Tournaments

Tournaments - a new addition to our Coaching Program

Chapman Tennis Coaching is excited to inform you that we are adding two tournaments per term to our coaching program. We hope that this additional experience will allow students to encounter tournament gameplay in a safe, fun environment run by people they know. The tournaments will be a great opportunity for both our younger players and those players already involved in competition tennis.

We believe that this enhancement to our program will:

  • Give players and opportunity to learn about competing, about adversity and mental strength by playing against others outside the lesson environment.

  • Help students meet new people and make new friends through the social format we run

  • Introduce younger players to competitive tennis in a familiar setting where they can learn about competing, what it means to try your best and that effort is more important than the outcome

  • Help students already playing competition to gain confidence to venture out from the Gisborne tennis club and play tournaments in different areas

  • Give student the opportunity to develop skills around winning and losing that are not just for tennis, but for other sports or other things they might like to do in the future

We believe that students learn best through a combination of lessons, practice and challenging themselves in a competitive environment. Lessons help us improve our skills but playing matches lets us learn about the mental side of them game and how we deal with adversity and even about playing from a position of strength. We also learn a lot more about our own game and the areas we need to improve.

How will the tournament work?

There will be one tournament roughly in the middle of the term and one towards the end of the term. Tournaments days will be on weekends and the dates will be sent out at the start of each term with a flyer about the day and what time it will be played.

The tournaments will be a round-robin format where players are put into groups and play against every player in that group. Our coaching staff will ensure that students are competing against players of similar level.

A key focus will be recognising the value of just playing and learning, rather than winning. We will support this idea through the presentation of awards aligned with this; essentially awards based on behavior for effort.

Here are some of the awards we will be giving out:

  • Court Warrior: Defined by their never-give-up attitude. They will always give 100% regardless of the scoreline or situation

  • Sportsperson: Awarded to the player who demonstrates the greatest fairness and respect for the sport and their opponents

How will we implement this change?

In the past, we have sent flyers and emails out to let students know about tournaments, asked students for interest and collected associated fees separate to lesson invoices. This year, we will streamline the process by automatically enrolling all students attending lessons in Term 1 into the two tournaments. This means that your invoice for Term 1 will have an additional $40 fee covering both tournaments; actual lesson fees will not change. We hope that this process reduces the burden upon students and parents to stay on top of emails about upcoming tournaments and making contact to enter.

Students/Parents can opt-out of this arrangement by contacting us and we will re-issue your invoice for lessons only.