Coastal Quick Tennis: CQT News

By GEORGE AUSTIN

SOMERSET — With some tennis lessons, there can be a professional on one side of the court with a bucket of balls hitting to a child on the other side of the net who is holding an adult-sized racket and trying to hit a return shot when the ball is bouncing too high. Tennis coach Doug Chapman says that can get frustrating for a youngster and in some cases, could discourage the youth from wanting to continue playing the sport.

But with the new business that he and Sandy Sweet started last year, they use a teaching method for tennis that accommodates that younger child. With Coastal Quick Tennis, lessons are taught with rackets that are sized for children, with balls that have less pressure so that they do not bounce as high and on smaller courts.

"We want to give kids the right foundation to learn because if they try a sport, and they don't like it, it's come and gone," Chapman said. "If they enjoy it, then they're going to continue to play it and that will increase the players and the health of the sport." Coastal Quick Tennis has taught the sport to children as young as three years old and provides lessons for juniors up to 16 years old and clinics for adults, as well. But the main student population has been for children between the ages of six years old and 10 years old.

"We go into things, like balance, hand-eye coordination, control of their body and control of the racket," Chapman said. "It's not just hitting balls."

Coastal Quick Tennis was started last year by Chapman, a Somerset resident who has been a tennis coach at Somerset High School for over 30 years, and Sandy Sweet. During the previous five years, Chapman had worked for the United Tennis Association as a regional coordinator in New England. He had worked with Sweet who runs the South County Community Tennis Association in Rhode Island. He said she was as good a tennis organizer as he had worked with during the five years he was employed by USTA.

Both Chapman and Sweet are members of the USTA Rhode Island board of directors. He taught USTA methods of teaching tennis, including lessons for children 10 years old and under with the Quick Start program. Chapman said Sweet wanted to start a business using the most modern teaching methods and the latest equipment for the sport for youths. So they launched Coastal Quick Tennis at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport last year.

"We are both on the same page on how we want to teach kids the game and learn the game," Chapman said.

Coastal Quick Tennis is running recreation programs for municipalities. It offers trained and certified instructors who know the latest teaching methods to run the program, making it a turn- key operation for park and recreation departments, many of whom have suffered cutbacks in recent years. Coastal Quick Tennis can come and run their programs for them and give them back a check.

"We think it's a very viable operation for the summer and, in some cases, year round," Chapman said.

Coastal Quick Tennis has been hired to do programs in Newport, Lincoln, East Providence, Saunderstown and Narragansett in Rhode Island, as well as Dartmouth. The business also runs tennis camps for a week at a time or multiple week programs. Coastal Quick Tennis can run adult tennis leagues.

Many of the instructors are former players for Chapman and girls' coach Peter Holt at Somerset High School. Chapman's teams have made the state tournament almost every year he has coached at the high school and Holt's teams have also been very successful in qualifying for postseason.

Some of the instructors specialize in working with younger children while others focus on working with juniors and adults. Some of those instructors include former Somerset players Kayleigh Holt, who played at Emerson College, Chris Ross, who plays at the University of Southern Maine, Brian Dorsky, an assistant coach at Somerset High School, Natasha Roman, who played at Rhode Island College and has been an assistant coach for the girls' team at Somerset-High School, Katie Dahlborg, captain of this past year's team at SHS, and Ben Holt, a former Eastern Athletic Conference All-Star. Ali Vautrin, who played on this past year's team, is another instructor for Coastal Quick Tennis. Former Case High School player Nicole Pelletier, who was the Little East Rookie of the Year at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, is another instructor. Sweet works with the South Kingstown High School tennis team that has won 13 straight Rhode Island Division 1 championships that she can draw from.

"We have a very good group of instructors," Chapman said.

Chapman is the director of tennis and education for the business while Sweet is the director of programming and administration.

Chapman said he thinks he and Sweet are ahead of the curve on their tennis teaching methods and thinks they can bring youths into the sport and keep them playing with a step by step progressive method that teaches them the basics and fundamentals and not too much at one time.

He said they want to make tennis a sport for a lifetime for people, increase the number of people playing the sport and raise the quality of the play in the area.

An American has not won the men's championship at Wimbledon in 11 years, which Chapman thinks has hurt the growth of the sport in the country. He also said other sports, like lacrosse and volleyball, has taken athletes away from tennis. He said his high school team had 25 players this past season, but he said some others in the area only had 10 or 12 players.

