Tennis Jamaica, the governing body for conducting the sport of tennis in Jamaica, is hosting a major coaching certification course in collaboration with the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

This Level One course started last Friday and runs through to November 6, 2018 at Tennis Jamaica’s headquarters — The Eric Bell Tennis Centre — and instructed by Regional ITF Director John Goede and highly qualified Coach Evan Williams.

According to President of Tennis Jamaica Aswad Morgan, “Tennis Jamaica has a clear mandate to develop the sport of tennis in all areas. If our coaches are not upgraded through certification at the highest level, our players will not develop at the world-class levels we aim to achieve. Our coaches are a key part of this development mix and we will continue facilitate high-level instructive courses to increase our knowledge capacity.

“We are confident that our coaches will be much further ahead with the new modern teaching methods and techniques being employed in the game,” Morgan added.

John Goede, a Suriname national, has been involved in the sport of tennis for some 35 years. He has served in various capacities at the ITF and is now the regional director for the Caribbean.

“I am pleased to be here working with Tennis Jamaica to significantly lift the standards of coaching in Jamaica, and better empower our coaches,” said Goede.

The intense course will cover areas such as:

1 Coaching the coaches to teach beginners tennis players of all ages

2 Developing tennis lesson plans to both teach and coach players

3 Working on group and individual athlete’s tennis development

4 Adding more quality tournament formats and systems in play for the various tennis levels

Tennis Jamaica hopes to continue with further coaching development programmes in 2019 and will work to increase the level of its coaches both in national training and, as well as in international experiences with team travel and training camps.