Seeman back to W. Germany

Press, 20 November 1987, Page 26

Seeman back to W. Germany

West Germany and tennis beckon Phillip Seeman once again.

Seeman has been in New Zealand for a brief stint after his latest 18 month jaunt overseas. But he leaves his home soil to reclaim a head coaching position at the Kempton tennis club on Christmas day.

Seeman plays a dual role of player and coach in the prestigious club which boasts 900 members. He won all of his matches at number one last season and he is em-

By

ployed to help promote the team from the fourth to the third division. “I am the head coach there and part of my duties include playing in the senior men’s team to try and help them move from the fourth to the third division. To that end I won all my matches last year,” he said. Seeman is quick to add that he would prefer to work in New Zealand but that no clubs offer the type of position that he holds in West Germany. “I would prefer to work in New Zealand but there is no comparable coaching jobs here. “I am in charge of programmes and players coaching sessions. The coaching is heavily subsidised by the club out of the relatively high subscriptions. There is surplus money put aside for coaching senior men and women and the up and coming juniors, which we don’t have in New Zealand,” Seeman said.

West Germany has initiated a system where top men players are paid to practise against the top juniors to give them experience. Seeman sees this as a distinct advantage in preparing the juniors for the rigours of top competition. Top juniors in New Zealand have to play in top teams before they can benefit from top players’ experience.

“They have started using the top players to hit with the top juniors. That

DIANNA LESLIE

is not coaching but rather having a hard practices against them. Once New Zealand gets into that a little more it will take a step ahead,” he said.

Seeman, a powerful left-handed player, has recently recovered from a virus which affected his blood and forced him to give up work three months before he returned to New Zealand. But he has moved into the limelight of the Fendalton senior inter-club side at number one with increasing confidence as he adjusts to the grass surface.

But he certainly looked more impressive on the synthetic surface at Wilding Park last week-end. He won the Smith’s City Market closed tennis classic men’s singles title against Andrew Batie 6-0, 6-3.

“The synthetic surface is similar to the clay courts and there is a great difference between fast courts and clay court play. Now, especially, as a clay court practitioner I found I used the clay court skills solely at the week-end and it seemed to work well,” Seeman said.

But he has no qualms about divulging just how long it took him to be comfortable on the clay surface. “It took me three seasons of clay court play before I could reproduce the results I could achieve on the fast court surface. “I have beaten players

down to number 350 in the world rankings on hard courts but It has been, only recently that I could produce that form on the clay court,” he said.

The 26-year-old is a qualified chemical and process engineer but the prospect of working in that field does not tempt this globetrotter at present He is aware of the aging process, and coupled with his recent

illness did not enter in the doubles matches at the week-end.

“I was pleased to get through each game. I could win the singles because I didn’t play in the doubles,” he said.

“Being more senior players we have got to be prepared to play with injuries because unfortunately we don’t have the fitness any more,” he quipped.