With summer and the tennis season approaching, we spoke with Brett McLennan, head coach at the LTA Regional Player Development Centre at Edgbaston Priory Club, to find out how the elite programme and facilities are producing some of the best young talent in the country
Edgbaston Priory Club is home to one of 15 Regional Player Development Centres (RPDC) in the UK – a selective performance-based programme that’s intense and drives success whatever that looks like. While the dream is to get every child to Wimbledon, it’s more rounded than that. For some players it might be preparing them for international competition at the highest level, helping them progress to the national academy in Loughborough or it might be winning a lucrative scholarship to a top tennis university in the US. Others might end up carving out a career in tennis outside of playing.
Assuming not all young tennis players ‘make it’, keeping them engaged with the sport for life is also a win. Brett compares tennis with the statistics for young football players. He says: “Only 0.013 per cent of kids become Premier League players and tennis is probably about the same.”
LONG LIST
Tennis is an early specialisation sport and there’s a team of national coaches in each region scouting players aged between seven and nine years. Some are then invited to regional camps. Once their name is added to the LTA National Longlist made up of approximately 250 children countrywide, they can register their interest with a RPDC and attend a type of open day and trial situation to check it’s right for them and the club.
The children at RPDC level are aged between 10 and 14, so the more local the better as managing school with intense training can be tricky, particularly if you throw in travelling time too. Brett says: “We draw mainly from the Midlands – certainly within driving distance. We have the Bush sisters (Leah and Tegan) who travel from Northampton which is probably the furthest distance. They’re currently representing GB.” It’s a demanding full-time programme every day before and after school with children looking at dropping non-core subjects to claw back more time for tennis, so it’s a huge commitment.
INNER DRIVE
The experience offered at Edgbaston Priory Club is rounded, so as well as four to five hours of strength and conditioning teamed with technical and tactical training, there’s also a dedicated mental skills programme. Learning how to use your mind and control emotions building inner drive and crucially, resilience is key.
Brett says: “There are high expectations. The system sells a dream very early in tennis. Everybody develops at a different rate, so kids can be the same age but biologically there might be two or three years difference.” By the time players move on from RPDC aged 14 they’re starting to mature physically and are developing adult bodies.
The RPDC is like a programme within a programme at Edgbaston. It’s LTA funded and sits within a broader pathway at the club. The home-grown performance element and academy is extensive with a number of promising juniors coming through the ranks. For instance, the club’s mini tennis programme is for aspirational players aged between six and 10 who have been invited to LTA regional tennis camps and are striving to make the LTA’s Longlist.
LEVELLING UP
Midlands tennis used to be the strongest region in the UK, but it’s recently slipped below the South East belt just outside London. Brett’s keen to change that and reclaim the top spot. He says it’s an eco-system and it will only happen if everyone plays their part in building the foundations and encouraging coaches to drive performance forward.
There’s no getting away that tennis is still perceived as a middle-class sport, so accessibility and inclusivity is also high on the agenda. Edgbaston Priory Club goes into a wide range of schools to encourage participation, and Brett says there are times when coaching can be as basic as setting up some tape down the middle of a netball court and encouraging 30 kids to just get excited about hitting a ball.
You never know who might be inspired to progress with the sport but as well as nurturing the next big stars, Brett wants youngsters to have a positive first experience of the sport and break down barriers.