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Ellina Mhlanga

Sports Reporter
THE Tennis Coaches Association of Zimbabwe are scheduled to hold a one-day national coaching conference in Harare next month.

It will focus on how to develop and nurture young talent.

The conference will be held at Harare Sports Club on November 14 and is focusing on player development for the 14-and-Under category.

The association’s co-ordinator, Martin Dzuwa, said they targeted that age-group because they believe it’s critical in player development.

“Basically, it’s looking at how to develop an Under-14 player because I think that’s where the damage is done,’’ he said.

‘’So, we want to have a better foundation there.

“This is a one-day workshop, we just trying to educate each other, the coaches, to try to get the coaches and get their views on how to improve tennis in Zimbabwe for our juniors.

‘’So, the main topic is developing better Under-14 players.’’

The coaches are expected to tackle various issues, including psychology and fitness on the court, the tactical side of the game and what coaches have to look out for, when travelling with young players.

The programme is expected to incorporate schools, who are the main custodians, of these young players.

“We are going to start with the junior tennis initiative. This is more to do with schools programme like how you should run the schools programme because we have coaches in schools.

‘’However, they might not have a clue of what’s needed.

“Then, we have about nine topics that we are going to cover, such as player development pathway, which will guide how we should develop a player from this stage to the next stage.

“Also, we will look at the technical competencies for Under-12s, fitness programme for 14-and-Under, teaching baseline to baseline tactics, how to play the first shots in the game.

‘’These are some of the topics that we will be covering.’’

Apart from the presentations, the coaches will also get the opportunity to highlight the challenges when it comes to development of players.

The conference is targeting about 50 coaches.