The Gloucestershire Lawn Tennis Association
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Sunday, December 19, 2004
Jimmy Connors works with Britain’s top tennis players
Former world number one and eight times Grand Slam champion Jimmy Connors returned from the LTA’s annual Elite Performance Winter Camp in La Manga. Connors, who was attending the camp at LTA Performance Director David Felgate’s invitation, spent three days on and off court working with Britain’s leading players and coaches and sharing some of the tricks of the trade that saw him stay as world number one for 270 weeks and win a record-breaking 109 singles titles in an illustrious career.
The camp, which has played host throughout the last three weeks to over 30 leading senior and junior players including Greg Rusedski, Arvind Parmar and Anne Keothavong as well as coaches like Martin Bohm and John Lloyd clearly impressed Connors who said of his visit:
“How can you beat that? It really was impressive to see the British kids together and working so hard. I really enjoyed spending time on court with the players and coaches and hearing David and Jeremy Bates’s vision for the future - they have a clear plan and I love their approach of just getting things done. While it’s ultimately up to the players once they cross the white line, having the right set up and attitude will go a long way in helping them realise their talents.”
The trip is the first in what the LTA hopes will be an ongoing relationship. The two parties are currently looking at possible dates for further sessions with elite British players and coaches throughout 2005 and beyond.
LTA Performance Director, David Felgate, commented: ‘It has been a privilege to have a champion of Jimmy Connors’ stature working with us this week in La Manga. All the team, including players and coaches, have learnt a phenomenal amount from him and we were delighted that he found time in his schedule to make the trip.
Winning tennis matches is as much about attitude and hard work as it is talent and Jimmy has brought that and more to the camp this week. We are in the business of producing tomorrow’s champions and having the input, on a regular basis, of proven winners like Jimmy can only help us further in achieving that goal.’
John Crowther, LTA Chief Executive, said: ‘Performance tennis remains one of the highest priorities and David Felgate and his team have made considerable progress in the last 18 months - the ranking of our top 20 men and women has risen by an average of 206 places this year.
But we are still striving for more and having champions like Jimmy Connors spend time with our players and coaches can only inspire them to even better things. Jimmy has been to the summit of our game, knows what it takes to stay there and if some of his huge experience can rub off on our players we will be delighted.’
Posted at 10:29 PM [link]
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Keiran Montagu winner of HSBC Coach Award 2004
Congratulations to Keiran who became Rookie Coach of the Year, at the Gloucestershire Coach of the Year Awards 2004 held at Gloucestershire University, on Friday 3rd December.
Keiran was nominated with 8 other young coaches, many from other sports. The award was for a newly qualified coach who has made a significant impact on coaching over the last 12 months.
Keiran successfully completed his DCA Coaching award in September and over the year has coached at Twyning Club, been involved in the Community Coaching project within Gloucester City and now is working at St Peters school developing both tennis and football community opportunities.
We wish Keiran a successful coaching career
Posted at 4:59 PM [link]
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Colin Bennett - we feel very lucky to have him here in Gloucestershire
Colin as been working with Gloucestershire Players for the last 10 weeks and will continue to do so over the next year. He is combining this with his work with Emily Webley Smith (300 ATP Ranking) and Richard Bloomfield (500 ATP Ranking). Both Players are under the guidance of Pete Russell and Colin works as Pete’s assistant.
Colin had a successful playing career reaching Top 20 standard in Great Britain and Top 500 on the ATP Ranking List. We feel very lucky to have him here in Gloucestershire.
Posted at 7:53 AM [link]