Celebrating diversity
Celebrating diversity across continents: Minnesota to Nigeria
by Tom Ford and Mike Vidmar, USPTA
USPTA Tennis Professional Abdul Idi, certified in 1993, has worked as a full-time tennis professional at Reed-Sweatt Family Tennis Center in Minneapolis since 1998. A native of Nigeria, Idi grew up in the small town of Wukari, which is in the state of Taraba in northern Nigeria. He was a soccer, badminton, and pingpong player as a kid - that is until the local tennis coach, Dauda Mamman, who is now director of sports for Taraba, convinced Idi to try tennis at age 13. There were only two courts in Wukari, but the government subsidized sports coaches.
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Ask the professor
The evidence is in: Exercise your brain for mental fitness
Question: I recently was fascinated to read how playing tennis affects the brain. To me, this is yet another incredible reason to get people to our facilities and on our tennis courts. Would you please go into more detail?
Answer: I, too, have been fascinated by what the scientific community is discovering about the effects of exercise, interval training, and, in some specific cases, tennis, on the brain. This column will concern itself with exercise in general and will then introduce some tennis-specific research, while my next column will deal solely with research observations on why tennis more
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Add Little Tennis and QuickStart to junior events for best fit
by Bunny Bruning, USPTA
I have been using a graduated-play system to teach children at my club for more than 25 years. Many of my former students who played college tennis and currently play as adults began this game using little racquets, nets and courts.
USPTA Little Tennis® has been an industry standard for more than 15 years. more
Observing an opponent: 10 ways to improve a player’s game
by Kim Bastable, USPTA
How do you know when your student is becoming more than a beginner? The universal tip-off is when a player begins to think more about an opponent than his or her own game.
And, by analyzing an opponent, the player will learn tons of information that can be used against that opponent in competition.
Here are 10 tips to remind your players to put this good information to work. more
Growing tennis in the desert
by Luis Miguel Reis, USPTA Professional, UAE
I was born in Maputo, Mozambique, which is located on the East Coast of Africa. My mother is a former Olympic swimmer, having represented Portugal in the 1960 games in Rome, and my father is a former semiprofessional football player (soccer in the United States). Mozambique is a former colony of Portugal, which gained independence in 1975. more
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Blando and sons: ‘Reaching for the stars’ – doubles style, by Jill Phipps, USPTA staff writer
Blando has instructed his 8-year-old fraternal twins, Michael and Jayson, on and off the tennis court since they were in diapers. When they were 18 months old he began teaching them how to hold racquetball paddles and let them swat at balloons and soap bubbles.
2010 USPTA Clay Court Championships
The Clay Court Championships are the second tournament in the United States Professional Tennis Association's 2010 National Surface Championship Series, which offers its members the chance to earn prize money and ranking points.
Promote your programs with Tennis Across America™
May 8 marks the 21st annual Tennis Across America and we invite you to join the celebration as we combine Tennis Across America and Tennis - for the health of it!??SM to spread the message that tennis is a great way to get healthy, stay fit and have fun. Download poster
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