The national TDC for 2012 concluded last Wednesday and brought in some of the best juniors (birth year 2002) in the country. NSW had 4 boys and 4 girls come down including our very own Josh Tait as well as Srijan Singh who has just started with our Elite Squad.
The camp was a complete success and I think it’s safe to say that all the kids learned a heap. Not only did they learn different training methods but they also learned just how high the bar is set. Some of the boys at the camp have been training very long hours since they were very little. All the kids had a positive outlook towards tennis and you could see that any pressure they had was internal. I was really pleased to see that.
On the coaching side it gave me a chance to talk with the other 15 talent development coaches, plus 8 high performance coaches including Gary Stickler and Scott Draper. Being able to throw ideas around with these guys was a huge help to me, as was our NSW mentor Nicole Arndt. The days were long, starting at 6:30 and finishing at 9:30 at night, and for the juniors it was not much shorter.
We also got to speak with Alex Hynes (agility and performance coach at the AIS) about a range of different movement techniques. It was a real eye opener as to the level that can be achieved. I will be incorporating some of those drills into our Elite squad and friday fitness sessions.
Over all it was a fantastic 4 days that the boys (and myself) enjoyed and learned from. One of the highlights was research showing something that Kim has known all along but has been debated. It’s always good to get a little bit of vindication.
I really hope that they run the camp again next year. We’ve got some great young boys and girls that are born in 2003. If that sounds like you, make sure you are improving as fast as you can because the standard is high. And I’m sure that Josh and Srijan would tell anyone that it definitely helped their games.
As always if you have any questions please feel free to hit me up any time, or post them in the comments section below!
PS: Special thanks to Kim Kachel for organising the event and having it run without a single hitch. Love your work!