WINTER NO BAR

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 48, 25 August 1945, Page 10

WINTER NO BAR

TENNIS ALL THE YEAR

"CLINIC" IN OPERATION

Something new in name if not in performance, has been introduced into sport in Wellington. It is a clinic, but its functions differ widely from those of the established institutions of the same name. Linked up with tennis, its purpose is coaching. "We are out of date here," said Mr. Tom Varley, a local tennis enthusiast with the backing of considerable Australian experience, when a coaching scheme he inaugurated at Marsden School was under notice. "By oversea standards we should call it a 'tennis clinic'" He admitted, however, to having baulked at the use of the term after looking up a dictionary. The tennis clinic at Marsden has been operating throughout the winter, and, apart from those directly responsible for its functions, it has attracted ! the interest of people well known in the tennis world, amongst them Miss Kathleen Nunneley (thirteen times New Zealand champion) and Mr. Russell Young (a New Zealand Davis Cup player and Cambridge Blue, and well known also as a commander of the i Maori Battalion in the 2nd N.Z.E.F.). !Both these noted figures in the game have given talks. In the coaching— which is really the object of the clinic —great stress is laid on rhythm, which is regarded as essential to the playing of modern tennis, and one of the recent visitors was Mr. Isador Goodman, who, in a short talk, stressed that the rhythm of tennis and the rhythm of music were complementary and that the one should be of considerable help to the other. ENTHUSIASTIC RESPONSE. The establishing of the clinic arose from the belief of a group of Karon enthusiasts that the winter season is the proper time to improve both strokes and general technique so that the maximum enjoyment can be obtained in the summer season. The clinic has been run in collaboration with the sports mistress (Miss Hampton) and Miss Turner, of the Marsden staff, and both parents of the children and the old girls have given splendid assistance to the other honorary coaches. The original response to the suggested scheme was so enthusiastic that it was found necessary to limit it to pupils in the upper and middle schools, and between 60 and 70 of the children, both boarders and day girls, have been attending each Saturday. The enthusiasm has been such that the percentage of absenteeism would astonish harassed Wellington employers. The school made the Assembly Hall available for wet Saturdays so that there would' be no loss of continuity. Great pains have been taken to ensure that the clinic has been run on the most modern lines and, in accordance with modern educational methods, visual instruction has been extensively used. Advice has been obtained from overseas, and books by such famous players as W. T. Tilden, Bunny Austin, Helen Jacobs, and Dorothy Pound, and current overseas periodicals have been freely drawn on so that the children may have the benefit of the best and latest coaching technique and methods. Action photographs of the individual girls have also been much used to avoid long and sometimes difficult explanations. Training equipment has been largely improvised, but it is hoped that with the end of the war it will be possible to obtain some of the splendid equipment that is of such help in training. WORTHY OBJECTIVE. The main idea behind the scheme is not to produce champions, but to give all the. girls the opportunity to reach a standard which will enable them to obtain the maximum physical enjoyment and recreation from the one game that'they will have the opportunity of playing wherever they are for the rest of their lives. It is true that champions might be produced, but this is incidental to the scheme. It is hoped that this scheme is the beginning of a wider scheme which will cover the whole of New Zealand and the founders of the scheme feel that the friendships and understanding which arise from the respect engendered through sport can play their part in helping the understanding, both national and international, that is so essential to the new world to which all were looking. Considerable help has been provided by some of the legations and consulates, which are endeavouring to obtain the most up-to-date action photographs, film strips, and 16 mm. instructional films. In a letter received this week, Mr. S. C Summerfield, junior tennis coach of the U.S.A.L.T.A. states: "I have just taken some threedimensional stills (coloured) slides for polarised projection of Bill Tilden at a junior clinic." ... To take her proper place m international sport, New Zealand must have modern coaching techniques, modern playing equipment, and modern court surfaces. In particular, New Zealand lags in her court surfaces, and porous courts which today are being used as the standard surface overseas are unknown in the Dominion. The clinic is a step in the right direction, and the move should expand widely and gain official recognition. Meanwhile, those interested are extending the modern idea to ,Karori School and St. Mary's Home, for which any offers of gear would be greatly welcomed.