Usk Tennis Blog

New Coaching Staff

It's been while! And the Coaching Team has grown!

A warm welcome to Kim Webb who has taken up a position of coach at the club. She is a fantastic player and her knowledge and experience of high level tennis will be invaluable to those on the programme who want to take their game to the next level.

Also joining us, are 9 tennis leaders - Jamie Hawke, Gary Hawke, Alex Webb, Harriet Barton, Emily Hawkins, Phil Stevens, Alex Head, Meurig Philips, Callum Mitchell. These are Usk juniors that have went on a 10 hour long course hosted at the club. They will mostly be helping out with junior coaching sessions providing assitantce to the coach as well as being good tennis rolemodels for the younger kids.

Rhys

Usk Junior Easter Tennis Camps

Easter camps have just finished and what an event it was. 9 Days, 49 hours and over 35 children over two weeks participated in the first camps since my appointment as head coach. The event was extremely successful and enjoyed by all. If you children missed out on this exciting event, don't worry, it'll be back for another term of mayhem in the summer!

Enjoy the pics (click to enlarge):

Mini Tennis Camp Kids and Assistants

Junior Tennis Camp Crew

Junior Tennis Camp Crew..... If left alone for 30 seconds

Awesome

Rhys

D Team Dive

I teach to the best of my abilities at Usk Tennis Club. I read around my chosen subject, attend conferences and regularly talk to other coaches to build up a knowledge base and get the best techniques and tactics for my players. However the maneuver I saw playing for the D team in the Dome on Friday wasn't even in the most hardcore textbooks.

It was a tense match against my previous club Firbank, and Mr. Nic Hughes was on his debut. The opposition were good players and were moving the Usk players around. Obviously fed up with being drop shotted several times, Mr. Hughes took exception to this and decided to take action. When the ball was dropped short again, I then observed a dive that could only be described as a 'Klinsmaan on hard court'.

It is needless to say who came out best in this encounter - man or hard court. Here is a picture of the aftermath:

The dome gets another victim. Dome 4, Usk 0.

Rhys

Junior Upstarts at mens night

It is well known that Usk mens night has a good standard of tennis. It is also a known fact that the average age of a participant is erm well, lets just say is quite a way into double figures :)

The average Usk men's tennis player

So it was great on Thursday 13th March when for the first time since my appointment at the club that the number of under 25's attending equalled the number over 25's! Not only that but the standard of hitting from the younger players was excellent.

A message to the young guys: Learn from the older guys, they got years on you
A message to the older guys: There's always veterans tennis .... :)

Rhys

Presentation Evening

Last night was the Usk presentation evening. It was a blinder. The food was great, venue was excellent and the company just awesome. But what else would you expect from welsh tennis club of the year?

For me the highlights were Alastair's gender bender get-up, Greenstreet's dancing and sleeping under the pink drapes in the Princess suite at the Burchell household (beats tennis room 2 hands down!)

Whilst watching and participating in the presentation it made me realise how lucky I am to have got the job and how proud I am to represent Usk. I just hope I can keep the standards high and help to continue the success of the best club in Wales.

Big thanks to Craig for organising the event and Burchy and Vicky for putting me up for the night.

Rhys

The Big Match

Ladies night is one of the more enjoyable nights for me as head coach, for several reasons.

These are:

Watching the Ladies develop their game (especially certain members of the Bronze squad who are improving into team players)
The fantastic selection of snacks and mulled wine available in the club house (of which I actively encourage all ladies to contribute to)
The fierce competition between the Ladies A team and the Ladies B team

Now the latter has always been under control to a certain extent. However, of late it has been boiling over a little. Why you ask? Well on Sunday its the big one. Bigger than City versus United and Wales vs England.

Its the A's versus the B's. Hawke's Champions versus Davies' Devils. This is the match to end all matches. Sunday 6pm, the Dome Cwmbran. Be there.

Guaranteed catfight.

Rhys 'Don King' Jones

P.S. Here's a pic from last year's encounter to whet your appetite

Ros Hawke (ladies A captain) on the left and Mandy Davies (ladies B captain) on the right

Usk Mini Tennis Tournament

Today the Monmouthshire Mini Tennis Team event was held at the club, and was a great success. Three teams competed in the mini orange category (Usk, Abergavenny and Crickhowell) and two in the mini green (Usk and Abergavenny).

Representing Usk in the Orange category where:

Jack Turner
Adam Holmes
Owen Vineall
Ffion Vineall

Representing Usk in the Green category where:

Amy Peacock
Thomas Davies
Evan Chambers
Matthew Hopes

The Usk players battled hard but eventually Abergavenny were the eventual winners in both orange and green categories. Congratulations Abergavenny!

Whilst the fierce rallies were being played on court the Kath, Jennie, Mandy, Caroline, Denise and Ros were keeping the spectators satisfied with a selection of refreshments. Ros "Hawk eye" Hawke and Kath "Firm but Fair" Badran were also on hand to umpire matches and give much needed support to some of the younger players who have just started learning the rules. A big thanks to all the ladies for helping out, in particular Mandy and Kath who put their singing careers on hold (postponed a gig at Wembley Stadium) to attend today.

Big thanks to the parents for bringing children to the event and cheering on the sideline. Unlike some other clubs in the Monmouthshire area, we managed to field two complete teams and gave your children the best possible tennis learning experience: competitive matches.

And last but not least to the players who gave it their all out on court! Well done guys, I'm proud of you!

Rhys

Prince Racket Sponsorship

The nice people at Prince have been generous enough to offer me sponsorship for the 2008 season. For all those who haven't heard of the company, their sponsored pro players include Maria Sharapova (Australian Open Champion 2008), Nikolay Davydenko (Ranked 4th in ATP Mens Rankings) and the Bryan Brothers (Ranked 1st in ATP Doubles Rankings).

Later this year, a racket demo day will be organised which will allow all members to try out all the latest rackets used by the pro's.

In the mean time check out www.princetennis.com

Rhys

After School Success!

This week marked the beginning of the Usk outreach programme where the club got out into the community and started promotions ahead of the start of the tennis season.

First on the list was Usk CV primary school, where I was scheduled to spend Monday and an Tuesday afternoon introducing pupils to the joys of the game. After a tiring two days, 140 children and several games of dodgeball later, I had lots of positive responses from both the children and parents many of whom have signed up to coaching at the club.

Year's 1 and 2 also invited to attend an after school club on a Friday. Expecting only 8 or so to turn up, I was surprised when 18 children were eagerly waiting coaching! Assisted by our very own Robert Williams, the session ran smoothly and enjoyment was had by all.

Awesome.

Rhys

P.S. Big thanks to all the staff at Usk primary for helping to organise the open days and collecting the forms for the after school clubs.

The Wonderful Weather of Usk

I've been at Usk for going on 3 months now and I'm enjoying my time here immensely. The people are great, pubs are plentiful and the tennis competitive. The only thing that is causing me a little problem at the moment is the supernatural phenomenon known as the Usk Weather - which is as about as predictable as a pack of Revels.

Indeed, I've been coaching in conditions where fog has been so thick you cannot see baseline to baseline, cold temperatures that would make polar bears wince and of late, the delights of flash flooding.

Here's a few pics of what greeted me when I turned up for work on Tuesday:

(Not pictured - large biblical boat with two of each animal)

And it doesn't look like improving for the next couple of days:

In light of this, could all members being coached in the next few days please bring their swimming costume and a pair of flippers in addtion to their rackets?

Cheers

Rhys