The first ever-National Camp for girls at the Accra Sports Stadium, Accra-Ghana was a visual treat in action.
It was a laudable initiative by IPMC, Ghana’s leading IT company and the GTF (Ghana Tennis Federation) to give a rostrum to the sporting talent housed in our country.
To make this clinic a truly holistic one various workshops like Ebola and cholera prevention, personal hygiene, yoga and meditation, first aid and adolescent health education were conducted in its six-day course.
It was a reverie like week, that brought a new spur of hope for over sixty budding female tennis players from various regions of Ghana, educating them on life skills concomitantly.
At the opening ceremony, Sanam Hari, General Manager of IPMC, addressed the nattily attired athletes in their tennis gear. Blitzed with questions from a host of eager voices from the media, he was humble enough to transverse the spectrum of media attention from IPMC to the athletes, who he hailed as being the imperative foundation on which our society rests.
The crux of his address was to be prudent to mobilize more and more enterprises to pump capital into this sport.
The President of GTF, Justice Ernest Yao Obimpeh, also feted the ceremony, and his address motivated the girls to channelize their energy in the right direction. Emboldened with examples of the William sisters it was an inspiring and interactive speech.
This camp burgeoned beyond just the sport. It was an integrated program aimed at educating the girls. The yoga and meditation workshop made the players aware of the mental endurance needed to convert matches.
Top players follow a pre match ritual to prepare themselves psychologically before they unleash on court.
The players were taught how to manage their time between points, follow breathing routines, positive body language patterns so that they can consistently give each point their best.
A player needs to be ‘focused in mind and relaxed in the body.’ To achieve this state, the key is ‘being in the present’, not thinking about what happened on the previous point and not succumbing to the pressures of the future. As breathing is the only thing that always happens in the present, yoga was used to educate the girls on the simple breathing techniques that can give them a mental edge of ‘playing the score’ and being in the ‘now.’
A tournament in the round robin format, which negates win loss elimination, was played on the last day of the camp. This format was used so that each player got ample opportunity to play, introspect, improve and get better at what they had learned. To compete is the best way to learn and this tournament was a witness of the astute learners the girls were.
The camp painted a rich canvas, though it only dabbed at the bedrock of technical and tactical finesse that is needed to become a potent future in the sport. Not many observers of the sport understand what it takes to develop a player.
It’s a correlation of various components that come into play, most pertinent being technical, tactical, mental and physical in that ascend.
The coaches trained the players on the basics of tennis. The focus was to make tennis flow naturally from their racquets and that they glide swiftly on the court. It was a head start surely, but a lot of work needs to be done to walk the path this camp has etched.
These girls are inherently blessed with a good physique. The immanent swiftness the girls showed at the agility drills was proof enough that those legs herald a fresh revolution for the future of the sport in this nation.
Football being an anthem in Ghana is primarily a male dominated sport, hugely sponsored and immensely explored. On the contrary, tennis in our country ramps on an unprecedented terrain but surely seems to hold huge potential. A meld of talent, hard-work and extensive training by skilled coaches will make them a lethal amalgam, ready for the world circuit.
Workshops pivoted on Ebola and cholera prevention, personal hygiene, adolescent health education were to fortify them against catching any infections, draw awareness to the symptoms and most importantly to make them aware of their physiology and sketch the age related changes that occur.
The girls were also briefed on rape, domestic violence and abuse so that if they fall victim to any of these, rather than chastising themselves, they need to inform the concerned authorities or confide in a trust worthy elder. As a part of the camp they were taken to the Supreme Court, Parliament and the Police headquarters, and were made to interact with the eminent high achieving women of our society so that these aspiring champions have role models to look up to.
The camp was a new dawn for women’s tennis.
The coaches and GTF were fuelled to work towards sculpting world-class players. Routing finances through federations is often viewed as imperil. But, the enthusiasm and grit shown by the Secretary, Phillipina Frimpong, gave IPMC the confidence to go ahead with the initiative. Unlike the usual office bound functionaries of musty trusts, the staff of GTF and the coaches brought their experience together to make this camp an indelible one.
The head coach assisted by his team was adroit at managing the sixty enthusiastic girls brimming with energy, making them learn and enjoy at the same time.
It was truly commendable for IPMC and GTF to actually envision and chalk out a camp like this with precise goals.
We may be meandering not even close to the international sports scenario, but it is a sterling start. With consciousness drawn to take up the cause of the girl child enlivened by using tennis as a vehicle will inspire and motivate many to tread this course. Being an optimist, this is just the genesis.
