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.