Performance Sport is, we believe, perfectly captured by Ernest Shackleton - in his advert in The Times newspaper in 1914 for the expedition to Antarctic:

Men Wanted: For hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.

It presents a vivid image of the journey that lies ahead for our performance players.

The successful Great Britain Olympic cycling moto of 'benchmarking against the world, not the national standard' is exactly where we have set our sights & focus not only on TE & ITF tournaments & rankings, but every aspect of our performance organization.

From Sept 2008, we will be investing heavily in the mental side of the game, learning from other successful sports as well as tennis academies around the world. There is very little that separates the top sportsmen and women - in terms of technical/physical ability. But as we saw at Wimbledon this year - it was the mental ability of Nadal to block out the emotions that saw him emerge victorious.

Recent Tournament Success

• Girls NJCL 2008 U18 champions
• Girls NJCL 2007 U12 champions
• Last 16 Junior Wimbledon 2006
• Boys NJCL 2005 U14 champions
• Girls NJCL 2007 U18 champions

• July 2008 - Katy Dunne wins her 2nd Tennis Europe International U14 tournament in Ireland and jumps into top 50 Tennis Europe rankings U14 and top 10 U13
• June 2008 - Joe Tingey beats British No 4 ranked player U12 in superb JNCL match
• June 2008 - Katy Dunne wins her 1st Tennis Europe International U14 tournament in Iceland
• Katy Dunne selected to represent GB at Teen Tennis in Bolton January 20th - 25th
• Jan 2008 – Lereesa Easterbrook Last 16 Casablanca Cup, Mexico: world ranking has soared from 257 to 175
• Dec 2007- Lereesa Easterbrook (age 16) finalist in Mexico, lost in 3 sets to ITF World No 17
• Simon Childs 2007 & Matt Brown 2006 - scholarships to USA colleges
• 8 of our players have represented Great Britain
• 9 players ranked in the Top 10 in Great Britain, 7 of those in the Top 5

Katy Dunne

Lereesa Easterbrook (left) in Tunisia

THE HALTON TOP 30 CLUB
Congratulations to the following players who are now holding places down in the TOP 30 in GB for their age-group (and 3 Top Tenners!)

Katy Dunne - 5 (13&U), 25 (14&U) and winner in Dublin propelling her into the Top 10 in Europe for her age (13)
Stuart Pugh - 8 (16&U)
Lereesa Easterbrook - 8 (18&U) ITF 175 (18&U in the world)
Dean Kelleher - 15 (13&U)
Alice Patch - 23 (12&U)
Claudia Marsala - 23 (13&U)
Lib Crawford - 26 (13&U)
Joe Tingey 48 at 12&U having spent the majority of the Autumn injured

Liberty Crawford

Girls U18 National Champions 2008
Kathryn Sharples, Lereesa Easterbrook, Sarah Spanswick, Grace Russell, Heather McNeill and Jemima Hayward

Girls U12 National Champions 2007
Alice Patch, Victoria Pisani, Claudia Marsala, Jemima Hayward, Liberty Crawford, Ruby Brady and Annabel Westermann

Boys U14 National Champions 2005 -
Benedict Calnan, Robert Mariconda, Anthony Parkin, Cameron Malik

TENNIS PROGRAMMES

• Personalised Tennis, Fitness & Mental Skills programmes
• Full time (3-4 hrs tennis & 1-2 hrs fitness per day) or part time
• Individual 1:1 sessions
• Video Analysis
• Tournament/Match analysis/support
• Access to Gym
• On site Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic
• Musculoskeletal Screening for injury prevention
• Specialist Fitness trainers
• Specialist Mental skills trainer
• Education - in partnership with Kip McGrath Education Centre, Aylesbury
• Accommodation support - via local families

TOURING PROGRAMME
Our core belief is that Elite Performance means our young players must regularly expose themselves to European travel/tournaments from an early age, and as soon as possible, to ITF events around the world. This has resulted in some fabulous experiences, a great reality check on the standard needed to achieve success and a Professional Career and of course a whole lot of fun for the players. Examples from the past 3 years are:

• Australia 2006, 2007
• Denmark 2007
• Estonia 2007
• New Zealand 2007
• Sweden 2005, 2006, 2007
• Switzerland 2007
  
• Thailand & Hong Kong 2007
• Touring camps - regular trips to La Manga & Bruguera's, Spain

EDUCATION & SCHOOL
Education and performance sport do not need to be mutually exclusive. However, for most top players there will come a point when mainstream school education timetables/structure is no longer compatible with their ambition to play professional tennis. Usually this starts to become apparent in Year 7 or 8, and becomes a major frustration and potential blocker. We operate a partnership with the Kip McGrath Education Centre, located 15 minutes from Halton. Education is available from Years 7 – 11, with individual and flexible programmes. Click here for more information, here for a document outlining education options and here for sample timetables and costs.

VISITING PLAYERS
Visiting Players who want to either experience our offering, or “need a home” for irregular periods during the year are most welcome.