Fijian Tennis Trio Attend World Coaches Conference

By Raymond KITCHEN

A trio of Fijian tennis coaches attended a coach’s conference in Hong Kong two weeks ago and now aim to share their newly-acquired knowledge amongst the ranks of our tennis hopefuls here at home.

Tennis Fiji coaches Sachin Reddy and Krishneel Kumar, alongside ITF Development Officer (Oceania) Gary Purcell attended the 3-day conference between the 29th and 31st of October. Reddy said that there was a lot of information gained from the experience.

“This was Krishneel and I’s first visit to Hong Kong and the whole conference has been superb during our stay,” he said.

“We’d learned a lot of interesting new methods and coaching techniques from our international experts who specialize in specific areas of the sport.

During the three-day conference, some of the topics discussed included the history of tennis, on-court drills, strength and conditioning training, wheelchair tennis, footwork and the usage of tournament statistics just to name a few.

“Overall it has been a great conference with lots of detail and the aim of it all was to make us become better coaches.” He added.

Fiji is a member of the Oceania Tennis Federation and the sport has been developing quite rapidly over the last decade. Lautoka and Nadi remain the strongholds for tennis development with the ITF training facilities being based in both cities.

Some well-known players in the country such as William O’Connell and Annie Shannon have found themselves on the International Tennis Federation world rankings.

“Obviously there’s still much to be improved especially in the coaching sector of Tennis Fiji,” said Tennis Fiji President Richard Breen.

“I’m positive that our coaches have brought back a wealth of knowledge to the country and now it’s time that it’s put to good use”.

The 2019 World Coaches Conference is set to be held in Thailand with the dates yet to be confirmed.