I visited Justine Henin's new club in Limelette recently and just loved the facility and the concept. Justine bought an existing club on the outskirts of Brussels a few years ago and has spent a lot of time and money developing the clubhouse and the courts before officially opening it last December.
What I like about this place is that her 6th Sense Academy is part of the Justine N1 (if you pronounce ‘N’ and then ‘un’ - French for ‘one’ - it sounds like Henin) club so there is a good core club programme for kids, adults and teams and social events, as well as the high performance arm. In my opinion this is exactly the way it should work.
By being members of a club, kids have a sense of belonging. They have club teams to aim for and be a part of and they have a huge pool of sparring partners, young and old! They are surrounded by club members of all ages and levels - there are teams, mini leagues, camps and competitions all under the one roof. Perfect!
Of course it helps to have 6 indoor hard courts, 3 covered red clay and 5 outdoor red clay courts. They also have a team of coaches of different nationalities, bringing ideas from other countries, all working together to create a top quality club programme. And they don’t just work in the one club; the coaches go out to 2 clubs in the local area and run the coaching programmes there as well, so all the kids are getting consistent direction. It also means that Justine's club has access to additional courts at other venues should they require them.
The membership scheme was very reasonable and worked in two blocks. This means that players can join for the winter months (October to March) if their own club has no indoor facilities, and revert to their own club for the summer if they wish.
At the moment there are 500 kids in the club programme and they are looking for about 20 young players to start in the full-time academy programme from September. There's a trial weekend happening mid-June, run by Carlos Rodriguez who has been Justine’s coach since she was about 13.
They are open to players wishing to train for a week, a month or longer and to groups of players. Currently they are remodelling some of the squash courts into a physio room and fitness suites. There's also a classroom.
Justine’s club is really easy to get to; a flight to Brussels and a 20 minute taxi ride. Novotel and Hotel Leonardo’s are located close to the club.
More information on Henin's club