe Gauvin
3. Justine Chartier
4. Victoria Petkova (not on list)

12′s boys / girls

1. Charles Normandin
2. Felix Morin
3. Mathilde Tran
4. Anna Fokin (not on list)

So as you can see, due to this there will be six sad children who will never understand your political decision as they just want to play tennis and have fun.

Thank you for your attention on this subject and I will be awaiting your response/explanation to my questions.

Best regards,

Ricky Twynam
President
Orize Sports Management Inc. / Gestion Sportive Orize Inc.

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***Michael Emmett is the Director of Tennis Operations at all Mayfair clubs.  He is a certified Tennis Canada Coach 3 with a Journalism degree from the University of Texas. Michael spent several years working in sports television at TSN and Sportsnet.  Michael is a former National champion who finished his last year of junior tennis ranked #1 in Canada.  Michael has coached several National champions when he worked for the All-Canadian Academy at the National Tennis Centre at York University in the early 90s.  Michael spent 2 years traveling the world playing the ATP tour satellite circuit as a member of the Molson National Team in 1985 and ’86.***

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Can someone please remind me why tennis players worldwide are still engaging in the silly practice of short court for a warm-up? Warm-ups are meant to be quick, engaging and useful. After two minutes we should be sweating. The way most amateur members stand on the service line and bunt the ball back-and-forth is a colossal waste of time. The short court warm-up was designed for pros who are still striking the ball in a full athletic swing generating tons of spin, however, unlike most amateurs; they are maintaining the shape and speed on the ball while contacting it in the perfect strike zone. Short court is not for everyone.

If it was up to me I would ban ‘mini’ tennis forever for all club players. Most people in the tennis industry agree with me – it is extremely ineffective. As the Director of Tennis at the Mayfair clubs I see it constantly – and it rarely works. This is another example of how we are all just a bunch of sheep as we continue to do this fruitless exercise because we see other more experienced players execute it to perfection.

However, for most it’s pointless and completely unproductive. Whatever you are doing inside the service line can be accomplished from the baseline. If you are so inclined to stay close to the net for a warm-up then make it worthwhile and go volley-to-volley. In other words, get your eyes focused and your feet moving in a game of ‘reflex volleys’. This is a great way to get the motor running.

If you can’t keep the ball in the play for more than six hits (with the correct speed and spin) you should be backing up to give your partner/opponent more of an opportunity to bounce the ball in front of you. More time and more space is always the answer if you are struggling. Standing in no man’s land or about 2 meters inside the baseline is a suitable solution to this ever rising problem. Hitting the ball with topspin, controlling the depth, and landing it in the ideal spot for the person on the other side of the net is a difficult task to say the least. My guess is ten percent of the recreational members can do this properly (inside the service line) and gain the benefit it was intended for.

What I see are terrible habits that come from this drill. One of the biggest issues with club players is a lack of racquet speed. Standing inside the service line and guiding the ball back to your opponent exacerbates the problem. Swinging out or hitting with confidence on every ball is a major issue with most 4.5 and below amateurs – most don’t do it. Once the players move back they are not warmed up and they have just wasted ten minutes on a task that has netted no results. 60 minutes of court time is costly and wasting ten minutes can be extremely frustrating. Unless you are out there for a social session and gossiping with your fellow member, short court is not for you. Most members who start from the service line position are constantly talking and not focusing on the task at hand. And therefore, a coffee in the restaurant is probably a more realistic activity.

Short court tennis should mimic a ‘real’ stroke and if it does not then it’s a waste of time. It’s a smaller version of the long, arching, penetrating groundstroke. The difference is mini tennis shots travel about 40 feet while the normal baseline shots are in the 60-70 foot range. To dip the ball over the net with some spin and speed takes an enormous amount of skill. The hand action (brushing) needs to be spot on. And both players need to have equal dexterity to master this exercise. As I said earlier – this is only for the very advanced player. Two 5.0 tennis players can make it work but they must work collectively to extend the rally past ten shots.