Chapman said there has been a mixed response to the business so far because some people do not know about Quick Start Tennis or understand it. Chapman said the USTA and the International Tennis Federation will be changing their rules next year for tournaments for youths around the world.

"If people understand what we're actually trying to do, they're open to it," Chapman said. "It's a lot more than tossing balls and hitting them to kids. We want the game to be easier and more enjoyable to them, so they stick with it. I hope what this does is really standardize throughout the entire area the standards of teaching that's going to be coming for everyone."

             NEWPORT, R.I. – QuickStart Tennis, the easiest and most up-to-date method for teaching 5-10 year olds to play, is coming to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. QuickStart camps will be offered in morning or afternoon sessions, and will run Mondays through Thursdays for two hours each.

             “We are very pleased to add QuickStart to our lineup of tennis programs,” said Doug Browne, Director of Tennis at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. “QuickStart is a fast and fun way to get kids playing tennis and to keep them playing.”

              QuickStart Tennis, a teaching format endorsed by the United States Tennis Association, is an exciting new play format for learning tennis, designed to bring kids into the game by utilizing specialized equipment, shorter court dimensions and modified scoring. There will be two different levels offered-- ages 8 and under and ages 10 and under.

             The camps will be conducted by Coastal Quick Tennis, operated by Doug Chapman and Sandy Sweet, both members of the USTA Rhode Island Board of Directors.  Mr. Chapman is one of the most successful tennis coaches in Massachusetts scholastic history during his 32-year tenure at Somerset and has been a USTA National Recreation Coaches Workshop Trainer. Mrs. Sweet runs the award-winning South County Community Tennis Association and is also a member of the USTA New England Board of Directors.

             “We in Player Development believe that not only does the QuickStart Tennis play format offer our young players a fun, safe and sensible way to start playing the game; it also accelerates skill development and enhances the competitive experience for young children,” said Patrick McEnroe, USTA general manager of player development. “We view the game of tennis as being played in a sequence comprised of three distinct, yet interrelated components: 1) the eyes and mind, 2) followed by the feet, 3) followed by the hands. Eyes and mind refer to ball recognition and shot selection; feet refer to footwork, movement and balance, and hands represent the player’s grips and stroke production. The QuickStart Tennis play format enhances the development of all three competencies.”           

           For additional information on the QuickStart camps at the International Tennis Hall of Fame, go to www.CQTENNIS.com or email info@cqtennis.com.

More than 260 delegates, partners and staff attended the International Tennis Federation’s 2010 Annual General Meeting this week, held in Washington, D.C., and hosted by the USTA.

Among the initiatives approved by the ITF membership was a rule change for all 10-and-under competition that will mandate modified courts and the use of slower balls as part of the ITF’s Tennis 10s campaign. The purpose of this change is to increase participation among the 10-and-under age group as part of the wider “Tennis… Play and Stay Initiative.”

The rule will go into effect in January 2012. The use of regular balls and a full-sized court will no longer be permitted in 10-and-under competition, and instead a slower red, orange or green ball must be used on one of three court sizes.

"This is a great step forward for tennis and I thank the ITF AGM for their support of this important initiative," said ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti. "'Tennis 10s' will improve the way we introduce tennis to young players and follows similar changes made in other sports such as ‘mini soccer’ and Little League Baseball."

"We applaud today’s decision and have supported the ITF throughout this process," said Lucy S. Garvin, Chairman of the Board and President, USTA. "We’re very excited about what this change means for the future of tennis."

Tennis 10s is similar to the USTA’s 10 and Under Tennis initiative, which embraces the tools of the QuickStart Tennis play format—with its smaller courts, slower-moving and lower-bouncing balls, and smaller and lighter racquets—to make tennis more accessible for children 10 and under.

Also at the ITF meeting, changes to the rules of Davis Cup and Fed Cup and amendments to the ITF Constitution were passed by the assembly. Included is a change of regulation for the Fed Cup final, similar to the rule for Davis Cup, that requires the final be staged in a capital or major city of the host country with an accessible international airport.   

Twelve people were honored with awards for “Services to the Game”: Larisa Savchenko (LAT), Ai Sugiyama (JPN), Dr. Raymond Forde (BAR), Chuka Momah (NGR), Dan Santorum (USA), Henrik Klitvad (DEN), Dr. John Fraser OAM (AUS), David   Howman (NZL), Franz Liautaud (HAI), Tian Tian Sun (CHN), Rene Collins (CAN) and Louis Cayer (CAN), a special nomination by the Coaches Commission.