ONE FOR THE ALBUM: Participants of the Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) Tennis 10s programme posing for a photo call yesterday.
KUCHING: The third edition of the Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia (LTAM) Tennis 10s programme ended successfully yesterday.
A total of 41 trainee teachers from the Teachers Education Institute of the Tun Abdul Razak Campus (IPGKTAR), Kota Samarahan participated in the three-day programme held at the SLTA tennis centre.
The objective of the programme was to give the trainee teachers a basic knowledge of coaching youngsters under the age of 10.
LTAM development officer Taisto Sikkonen, who conducted the programme, expressed satisfaction with the response to the programme.
“What we basically do in this programme is to introduce tennis to young kids and let them have a choice of taking up what sport they want,” he explained.
According to him, Sarawak is the most active tennis-playing state in the country with one of the best facilities in Malaysia.
The programme is a part of IPGKTAR’s co-curriculum activities.
Mohammad Fadzizul Ismail, chairman of the IPGKTAR Tennis Club, revealed that the participants would automatically become members of the club.
“I think I’ll start to play tennis more seriously now but what is most important is that I can teach the younger generation the basics about the game. It was fun,” said Macveelovea Lingga, who was one of the trainee teachers.
Tennis 10s programme is adapted from the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF)’s `Play and Stay’ programme which has been successful in the US, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Australia, China, Japan and South Korea.
To make it easier and fun to learn tennis, the `Play and Stay Programme’ used a modified scoring system, balls with lower compression, smaller rackets and smaller courts.