Stories & Articles
U19
Victoria Pizzey Cup Team
(June 2009)
Healesville’s Rebecca Jeffery (15) was selected
by the Secondary School Sports Association to represent Victoria in
the Under 19 Tennis Team to compete in the annual interstate Pizzey
Cup Competition. Players were selected from a series of elimination
trials held between February and early April this year to join the
team of 8 girls and 8 boys.
The Pizzey Cup was held in Hobart from 3rd to 8th May where the Victorian team finished second to NSW. Three coaches accompanied the team.
At the moment Rebecca has an Australian Open Ranking of 355. She has earned points from tournaments around Australia with her favourite destination so far being Cairns, where she competed twice. Rebecca has also played in Adelaide, Launceston, Canberra and numerous events within Victoria.
Rebecca’s friends and family are pleased she made the team and Rebecca is very keen to represent Victoria again next year.
Well done Rebecca and Good Luck for future tournaments! v
HTC Ladies
Round Robin – Mon 16 March 2009
by
Thirty Three ladies joined together to play our
3rd annual round robin hosted by the Healesville Mid-Week Ladies.
Don Road courts also had to be utilized as Courts 3 & 4 were being
upgraded. Fundraising primarily for contributing to the expense of
Courts 3 & 4 resurfacing, however since the devastating bushfires
one month previous,$100 was donated to the Victorian Red Cross
Bushfire Appeal.
New Coach Wayne Broom and father Maurice volunteered as tournament directors and did a marvellous job juggling our 2 campuses and evenly shared all 8 courts.
The weather was pleasantly overcast but perfect conditions. Ladies came from as far as Point Cook (Peggy) & Churchill (Jane – Wendy Anderson’s daughter). Di Moore presented Sylvia from North Ringwood with the winner’s trophy and Healesville’s Janet Flamsteed with runner-up trophy. Top scoring Veteran again was our Sister Joan! (McKenna).
Catering magnificently provided by our 25 mid-week ladies. The Kitchen team of Glenys, Heather & her mum Claire (past member) did brilliantly. Tupperware manned an elaborate table $25 commission to HTC with a further $50 direct to Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal. The Seeing Eye Dog group visited with 3 seeing-eye dogs in training and set up a merchandise table. They seek social opportunities to present their organization and were invited to be part of our special day, to show how grateful we need to be for our sight to play tennis.
We did not seek specific sponsorship for this event this year due to the generosity of local businesses supporting bushfire appeals. Though, the Shire of Yarra Ranges, through our Councillor Jeanette McRae, again sponsored our balls & trophies.
First Aide was offered by Nursing Sister Sharon Matthews, who also was able to play as it was her day off.
Thanks to all for a great team effort!
Kathy Cameron
Round Robin Co-ordinator
v
Junior Winter Comp Ends
with a Zap
by
The overcast skies of an early September morning, made it difficult
for the unsuspecting members of the “Caps” unit to make out the
heavily camouflaged “Bucket Hats” into whose skilfully laid trap
they had just stumbled. In silence and with little more than a
subtle movement of his eyebrow, Sergeant Gillett readied his keen
but inexperienced troop for his imminent command. Seconds later
Gillett’s blood curdling roar of “Open fire!” announced a barrage of
deadly laser fire from the 17 members of his Healesville Tennis Club
Juniors platoon….. Another victory for the Healesville mob!!.jpg)
Well, not quite how things happened, but the results were much the
same with the “Bucket Hats” winning all but one encounter and
drawing with the “Caps” in the other. The boys didn’t require any
encouragement to get involved, while the girls were just as keen to
fix the opposition in their sights. The four dads that accompanied
Vince, may have moved a little slower, but more than held their own
in the four twenty minute “engagements”. The day was culminated with
the convincing capture of the “Cap’s” flag due to some particularly
daring work by our leading warriors.
As we returned our gear and washed off our camouflage paint together, all agreed that we’d had a fun morning and taken part in some valuable team building. v
Future
Leaders Camp
by Lauren Hart
The Future Leader's Camp at Anglesea was a fulfilling, fun and great
place to meet people my age with the same passion for tennis. For
those of you who don't know, my name is Lauren Hart, and I was lucky
enough to be selected from our club to represent Healesville at the
camp on the 30th of June to the 2nd of July. 
There was no time to rest. As soon as we got there, we were doing
activities straight away. First of all, we had to get to know each
other through team building and 'getting to know each other'
activities.
The two coaches at the camp, showed us some different techniques on how to coach a tennis class and the most suitable technique depending on the situation and personality of the kids in the lesson. There were plenty of fitness activities along the way which were fun as well.
The following day, we began to focus a little more on club projects.
First we were given a mock club and asked to identify how we could
improve it. Then we worked on the project we were planning for a our
own club.
The camp was shared by a few other groups, one of them being ‘Noah's
Ark’, which looks after young people with Down Syndrome and other
disabilities. On the Tuesday night, we were spilt into groups with
them and played games which fell back onto the 'team building'
initiative. I found this especially fun and rewarding, and I hope
they did too.
On Wednesday, we did a canoeing challenge in which we had to pick up
clues and perform a specific task to find the next clue.
I will be helping out on Open Day for those of you interested in
coming along.
v
String Tension—Power v Control
by Jimmy McGinnis (July 2008)
How does string tension affect your game?
Generally speaking,
lower tensions provide more power and
tighter tensions provide more
control.
Lower tension (looser strings) absorb the ball in a trampoline effect, giving you more power with less effort. Lower tension provides a softer springbed with a larger sweetspot, making it a good choice for beginners and those with arm injuries. The lower the tension the longer the ball stays on the strings, so any movement of the racquet position can change the path of the ball, causing less control.
Higher tension (tighter strings) has less deflection, giving you more control but needing more effort to generate power in your shots. Because the ball bites on the strings it can give you more spin. Tighter strings are often preferred by advanced players who want better control and are able to use their advanced stroke and aggressive action to compensate for any loss of power from the tighter strings.
The tension you choose will vary from person to person and depends on many things, including the racquet, string type, and the way you play. It is recommended that social players replace their strings at least annually. Old strings can loose their zing and bight. New strings will give you a fresh and sharper feel to your game.
Restringing is now available in
Healesville.
Contact Jimmy on 5962 5824.