Dear Member,
Hope you’ve had a great week! Here’s all the latest news from Rackets Academy. Find out who our Players of the Week are and how our ladies got on in week 8 of the Larte Ladies League. We have results from week 9 of the Inter Club Ladies Doubles League and from our Green Ball Tournament last weekend. Check out our Rule and Tip of the Week from Coach Joseph and find out What’s New at the club. Don’t forget to sign up for the Red Ball Tournament tomorrow if you’ve not done so already and find out more about our Winter Break Kids Camp…Read on!
Players of the Week
This week’s Players of the Week go to Caroline Taine and Gertruud Boekel. Caroline and Gertruud won their match against JBH last week following a fantastic game which secured them as winners of the ILDL Ladies Doubles League! Congratulations to you both!
What’s New?
Huge congratulations to our Rackets Academy ladies who won the ILDL Ladies Doubles Division B league. Amazing performance throughout the season by Gertruud Boekel, Emma Medlock, Lisette Van Geldelen, Rafa Tom & Caroline Taine. They have all worked so hard in their training and so this trophy is extremely well deserved. Well done ladies on a fantastic season; what an amazing achievement!
Winter Break Multi-Sports Kids Camp – Multiple Locations!
Wondering how to keep your kids entertained over the Winter break? Well we have just the answer! Sign them up to our Winter Break Multi-Sports Kids Camp so that they can have fun, burn off some energy and hang out with other kids. Activities include; tennis, football, splash session, karate, dance, XFit Kids and Zumba. See below for more details…
Dates:
- Week 1 (5 days) – Sun 15th December – Thurs 19th December
- Week 2 (4 days) – Sun 22nd December – Thurs 26th December (excluding 25th)
- Week 3 (4 days) – Sun 29th December – Thurs 2nd January (excluding 1st)
Locations:
- Rackets Academy – Motor City
- Fitness First – Town Center, Springs
- Fitness First – The Lakes, Emirates Hills
- Fitness First – Arabian Ranches 2
- Fitness First – Mudon
- Al Barari (3 days a week only)
Details:
- Drop Off: 8.30-9.00am
- Pick Up: 12.30-1.00pm
- AED 130 per day
- AED 599 for the week
- Fitness First member or sibling discount available
Rackets Academy Winter Championships – Sign up TODAY!
There’s still time to sign up for the Rackets Academy Winter Championships for a chance to WIN AED 20,000 prize money! Don’t delay, sign up today! See below for more details.
- Date: 15th December 2019 – 4th January 2020
- Entry fees in accordance with Tennis Emirates Regulations
- Multiple category entries allowed
- Matches will be played across different Rackets Academy Venues
To register, email you name and mobile number to: register@racketsacademy.ae. Places are limited, so sign up TODAY for a chance to WIN AED 20,000 prize money!
Upcoming Tournaments
Check out our tournaments that are taking place over the next few weeks. To sign up, call 052 992 8595 TODAY or email register@racketsacademy.ae:
Friday 29th November, 4pm – Red Ball Tournament, Al Barari
Fri 29-30th November – Under 14 Singles Ranking Tournament, Rackets Academy, Motor City
Friday 6th December, 4pm – Mixed Doubles Tournament, Motor City
Green Ball Tournament Results
Well done to everyone who took part in our Green Ball Tournament last weekend. Congratulations to our Champion Timur Gordeev who beat Laurits Oestergaard 7-4 in what was a fantastic final following a tie-break thriller! Great job boys!
Rule of the Week
Before the first serve in each new game, whoever is serving announces the score in sets. Say your score first, then your opponent’s. So if you won the first set, you would say “1-0.” To complete a set, someone must win six games; the first person to win six games wins the set.
Coach Joseph’s Tip of the Week: Overcome your fear of the net
“You may know that you “should” come to the net more often to finish the point, but somehow you resist the urge and stick to the comfort of the baseline. Why is that?
Maybe you resist coming to the net because you feel uncomfortable there. So you need to dig even deeper and ask yourself why do you feel uncomfortable at the net? Some of the possible reasons are…
You don’t trust your volley and overhead skills: This mistrust can be legitimate- meaning your net skills are really not that good and you make too many mistakes or your net skills are actually good but your opinion about them is negative. In order to get an accurate evaluation of your real net skills you’ll need to ask some friends and pros to evaluate your game and then make the conclusion. In case your net skills are really not good, just practice more. There is no better way to do that than to approach the net more often!
Missing hurts too much: Whether your net skills are good or not so good, you will naturally make mistakes at the net. One common problem with mistakes at the net is that we look clumsy or funny when we make them. It’s one thing to miss a backhand from the baseline, but it’s a completely different thing missing a backhand volley at the net feeling clumsy and embarrassed.
Skills like reactions, balance, coordination, ball judgment and so on need to be at a much higher level to play successfully at the net as compared to the skills needed to play successfully from the baseline. The truth is that the average club player hasn’t developed these skills in their youth and now in the adult stage they are just starting. So in case your general athletic skills mentioned above are not that good, you will make more mistakes, and if these mistakes hurt you — meaning you feel embarrassed when you miss (because you look clumsy or funny when you miss at the net) — you will of course resist coming to the net.
What can you do?
Once you become aware of all these factors, you can make a more conscious choice to improve your skills. You can still improve your volleying skills. You can learn to hit shots more accurately, play different types of volleys, make better decisions at the net and develop more reliable overheads. If you can overcome the embarrassment of missing the shots at the net and focus on your improvement, you can certainly overcome the fear of coming to the net. Good luck!“
Rackets Academy Larte Ladies League: Season 4, Week 8 Results
Well done to all the ladies who played in Week 8 of the league. Congratulations to Venus Angels, Full Metal Rackets and Bull Dogs for winning their matches. See scores below.
A LEAGUE:
Venus Angels vs Baseliners
Line 1: 6-3 6-2 (winner: Venus Angels)
Line 2: 6-3 6-2 (winner: Venus Angels)
Overall Winner: Venus Angels
Full Metal Rackets vs Venus Angels
Line 1: 3-6 3-6 (winner: Venus Angels)
Line 2: 6-4 6-1 (winner: Full Metal Rackets)
Overall Winner: Full Metal Rackets
B LEAGUE:
Bull Dogs vs The Aces
Line 1: 6-7 6-2 10-8 (winner: Bull Dogs)
Line 2: 6-4 6-3 (winner: Bull Dogs)
Overall winner: Bull Dogs
Slice Girls vs Team Joseph
Overall winner: Team Joseph (walkover)
Inter Club Ladies Doubles League (ILDL), series 19 Results
Well done to our ladies who played in Week 9 of the ILDL league. Congratulations to all 3 of our Rackets teams across both divisions for winning their matches and a HUGE shout out to our Division B team who won the league!!! Well done ladies on this fantastic achievement.
Division A
Rackets 1 vs Safa 360
Line 1: 6-4 6-3 (winner: Rackets 1)
Line 2: 4-6 6-1 10-7 (winner: Rackets 1)
Overall winner: Rackets 1
Rackets 2 vs JBH
Line 1: 1-6 6-3 10-6 (winner: Rackets 2)
Line 2: 5-7 2-6 (winner: JBH)
Overall winner: JBH
Division B
Rackets vs JBH
Line 1: 7-6 6-3 (winner: Rackets)
Line 2: 7-6 7-6 (winner: Rackets)
Overall winner: Rackets
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Have a great week!
Rackets Academy