Free School Holiday clinics - loads of fun!
Junior school holiday clinics were again offered by our club coaches and are always a great success, usually being fully booked out. Well done to Andrew, Kelsey and the PTTA team for again conducting such a well organised event that both kids and their parents throughly enjoy. The school holiday free clinics have become a tradition at the club which so many of our juniors look forward to each year.
What science tells us about the importance of mindset
What is a growth mindset?
A growth mindset is a belief that you can develop your skills and talents through hard work, the right strategies, and with proper guidance from others.
The term “growth mindset” was coined by American psychologist Professor Carol Dweck in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. She conducted extensive studies to explore how an individual’s underlying belief about their intelligence and their ability to learn could impact their performance.
Her research showed that those people who held a belief that they can develop their talents tended to achieve much more than those who believed their abilities are innate and fixed from birth. Those with a growth mindset would deliberately seek to challenge themselves to learn more, rather than sticking in their comfort zone.
Those people with a more fixed mindset, whose belief was you’ve “either got it, or you haven’t”, tended to give up quickly if they weren’t succeeding with any new endeavour.
In contrast, Dweck’s studies revealed that people possessing the “growth” outlook on life did not fear failure - instead perceiving the experience as an opportunity to learn and therefore improve.
Coaches from many sporting codes - tennis, basketball, football and soccer - are now encouraging their players to develop resilience by cultivating a growth mindset. Coaches have discovered it’s just as important to praise for effort, and not merely results.
There is now a firm basis of scientific evidence confirming that your mindset can have a powerful impact on your ability to improve and perform at your best.
“The growth mindset is based on a belief that your abilities and qualities are things you can eventually cultivate through your efforts. Although people obviously differ in many various ways - in their initial talents and inherent aptitudes, their interests, and their temperaments—everyone can nevertheless make a choice to change and grow through applying the necessary effort and being open to new experiences.” – Professor Carol Dweck, Stanford University
A MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE AT THE AUS OPEN 2023
AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2023 -
Bianca Andreescu speaks about her tennis career and her personal development journey
Bianca Andreescu competed at the 2023 Aus Open. She is a professional tennis player who commenced playing tennis early in life in Romania but eventually returned home to Canada, the country of her birth. She is a young woman who has experienced a wide range of emotions in her relatively short tennis career.
There were the soaring highs experienced in 2019, when the then-teenager captured the imagination of the tennis world by stunning Serena Williams to win the US Open. But then came the dispiriting lows in 2020 and 2021, when Andreescu battled injuries and struggled through two pandemic-impacted seasons before declaring that she was taking a break from tennis for mental health reasons.
Now, the 22-year-old finds herself fighting her way back up the tennis rankings. After six months away from the game, she rebuilt her ranking from outside the top 100 to her current ranking of world No.45 - although still short of her career-high No.4
Yet she competes with a refreshed perspective, benefitting from recent lessons and self-reflection on her tennis career journey.
“That's been the biggest thing for me this past year, is learning to love and accept myself as best as I can, regardless of whether I have won or lost a particular tennis match,” she told ausopen.com. “I read a lot of books on psychology, I listen to a lot of podcasts to try and better understand how the mind works. Honestly it's really helped me get to this point right now, having a sense of love for myself off the court. Because before, so much of my self-esteem was based upon my results and the outcome of my games - when I'd lose it would be like the end of the world. …..But now I feel much more in tune with myself.”
Andreescu has always possessed a notable self-awareness for somebody so young. She believes this maturity stemmed from travelling the world, often alone, since the age of 12 as she built towards a professional tennis career.
"I do a lot of inner work. I really believe that's the key to finding true happiness, joy and contentment in life."
Andreescu realises that when she is both healthy and mentally in a positive mindset, then she is better placed to realise her career vision.
"My purpose is to use tennis as a platform to help inspire others. And basically that's using my tennis results, and my tennis base to hopefully, motivate others to follow their dreams ……. I want to be known as someone who is hard-working, but who is also fun and heart-warming to other people. I want to be spiritually intact, someone who knows herself and who knows what she wants. And who's more than just a good tennis player but also a really good human being.”
We look forward to watching this inspiring young woman compete during the 2023 Australian Open - commencing Monday Jan 16 with finals Sunday Jan 29. For more info on the Open visit https://ausopen.com/
CLUB MEMBERS RALLY BEHIND BELOVED CLUB COACH
ANNUAL CLUB GENERAL MEETING
FREE COACHING PROGRAM FOR OVER 50’s - just ended in June
Re-Connecting With Tennis - A Free coaching program for over-50’s
CONGRATULATIONS TO ASH BARTY - 2022 Aus Open Champion
OUR COURTS ARE OPEN
ASH BARTY WINS WIMBLEDON 2021
3 lessons for our juniors
SHOUT OUT TO MAROONDAH CITY COUNCIL - Major Safety Works Program Carried Out At Our Courts 
You might like to check out some interesting new pages we’ve recently added to the website....
Tennis Australia : COVID-19 & playing tennis
Club members are asked to be aware of social distance guidelines - so please remember to maintain physical distance between yourself and others (at least space of 1.5 metres). You might like to view the advice that had been issued by Tennis Australia regarding COVID-19 and Continuing to Play Tennis
To view some tips and precautions on how to reduce your risk of exposure to the corona-virus, click here
Social Tennis:
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Come along, join in the FUN -
- have a social hit of tennis, in small groups
- cost $5 per player
- register - simply give Kelsey a call (0408 731 065), so we can organise
- play on a casual basis.
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| Danielle presenting Steve with his Award |
The club was delighted to have Danielle Cornwall from Tennis Victoria, come along and conduct a fabulous training session for members of the club who will be volunteer hosts in the up-coming new Thursday evening "Get Your Racquet On" program (commencing Jan 23). The club is excited by the prospect of welcoming new players that we hope will be attracted through our participation in this Tennis Australia initiative.
At the same time, Danielle took the opportunity to present Steve Baldry with his Service to Tennis Award. Steve was typically humble in his acceptance of the Award, acknowledging the close working relationship he has developed over many years, with his mate Noel Hester (our club president).
Shout-out to Brian Cooke
One of Brian's many contributions to the club are the seat benches that appear on the sides of our courts 1, 2, 3 & 4
For the vets in particular, at the change of ends between play, these seat benches are well used in taking a brief few moments of "recovery".
Brian constructed all of these seat-benches himself, as well as supplying the materials - quite an accomplished handyman is our Brian!
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Tennis Victoria - "Pick Up A Racquet"
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Danielle met with several members of the Club's Committee and outlined an exciting new promotional campaign sponsored by Tennis Victoria aimed at encouraging "lapsed" tennis players to re-connect with the game. However instead of playing so called "traditional" tennis, participants will be playing various versions of tennis - designed to be more fun and more social. There will be music, games and activities - accompanied with some food and drinks.
Our club agreed to participate in the campaign, recognising a wonderful opportunity to potentially attract new members to the Club, and to showcase our club's facilities to members of our local community. We want more people to experience the FUN of our game and the chance to make new friends.
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View the club’s Child Protection policy