If you are going to use the mini tennis exercise and make it beneficial then you must focus on three things:

1. Footwork: The point of short court is to warm up effectively and feel ready to play once the match begins. This should include a split step every time your partner hits the ball, taking little steps (to nowhere) between each shot, and setting yourself up for each groundstroke as you would on the baseline.
2. Technique: This is extremely difficult for most recreational players. Simply put – you need to be using full groundstroke mechanics on both forehand and backhand while keeping the ball inside the service boxes. In some cases this is NOT realistic and that’s why I’m adamant that this skill is ONLY for the pros. They are the only ones who can control the speed and rhythm of their swing on a continual basis.
3. Have a Goal: This is massive. Don’t just aimlessly hit the ball back and forth, have a goal that makes sense for you and your partner (unless it’s a match) and then focus on your own goals and forget about them.

In summary I would skip the short court exercise forever. It is too cumbersome for the ‘average’ player and produces limited results most of the time. Start in 3/4 quarter court and get the feet going right from the get-go and gradually get the spin and speed on the ball where you are feeling comfortable to move back to the baseline for a more standard warm-up. The objective is always to be ready to play once the first serve has been struck. Five minutes on a stationary bike or a quick three minute is jog is all you need to get the heart pumping and the joints limber. This habit will be much more contributive then anything you might do on the tennis court. Time is so valuable in the winter season in Toronto on the tennis courts; don’t waste a portion of your time doing a discipline that is counter-productive, futile and unnecessary.

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***Craig Mercer is currently the Director of Operations at ACE Tennis and the Head Coach of ACE Tennis at the newly acquired Howard Park Tennis Club location. Ranked as high as #3 in Canadian junior tennis, Craig competed in more than 20 Junior Nationals for Team Atlantic and Team Quebec. Craig has a Masters of Sports Management, is a Tennis Canada Coach 2 and is currently pursuing his Coach 3. A Team Ontario provincial coach, Craig has a deep interest in the growth and development of our sport in this country. ***

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In my previous article on Spain I outlined my general conclusions on “Why Spain is so Good: The Seven Spanish Secrets to World Tennis Dominance”. There are many things to be learned from our Spanish friends about developing players to become professionals; however there are some potential weaknesses and threats which could lead to a decline in their success. In this article I will share a few thoughts on why Spanish tennis development ccould suffer a decline.

One overriding domestic issue in particular is already causing problems in the tennis arena. Since 2008 Spain has seen a major hit to its economy. The continuing Spanish financial crisis has had a significant impact on individuals and corporations; the unemployment rate in Spain hit a record 27.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013 and average income is very low compared to the rest of Europe. The tennis community is not sheltered from these realities.

In my previous article I argued that one of the major reasons for the success of Spanish tennis is that they offer many tournaments at all levels, especially for entry-level professionals i.e. Futures. Note the recent trend in numbers of Men’s Futures events hosted in Spain: 2008 – 43, 2009 – 37, 2010 – 42, 2011 – 39, 2012 – 29, 2013 – 24.

A key reason given by some of the people I met with was a decline in sponsorship support for these events. While 24 Futures per year is still an impressive number, the sharp drop over the past couple of years is worrying and the decline could persist unless the overall economy begins to rebound. In speaking with players who compete in Futures events, and who live and train in Barcelona, one can sense the concern. They are worried that soon enough there will not be sufficient competitive opportunities and players may have to spend more time farther afield.

