By Tamica Garnett
The Guyana Lawn Tennis Association (GLTA) in collaboration with P&P Insurance Brokers will be hosting its sixth annual P&P Tennis Camp at the courts of the Pegasus Hotel from July 12.
The camp is a part of the association’s ongoing efforts to draw the younger generation into the sport, and will run for two weeks.
The GLTA already has a programme integrated in the school system and has just completed their annual Inter-School Mini-Tennis Competition for primary schools.
At the camp, which is open to participants between the ages of 6 – 18, participants will go through daily training sessions where they will be taught to play tennis, and those already skilled in the sport are given the opportunity to improve on their game.
The sessions are expected to be guided by five coaches.
The camp will run daily from 8:00hrs – 16:00rs and will feature three categories – beginner’s; intermediate and advanced.
Coordinator of the event, Shelly Daly-Ramdyhan speaking to Stabroek Sport stated that while the camp is open to everyone, it would cater for approximately 100 children.
Ramdyhan said that although the camp was being kept small because of the limited number of coaches and the size of the facilities, the primary reason for the restricted number of attendees was to keep the camp personalized. Ramdyhan admitted that while an increased number of attendees would be good it would defeat the purpose if quality was sacrificed for quantity.
“We stop off at about a hundred, last year. We had about 80 something kids and the largest amount we’ve ever had was 103 and that was back in 2005. We try to stay within a limit so that each child can have the attention that they need,” Ramdyhan stated.
“If we had more coaches available we would’ve been able to extend it more because quantity is good but we need to look at the quality as well,” she added.
Moreover in pursuit of further improvement Ramdyhan explained that while the camp will feature its customary three categories, this year training sessions for the various categories will run consecutively instead of concurrently, as was the norm.
The beginner’s session will be held for two hours from 8:00hrs – 11:00hrs and this will immediately be followed by the intermediate session from 11:00 hrs – 13:00 hrs and then there will be the advance session from 13:00 hrs – 16:00 hrs.
Ramdyhan declared that one of the best things about the programme was
That one of the conditions under which the proprietor of P&P Insurance Brokers, Bish Panday, offered to sponsor the event was that there would be follow-up activities for the youngsters.
Ramdyhan explained that this summer programme, as well as the primary school programmes, was just the introductory stage for the GLTA to identify those with the talent as from that point the players will be taken into the regular training sessions that are conducted.
Ramdyhan also noted that over the years this programme has been the starting point for some of the top junior players in Guyana.
“Over the years it’s been like an introduction, it is a progressive programme. This along with the mini-tennis programme, these are two of the programmes that have been introductory programmes for the GLTA. Some of the top juniors who have represented Guyana, and will continue to represent Guyana, have come out of these programmes,” Ramdyhan added.
