Modern
Tennis International Manifesto for British Tennis
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A National Disgrace
Over the past 10 years we have seen tennis clubs
dwindle from over 5,000 to just 2,500.
Tennis is still seen as an elitist sport for the middle classes, more
now than ever before. Year after year tennis clubs have disappeared, and park courts
lie in ruins or have been turned into skate board parks etc. In most
cases, the only option people have is to join a busy, expensive tennis club.
This is a national disgrace especially when we have one of the most influencial and
affluent tennis associations in the World.
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£60 Million
per Annum
According to reports there is currently £60 million available
per year to spend on British Tennis
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John of MTI
standing next to a former tennis
club, that is now used as allotments.
Unfortunately a familiar sight up and
down the country.
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Spend it where its most
needed
If we at MTI
were lucky enough to get a share of the funding, we would spend the money in the most effective way - by
increasing participation and interest in the game of tennis. You can’t create world class tennis players without
increasing the number of players playing the game at grass root level.
We don’t need state of the art indoor
centres!
All you need at a tennis club is a bubble (air-filled dome) covering 2, 3 or 4 courts, an adequate clubhouse with
showers, kitchen and a club room. We estimate you can get this for around £250,000 or less. Divide the yearly £60
million by £250,000 would give you 240 new all season clubs a year.
More Clubs, better
Facilities
Facilities for tennis should be nothing short
of first class in Britain. Tennis Clubs, centres and parks should have clay, hard or grass courts plus indoor
courts - all similar to those used in grand slam events. You can play social tennis on all these
surfaces and if it rains, clubs should have a cost effective bubble on their courts to play under. If they can’t
get planning permission then the county supports the players and helps move the club to a school or site where
planning permission is easier to win.
Replace Artificial Grass
Courts
Artificial
grass should be phased out. It is not a surface conducive to producing good technical players and only grand
slam surfaces plus indoor surfaces should be used instead.
Professionalise County
Organisations
We
would give each County a budget much like county councils to spend on their area. County organisations should
be professionalised and playing for your county should be an honour, but you would be paid to do so at senior
and over 35 level. This would keep good players playing for longer. Players would qualify for county by
playing in the club leagues. Club and County competition would be set up in a singles and doubles format e.g.
4 singles and 2 doubles or 2 singles and 1 doubles.
New Player Grading System
To help coaches maintain the standard of coaching and pupil development, MTI
would introduce a tennis grading system as other sports such as swimming, martial arts and dancing so
successfully undertake.
Pupils will be trained to perform certain skills in order to pass and move
on to the next grade. Pupils will be continually assessed every 3 months.
This would also help parents understand their child’s
progress.
Players would be supplied with syllabus sheets/cards outlining the skills
they need to achieve. MTI would supply certification.
Build New Clubs
Counties would have the goal of increasing participation by increasing the amount of clubs in their region by
5 or more per year. The ideal position for these clubs would be within schools as these automatically
become the talent pool for future tennis members. Coaches would lead these clubs and they would be set up with the goal of
promoting participation and the betterment of
tennis.
Tennis and competition in Schools
Because new clubs would be set up within schools there would be higher uptake of
tennis amongst children. Participation and interest would rise and the vast majority of pupils would find tennis an
easy game to play. The children would be fitter and healthier with the ability to play and
teach.
How would we do this?
We would offer our MTI school programme to all PE
teachers.
We would offer Key Stage 4 pupils our MTI VRQ sports leadership
qualification that is equivalent to a GCSE grade ‘B’
We would offer schools our ‘Easy Tennis’ school league format that would be
open to non tennis club pupils at local, regional and national level.
More Competition for
all
We would bring the old rating tournaments back so there is competition for all standards, but the ratings
system would be changed to a much easier ranking system that encourages play and doesn’t stifle
competition. With new school clubs rising, new school leagues would be organised and each county would have a
national competition at all age groups.
We would also introduce more competition for ALL standards
and not just for so called ‘performance’ players.
We would see to it that our local officers organized and promoted park
competitions for the general public.
County
Officer
Every
County would have an employed officer whose job is increase participation; grow the number of clubs
and park tennis within their county and to help these clubs to get
the best facilities possible.
Tennis
Coaches
Coaches
who excel and produce players would be rewarded as well as the club, centre or park they work at and
it wouldn't be dependent on whether they have a qualified a certain way. It’s all about
results!
New Top Level Academies set up across the
country
Coaches
would be empowered and encouraged to develop alongside their prodigies and invited to the County Academies.
Players would not be taken away from their Coach once they reach a certain standard. Instead the player and
coach would be guided to the next level of development together, keeping the all important coach player
relationship. These academies would be set up within county schools that have been awarded upgraded tennis
facilities. Overseas players would be able to pay to join these Academies and play professionally for the
Counties if they join and play at a local club.
County
Leagues
Instead
of the expensive outdated County Week competitions, Counties would play in leagues on a home and away
basis. The matches could be played only on surfaces similar to grand slam events i.e. grass court, clay
court, hard court or indoor carpet. Players would be paid to play for their County and in order to qualify
for the team must play regularly in the county club competition. Local clubs would vie to host these
events which they will be paid to do so... but only if they have the correct surfaces.
Support Service
MTI would be on hand to offer 27/7 assistance to all areas and workforce
involved with tennis. We would offer advice, on line coaching and tips together with a social network
service.
This would help the general public help teach themselves as well as their
own children.
Do you feel passionate about the state of British Tennis like
us?
Let us know what you feel and ....
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