Another key factor in the success of Spanish tennis is the outstanding commitment and passion of the coaches. The fact is however, that there are many coaches in Spain who are concerned about how the economy is affecting the sport in their country. As they see Futures events decline they worry about trickle-down effects. Players are moving elsewhere to train, local players are starting to travel farther to tournaments and thus their money for coaching, fitness, physiotherapy and all the other day to day expenses is beginning to dwindle. The same goes for the coaches. There seem to be many coaches in Spain looking elsewhere for career opportunities. With the economy so weak many coaches are not making a good living and see their counterparts in other developed countries doing much better. Not only are good Spanish coaches increasingly likely to consider leaving, but many professionals who earn high incomes and would be able to afford to support their kid’s tennis are already leaving. Will we see a consequent reduction in participation in tennis programs in the clubs? It is the clubs, after all, which feed the academies.

I am by no means making the bold statement, based on a one week tennis whirlwind visit, that Spanish tennis performance is doomed to dwindle. However, it is clear that there are people in the Spanish tennis community who are asking the same question: “Will we soon see the decline of the tennis superpower”?

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The “first ever” U12 Ontario Team Tennis Junior Championships April 27-28 hosted by ACE Tennis at the Cedar Springs Health Racquet & Sportsclub in Burlington was a tremendous success! The event which came on the heels of the U10 team competition, held the weekend before at the same venue, saw 16 teams from across Ontario “playing their hearts out”, vying for the title.

As was the case the previous weekend with the U10 teams, the compass format was used to ensure that the players received multiple chances to play singles and doubles (each player played eight matches over the two day period) and tournament director Kyrylo Tabunshchyk did a wonderful job in completing 192 matches over the weekend!

Sixteen teams participated where the team from L’amoureaux Tennis Centre with team coach Cameron Lore took 1st place.

The teams were as follows:

1st place
Team Coach: Cameron Lore (L’amoreaux Tennis Centre)

• Player 1: Ilya Tiraspolsky
• Player 2: Alex Oancea
• Player 3: Daniel Sauer
• Player 4: Layne Sleeth

2nd place
Team Coach: Ben Armstrong (ACE Toronto Tennis City Team #2)

• Player 1: Pavle Milic
• Player 2: Sofia Babych
• Player 3: Alexia Di Guilio
• Player 4: Nadine Klajman

3rd place
Team Coach: Anthony Glavanic (Team London)

• Player 1: Isaac Ogilvy
• Player 2: Joshua Lapadat
• Player 3: Lawson Cross
• Player 4: Jana Higazy

4th place
Team Coach: Eddie Brisbois (Mayfair team)

• Player 1: Christopher Heck
• Player 2: Zachary Erdman
• Player 3: Benjamin George
• Player 4: Jada Bui

Team Coach: Brandon Alguire (ACE Burlington Team #1)

• Player 1: Alex Mikhailuk
• Player 2: Sofia Kostirkov
• Player 3: Katarina Kunovac
• Player 4: Chen Li

Team Coach: Nathan Gatt (Niagara Academy Team #1)

• Player 1: Nicholas Li
• Player 2: Trevor Masi
• Player 3: Mavryck Gatt
• Player 4: Yashna Yellayi

Team Coach: Nick Mook Sang, Team #2

• Player 1: Filip Conic
• Player 2: Rassam Yazdi
• Player 3: Nina Chen
• Player 4: Devon Axam

Team Coach: Nick Mook Sang, Team #1

• Player 1: Dan Pergel
• Player 2: Ian Brander
• Player 3: Adrian Tudor
• Player 4: Julia Kuszynski

Team Coach: Andrea Rabzak (ORC Team #1)

• Player 1: Kailen Galazka
• Player 2: Neil Kandhai
• Player 3: Rachel Hanford
• Player 4: Antonija Sokic

Team Coach: Brandon Alguire (ACE Burlington Team #2)

• Player 1: Michael Pawlowicz
• Player 2: Andres Vergara
• Player 3: Rachel Krzyzak
• Player 4: Anastasija Kunovac

Team Coach: TTA Team #2 (Peter Cameron)

• Player 1: Ethan Milavsky
• Player 2: Kamran Taraz
• Player 3: Matei Vucenovic
• Player 4: Kristen Borland

