Courtside News – August 2024

Welcome to the August edition of Courtside News. In this edition we will share what has occurred over the past 2 months and what is coming up.

Interclub

Survey Results

Please see below for a summary of the survey we conducted. As there were open questions, we did receive a very wide range of answers over numerous topics so it’s difficult to summarise and report back on everything. What we have done is select the top three responses from each of the questions asked. On some questions we received hundreds of different answers. We had almost an exact 50/50 between male and female respondents and we had replies from every club except one

What are we doing well:

1. Communication.
2. Love Tennis.
3. Supporting mid-week ladies.

What should we continue to do:

1. Good communication.
2. Keep costs down.
3. Consultation with clubs.

What should we stop doing:

1. Allowing players to play for multiple clubs. (New rules minimise the number of times (3) a player can play for another club)
2. Using Forrest Hill with inappropriate facilities. (New and much bigger and better toilets will be in place for the new season and will be cleaned every night before interclub)
3. Scheduling interclub at ATP courts with poor lights. (ATP now has LEDs on 50% of all courts)

What can we do better:

1. Better weekend tennis as mixed takes too long. (The second deuce sudden death will help achieve this)
2. Improve lighting at both facilities. (All courts at FH now are LED and half the courts at ATP have them with the goal to have all LEDs
3. Make Saturday teams smaller
4. More interclub/more rounds.(We need more courts to achieve this)

Ideas:

1. Shorten matches with sudden death deuce and 3rd set super compulsory.(Happening with second deuce sudden death)
2. Organise Friday night competition with mixed teams and clubs. (Fab 4 coming your way)
3. More social tennis to rotate around clubs. (This is really something clubs need to organise)

Summary of Rule Changes

• Any contest that is not played on the scheduled date, due to weather or otherwise by mutually agreed circumstances, will not be rescheduled. Each team will be allocated points based on the average number of points earned from played contests over the season.
• All doubles matches will be played where the second deuce Is sudden death. This Includes doubles matches in the singles competition and mixed doubles. In mixed it must female to female for the second deuce which is sudden death. (as per ITF rules)
• Players may reserve for their own club teams unlimited times for any team (except in their own grade) in the club they are a member of, provided they have a ranking that complies with the reserve band for that grade.
• Players can reserve a maximum of 3 times per season for another club in a grade other than their own.
• A player injured during a match who is unable to continue may be replaced for the following match, providing they meet the appropriate reserve band. They can only play in the position of the injured player. The player must be available 15 minutes from the start time of the next match.
• The winning captain, or team member (see 14d) of any contest must enter the results in Match Hub on the TNR website within 14 days of the contest being completed. If no result is entered, neither team will receive any points.
• Complaints or reports on breaches of these rules are to be made by Clubs (Club Captain, President or approved Interclub club contact person), in writing or by email, to the TNR Interclub Manager TNR office, within 14 days of the score being entered into MatchHub. These can only be made against the team you have played. Complaints received after the 14 days will not be considered.
• All juniors need to be at least 15 years of age at the time of entry to play senior interclub. The date of 31st December has been removed.
• Please, please, please make sure your team plays in the order that it is listed (submitted). This is the most common breach we have to deal with.

Coach Development

We are delighted to announce that we are hosting a coaching assistant course this month and another Development coach course starting in October. See below for more details.

Coaching Assistant Course

Recommended for: Players, interested parents and coaching assistants aged 15 years and older. This course is designed for people who intend to assist a head coaching delivering to beginner players or for volunteers delivering tennis in rural/remote areas. This course is a continuation from the Coaching Fundaments short course, covering teaching basic technique and applying key aspects of coaching of practical situations. The course enables coaches to deliver lessons to beginner players at Blue, Red, Orange and Green stages and covers working with beginner adults. Attendees will also learn how to run a Hot Shots Match Play Event (tournament) for 10 and under players.

Venue: Albany Tennis Park, Auckland

Fee: $300 inc gst ($200 if the assistant coach works with a Tennis NZ Programmes Registered coach)

Dates:

• Webinar 1: Wednesday 14th August | 5:00 – 7:00p
• Webinar 2: Wednesday 21st August| 5:00 – 7:00pm
• In-person day 1: Sunday 25th August | 9:00am – 4:00pm
• In-person day 2: Sunday 1st September | 9:00am – 4:00pm

More information here.

Development Course (ITF Level 1). This is an internationally recognised coaching qualification.

Recommended for: Experienced players and coaching assistants 17 years and older.

