For more than 15 years now, the international tennis & sports camp has been welcoming children and teenagers wishing to improve their tennis.
If many come back in this tennis camp year after year ( 47 % of returning campers in 2007), it must be because they like playing tennis in the spirit of american tennis camps.
Tennis includes many elements which cannot be outlined and must appear in a training program for modern players.
In the International Tennis & Sports camp our tennis sessions are centered on those dominant points and all this being done under the blue sky of the Alpes de Haute Provence.
AUTONOMY:
• In a match, nobody will be there to hold a player’s racket in order to win points. It is a fact and you have to practice this autonomy.
- We teach players to warm up, practice, manage the moments before the match, the match, the after-match and to make an assessment in order to determine future tennis practice sessions and to learn how to manage “his or her tennis”.
POINT WINNING:
• Only winning points make the score evolve and only by winning points can you pretend to win games, sets and matches.
All practices, tactical or technical follow this goal: Building strong strokes in order to open yourself to more possibilities in a match. Drills are the same ones used in US tennis camps and wherein each stroke we are aiming to win the point . Campers appreciate those methods sometimes unique in France (Playmate).
RULES OF THE GAME:
• In tennis, the system for counting points makes it that a victory is never acquired before the end of the match point. A match is finished once you’ve shaken the hand of your opponent, never before
We learn to play point after point avoiding the score to dig into concentration during the match. In tennis, the game always wins on what is at stake.
NO DRAW:
• Tennis has this particularity that a winner is necessary. At all levels, when you shake your opponent’s hand, there is a winner and a defeated. At Roland Garros, only 1 in 128 players will not know defeat.
Our program teaches players to feel after a match the senseation that they have given their maximum. The acquisition of this “competitive spirit” during a match is one of our priorities.
A RESPECT OF ONE`S OWN STYLE:
• A respect of one’s own style : Modern tennis shows it to us, particularities are welcome, however technical or morphological. Roger Federer or Venus Williams demonstrate those winning particularities everyday.
Our professionnals are trained in respecting the particularities of each player, the most important thing being the efficiency of one’s style and means.
TENNIS IS A PHYSICAL SPORT:
• A good technique not “carried” by a strong body will not be fully efficient.
• In the Val d’Allos, physical preparation is first and foremost aimed to protect yourself from injuries, which is why a large part is used for warm up and muscular consolidation .Physical training is then completed for the improvement of your game and the consolidation of your strokes.
POSITIVE ATTITUDE:
• “to learn how to give your best” is our motto, and what will be evaluated and valued. Nothing is more pleasant for a coach than to see that his students have carried out a good session and that they have given their best.
It is towards this attitude that coaches encourage their students.
