On the Rise -Tennis Australia

I have to admit so far Australian's have fared very well in the early rounds of the French Open.Carsten Ball had a great first round win and the Ladies lead by Sam Stotsur have all recorded wins except Jelana Dokic.I must also say that a few players like Ball did not learn their trade in Australia coming through another national tennis system.I came across this article from the Times on Line headed "Australian tennis is on the up".The link is HEREWith interest I read how there ARE to be 74 regional Hubs set up Australia wide however the most intersting point to me was this " desire to support private coaches (the way forward), TA has 74 Talent Development Coaches who receive support for the development of athletes under of 12, that includes funding for camps and competitions, national travel grants, clay court opportunities as well as incentive bonuses for athlete performance".And its about "bloody time" the Private coach gets some recognition and giving them a vital role in the Pathway of a junior player.The problem has always been trying to pass on juniors from their private coach to a "Joe Blog" that often has learned all their skills from a book.With the appointment of a new CEO in New Zealand it would not be a bad idea for them to get their head around the principle idea of Private Coaches and the ones that have been getting results Nation wide.With McGraw gone the My way or the Highway approach should be dismantled very quickly.There are still many other factors but this is one of them,lets get on board those that are on the ground and producing results.Incentives to juniors to be able to go to the next level should be explored.The article is British based and it says their problem is that the LTA is driven by bringing everything in house to the detriment of confidence among those coaches working in the shires.We watch with interest developments in Australia.