Venue: Albany Tennis Park, Auckland

Fee: $1,900 inc gst

Dates: New Friday (8:30am – 2:30pm) / Saturday (10am – 6pm) delivery format

• Friday 25th October & Saturday 26th October
• Friday 8th November & Saturday 9th November
• Friday 6th December & Saturday 7th December
• Friday 14th February & Saturday 15th February
• Friday 7th March & Saturday 8th March
• Friday 4th April & Saturday 5th April
• Friday 9th May & Saturday 10th May

More information here.

Click here to view the Tennis NZ National Coach Development calendar where you can find more information on the courses and register online.

Please circulate this information to anyone in your club

Committees

The Tennis Northern Region (TNR) Board bi-annually reviews its various committees (including Terms of References) and policies to ensure that we are following best practice and operate in line with other Regional Sports Organisations. The outcome of the review is that the Judiciary, Honours, Facilities and Audit & Risk committees will remain in place.

The TNR Board agreed to disestablish the Interclub Committee and in its place establish an Advisory Group. The rationale being that as a Regional Sports Organisation, TNR should have control of its own competitions, interclub, events and programmes but it is also critical that there is a pathway in place for consultation with, and feedback from, our tennis community.

The Advisory Panel will have a broader remit than the Interclub Committee with its key objective being to provide open and honest feedback from the community on how TNR is meeting our mission of “More People playing More Tennis More Often and delivering on our Strategic Plan 2023-2027.

The Advisory Group will also provide feedback on junior tennis, tournaments, senior and junior interclub, interclub rules and regulations, policies, and club feedback on any other matter relevant to our sport. We will shortly be inviting each TNR affiliated club to nominate a representative for the Advisory Group. They do not have to be presidents, club or team captains, committee members or an interclub player. We welcome divergent views so ask for participation from our junior players (parent or older teen) and from our ethnic communities. As long as club nominations are involved with tennis in some way, shape or form, we want to hear your voice.

For the 2024/25 interclub season, the following complaints process will be in place:

• Complaints or reports on breaches of interclub rules are to be made by Clubs (Club Captain, President or approved Interclub club contact person), in writing or by email, to the TNR Interclub Manager TNR office, within 14 days of the score being entered into Match Hub. These can only be made against the team you have played. Complaints received after the 14 days will not be considered.
• If a club is unhappy with the decision from the TNR Interclub Manager, it will be able to appeal to the newly established Interclub Appeals Panel. This Panel comprises three independents: two TNR employees (Coach Development Manager and Academy Director) and one TNZ employee (Club Support Manager). All three panelists have experience with the application of rules and regulations and have no club affiliation. This will ensure that appeals are ruled on by a group of independents who have professional experience in this area.
• The Judiciary Committee remains as the next level of appeal.

TNR would like to sincerely thank the many club members who have been on the Interclub Committee over the years and given their time. We look forward to working with a broader cross-section of our community through the Advisory Panel and continuing to grow the game we love in the TNR region.

Clubspark

Tennis Northern has recently moved to ClubSpark for all court and coaching programme bookings at both Albany Tennis Park and Forrest Hill Tennis Centre. ClubSpark provides an easy to use online booking system and can be accessed through our websites

Hot Shot Competitions

Friendly, fun, age and stage appropriate competition is really important for all players. Albany Tennis Park holds regular Hot Shots competitions for players in red, orange and green stages (approx. age range 6 –12 years.) These events are held over a couple of hours where players play lots of short matches against lots of different players. We have two Hot Shots Competitions in September.

US Open Themed Competition – Sunday 1 September

Tennis Northern Regional Competition – Sunday 29 September

Tennis Northern Region Advisory Group

Introduction

Tennis Northern (TNR) oversees all things tennis in the Northern region. Geographically we stretch from Mahurangi in the north to Devonport in the south and as far west as Helensville and Waimauku. With 26 clubs and over 6,000 registered players we have a diverse membership.

TNR wants to ensure it engages regularly with this group to make sure we are in touch with our membership and meeting the needs of players and clubs. To achieve this, an Advisory Group will be established. All clubs will be invited to participate and ideally there will be representation from every club.

We are seeking anyone involved with tennis who is prepared to meet a minimum of twice per year and provide feedback on what is happening in the tennis community. This will include but is not restricted to organized social tennis that clubs provide, club health, interclub, tournaments and anything else relevant to our sport.

Tennis Northern Region Annual General Meeting

Reminder that the 2024 AGM will be held on Wednesday 11th September at 07:00pm at the Albany Tennis Park.