Team Coach: TTA Team #1 (Peter Cameron)

• Player 1: Rayhan Alam
• Player 2: Josh Loblaw
• Player 3: Kevin Berghuis
• Player 4: Kiana Nikbakht

Team Coach: Eric Garcia (Niagara Academy Team #2)

• Player 1: Stephanie Davis
• Player 2: Liam Gardner
• Player 3: Simeon Davis
• Player 4: Alexis Bruce

Team Coach: Mike Pietras (ORC Team #2)

• Player 1: Maya Perkucin
• Player 2: Evan Hayes
• Player 3: Victoria Tankova
• Player 4: Kenneth Mann

Team Coach: Ben Etheve-Meek (OAC/NTS Team #1)

• Player 1: Akash Nibhanupudi
• Player 2: Corina Spasojevic
• Player 3: Tudor Lungu
• Player 4: Dermott Duggan

Team Coach: Katy Shulaeva (ACE Toronto Tennis City Team #1)

• Player 1: Louis Brew
• Player 2: Ben Barnard
• Player 3: Fernanda Pereira
• Player 4: Sarah Semmar

Thank you to all the teams!

Coaches vehemently expressed their approval and joy at being able to be on court coaching their players, and it was an education for them as well in improving their understanding of how their players are able to process information and instructions on court. Parents once again were vociferously cheering on their kids and their teammates, and interestingly many commented that they felt more relaxed with this format, as the on-court coaching took a lot of the ” pressure” off of normally having to closely monitor their child’s every move during their matches.

There are numerous requests from coaches, players and parents for more team competitions like this, in the older groups as well, like U14. We have asked coaches to send their comments and recommendations, with a view to making an assessment with the OTA of the initiative and devising a plan going forward.

- Doug Burke

• Great tournament for all the kids. They had a lot of fun.
• Gave them a sense of what the pressure feels like when playing for a team (similar to NCAA or Davis/Fed Cup).
• The on court coaching was amazing for their development as the kids could make corrections during matches and in some cases ended up changing the outcome.
• Great effort by all the coaches to be here (it was a long 2 days). It shows their dedication to the kids and the sport.
• Nice to see a tournament that had the kids playing some meaningful doubles matches. They definitely do not get enough of this.
• The OTA and Tennis Canada definitely need to hold more of these events. The benefits the kids get from it is too high to pass up.

- Brandon Alguire

I just wanted to thank you for doing such a great job hosting and organizing the U12 Team event this past weekend. My team and their parents really enjoyed the event and we all hope there will be future events like this one in the future. The kids really had a fun time and you could see the interaction between them growing as the days went on. Having the coaches on the court is so valuable as it clearly made a difference in my team’s matches and I’m sure it did for the other teams as well. I saw a drastic change and positive turn of events in quite a few of our matches after I had given my players a counteractive strategy to implement but not before first asking them what their own evaluation of the situation was. The other major benefit was being able to calm the players down during times of duress and get them refocused in the match as a couple of my players are volatile to emotional outbursts.

- Cameron Lore

This weekend should be a more common occurrence! I have always felt technique is an important aspect in development but unless you’re on traveling teams or a selected player we can lose some athletes through the cracks without enough training on how to persevere in competition. Canada lacks constant match play in general in my humble opinion. There are a lot of different techniques out there but coming to play a tournament and learning to compete under pressure is just as an important process.

- Anthony Glavanic

I really enjoyed the experience of being on court with the kids and getting into their heads. I learned a lot about what they were thinking and feeling and was able to help them to begin to change. The goal is to get them to learn to do it on their own when a coach isn’t on the court with them. This was an extremely valuable experience which I feel will have long term ramifications on their development.

