Poynton passes 100 regularly competing juniors

Congratulations to Poynton Sports Club Tennis Section and Mike Atherfold their Head Coach, for becoming the first club in Cheshire to pass through the 100 regularly competing juniors milestone.

Efforts to provide juniors in the club with the opportunity to compete on a regular basis have paid dividends for Mike and Poynton Sports Club volunteers.

The club made the commitment to achieve Tennis Clubmark accreditation last year. Mike was able to commit more time to the coaching programme and the club achieved Tennis Clubmark in October 2009. At that time the club had only 7 juniors who had recorded 6 competitive matches over a 12 month period.

The club has developed a number of school links, increased the number of activities on offer and has significantly increased the number of participants and club members. A commitment was also made to create a competition ‘culture’ at the club. All junior members are strongly encouraged to become British Tennis Members that provides them with their ‘passport’ to compete.

More internal competition has been scheduled into the coaching programme along with additional matchplay sessions/events. All matches are captured and submitted on a regular basis to the County Office.

Mike has recognised the benefits of competition at Poynton: “It has helped to capture and retain more juniors at the club and having more competitive opportunities has helped to get more members from the coaching programme. We have provided a lot of competition for the mini players and they are checking on the internet to see their ratings improve. We are also involved in team tennis and have more competitive players to field teams.”