Locals get tennis lessons from ITA coaches
Locals get tennis lessons from ITA coaches
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Two American tennis coaches are seeking to help develop
Indonesian tennis as they began a series of coaching clinics here
on Monday
The clinics are being organized by the country's tennis
governing body, Pelti.
Scott Del Mastro and Paul Sindhunata, both from the Florida-
based International Tennis Academy (ITA), said that the ITA was
trying to establish a relationship that would enable it to impart
the techniques behind high performance tennis.
"I think that sports are changing. Tennis is becoming powerful
and needs physical toughness. By coming here, we hope that Pelti
can expose the coaches to what's going on around the world," Del
Mastro told The Jakarta Post after a coaching session at the
Cilandak Sports Center in South Jakarta on Sunday.
The traveling coaches had been in Cilandak, where they made a
presentation to the Gunawan Fun Tennis Club over two days prior
to their workout with Pelti.
Their Gunawan workshop involved four local coaches and eight
teenage players aged between 8 and 13.
Del Mastro, who is the director of Sports Science at ITA, said
that ITA was also looking to create links with the Indonesian
tennis community, which would possibly pave the way for
Indonesian players to set up a training camp in ITA campus.
"I have heard that there are not many tennis tournaments here.
If the players want to improve their performance, they will have
to go outside Indonesia and play in as many tournaments as
possible," he said.
"I really do want to promote Indonesian tennis," he added.
ITA, which was established six years ago, is based in Delray
Beach, Florida. A few tennis stars once trained there, including
Andy Rodick and Monica Seles.
Sindhunata, who used to be an Indonesian junior player during
his teenage years before emigrating to the U.S., said that they
were offering high performance fitness to the national coaches.
"That's the theme for the coaching workshop. We have gone to
Russia, France and many other places to make our presentation
about fitness knowledge.
"Hopefully, they (Indonesian coaches) will pick something up
which will be good for them," he said.
When they complete their presentation in Jakarta, they will
bring their coaching clinic to Surabaya, East Java, and Magelang,
Central Java, for two days each.
Speaking further about Indonesia's problems with tennis
development, Sindhunata emphasized the need for educated coaches,
a prerequisite that would require a lot of money.
"There are some differences between the U.S. and Indonesia.
The biggest difference is money. Maybe there's not enough money
in the federation.
"The United States spends US$9 million a year on educating
coaches and holding tournaments for players," he said. He
mentioned a few Indonesian coaches whom he said were skilled but
had not had as much opportunity to upgrade their coaching
knowledge as the American counterparts did.