- Ben Armstrong

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***Wayne Elderton is acknowledged as one of Canada’s leading coaches. He is Head of Tennis Canada Coaching Development and Certification in British Columbia. In this role, he has provided coaching training to over 1500 coaches. He is a main contributor to the Tennis Canada Coaching Certification program and has also written articles and coaching materials for the PTR, Tennis Corporation of America, Tennis Coaches Australia, and the International Tennis Federation. He is a popular speaker at coaching conferences world-wide. He is a Chartered Professional Coach (ChPC) as recognized by the Professional coaching association, Coaches of Canada. Wayne has enjoyed considerable success in his career using the Game-Based approach. As a High Performance coach, he has led provincial teams to gold medals in the Canada and Western Canada Games. His players have won numerous national titles and many have achieved full scholarships at US Universities. Some have gone on to achieve WTA and ATP rankings. He has also coached 3 wheelchair players to top 10 world rankings and has coached Canada’s World Team Cup squad (Davis Cup for Wheelchair players). He is a key builder of the Canadian National Wheelchair Team program and created Tennis Canada’s Wheelchair Instructor Course. In 2006 he was inducted into the City of Burnaby Sports Hall of Fame in the coaching category. He is currently Tennis Director at the Grant Connell Tennis Centre in North Vancouver which was awarded the 2005 Canadian Facility of the Year for program excellence by the Tennis Professionals Association. For more information, please go to www.acecoach.com***

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We have identified 4 main ‘pillars’ that are the foundation of advanced coaching:

• Learning tennis as an Open Skill
• Coaching in a Learner-centred way
• Utilizing a Game-based Approach
• Integrating the 4 Performance Factors (Psychological, Physical, Tactical, Technical)

This month, we are delving into the, “Integrating the 4 Performance Factors” pillar.

To keep the Performance Factors in view, ITF hall of fame coach, Louis Cayer (with expansion from top coach Larry Jurovich) have created a ‘vision/mission statement’ for players. Just like with a company, the ‘vision’ part gives us a picture of the preferred future. The ‘mission’ element makes sure we have this as our major purpose. We introduced the statement last month which reads:

“A Performer who is a Focused, Competitive Athlete that Plays Smart with Effective strokes.”

In this installment, we will look at the specific definitions of each of the components. To fully understand them, it will take a lot of ‘unpacking’. We will do this in subsequent newsletters. The definitions have been fleshed out by top coach Larry Jurovich. These provide a framework to create learning activities and drills to develop each of the characteristics.

PERSON

• Performer: “The ability to play up to your expectations of yourself under pressure.”
• Focused: “The ability to concentrate on the right things, at the right time.”
• Competitive: “The ability to maintain full effort under adversity.”

PLAYER

• Athlete: “Possessing the physical skills to be able to play effectively and efficiently.”
• Plays Smart: “Able to make effective decisions based on game-style, strategy and tactical variables.”
• Effective Strokes: “Ability to hit effective strokes with efficiency.”

The first three psychological characteristics are the vision for developing the person. The following three are to develop the player.

We don’t play tennis with only our technique. We bring our whole person on court. When we do well, it is because we manage all our elements (Feelings, physicality, emotions, thoughts, tactics, techniques, etc.). If the person doesn’t have the characteristics to handle the ‘battle’ of the match, they could play poorly (even if they have superior technical skills). If the player doesn’t have the skills to play successfully at their level, it also can result in poor play.

Think about your players with these characteristics in mind. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Have you spent time mostly developing the player, to the exclusion of the person, or vice versa? We just had a number of our center’s players competing at junior nationals in all the age divisions (and brought home some top ten finishes and a national title). It makes it easier for us to see where our work needs to be focused with this grid. For some of our players, their skills were great but the pressure overcame their ability to maintain and utilize what they have. We need to work with them to bring out a stronger person on court. For others, they competed well but their technical skills are not at the level they need to be (e.g. generating enough power to consistently attack when appropriate). For others, their technique was good but their tactics were suspect. We need to work with these ones to bring out a stronger player on court.

Try this while you coach tennis this week and keep moving along in the journey to 21st Century coaching.