COUNTRY TENNIS CRISIS?

Tennis in the country has faced many challenges over the years. From drought, floods, an ageing demographic to, in recent times Covid and UTR, there has been no shortage of obstacles standing in the way of aspiring tennis players.

With all these roadblocks, is there a clear path forward for tennis in the country or is it facing a crisis? One person extremely qualified to answer these questions is Helen Magill.

Magill has spent a lifetime in tennis. Having been born and bred in the country, she has an intricate understanding of country tennis: where it’s been, where it is, where it’s going and what needs to be done to keep it thriving.

She is the owner operator of the Parkes Tennis Club which is one of the largest tennis clubs in the country, is a Tennis Australia Club Professional Coach as well as being a Tennis Australia Coach Developer and Mentor.

The First Serve (TFS) recently sat down with Magill to get her views on country tennis.

TFS: Can you tell me a little of your tennis journey? How did you get into coaching?

Helen Magill (HM): Looking back, I started playing tennis, just like many kids today, because my friends were playing. We all played netball on Saturday mornings, and then, as the sound of the hooter resonated across the grounds, we’d shake hands and race each other to the tennis courts, just a couple of blocks away to be first in line to hit as many balls as possible in the hour we had there. I loved it from the start. I discovered this intrinsic motivation to improve, and the 1 on 1 encounters blended well with my extremely competitive personality.

It was challenging, even more so as I was left-handed but Mr Logan, my first coach was right-handed because he only had one arm, his right arm and I liked to swap hands and have 2 forehands, but he insisted I become right-handed, so I did. My backhand was always my strength. I wanted to play professionally but long story short, I didn’t believe I was good enough. A lovely man named Keith Smith worked for Vic Edwards (Coach of Evonne Goolagong) and Keith saw me play and asked Mr Edwards to take a look. He did and offered me free Coaching at his centre in Roseville but I had to move to Sydney and find a place to live as he couldn’t accommodate me.

At 15, that was out of the question. I kept playing Country Tournaments and when I was almost 16, some family friends asked me to help their children learn to play and I really enjoyed the interaction and seeing them improve their skills. My dad suggested I look at coaching some other kids as well after school as there was no one coaching at the tennis club and as they say, the rest is history.

TFS: What was tennis like in the country when you first started playing? What was the level like?

HM: Tennis was a very popular sport in the 80s and 90s. There were inter-club and inter-town competitions on almost every weekend and tournaments and events throughout country NSW every other weekend. We did a lot of travelling.

The level was very competitive with players from across the Eastern states travelling out to the country to play, particularly over the long weekends on the calendar each year. We used to enter 5 events over a 3-day tournament and might play 8 or 9 matches of various formats in a day. There were no restrictions back then. It was like survival of the fittest.

My dad used to say, “if you’re one of the last to leave on the final day you must be playing ok”. We didn’t play for points or rankings. We played because we loved the challenge and of course there was some good prizemoney on offer for Open events. One of the biggest events in the late 80s and early 90s was the Prime TV 6/8/9 tournament where we would qualify at local events from ages 10s through to Opens in both singles and doubles and play a big finals tournament weekend at Orange in Central West NSW with semi-finals and finals matches being televised live throughout the Prime TV regional network. Looking back that was such a great experience, and very nerve-racking having cameras inside all around the show courts.

TFS: How has that changed over the years?

HM: Tennis was seen as the sport that galvanised communities and maintained social networks. Hosting larger events also meant important economic benefits to the wider community. Sadly, people aren’t travelling anymore due to many factors. The shops used to close at noon on Saturdays and were not open on Sundays which meant we weren’t working on weekends. Nowadays people are working various shifts across their week, so lifestyles have definitely changed. It does take a lot of preparation and volunteer involvement to run big events and there isn’t the interest and support like there was years ago.

TFS: I understand there used to be some big names who played all the country tournaments?

HM: I do remember playing Patti Coleman in the semi-finals at the big Condobolin Open on June Long Weekend. Patti represented Australia and played in Fed Cup with Evonne Goolagong. Terry Rocavert was the State Coach in the 80s and regularly brought squads out to regional NSW to play the ‘locals’. Players like Glenn Knox, Todd Woodbridge and Janine Thompson. Jason Stoltenberg, Wally Masur, Nick Kyrgios, Louise Pleming were all country/ACT players and seen regularly playing tournaments.

TFS: You have run a hugely successful tennis program for many years: how has that evolved and What challenges come with running a coaching business in the country?

HM: When I first started Coaching in the mid-80s I worked at the local newsagency from 5.30am-2.30pm then coached after work a couple of days each week and soon worked out there was a lot of interest in tennis. The coaching grew pretty quickly, and I was mixing working, playing and coaching 7 days a week. Not long after my playing time was diminishing as the coaching took centre stage and I employed a couple of older teenagers that I was coaching to help.

Over time it became evident that experienced coaches didn’t want to move to the country so to continue to grow the business and meet the demand, I had to develop coaches from within my programs with more than 300 gaining their coaching experience and most completing the Tennis Australia (TA) Courses over the journey.

I have been very fortunate that the Committees I have worked with at Parkes Tennis over the past 40yrs+ have been hugely supportive of any programs I have initiated, and they were always aware that the Club needed families involved to continue to grow both the volunteer and player base and they were witness to the impact Tennis had, and continues to have, serving the Community.

Coaching in regional areas can prove challenging with work/life balance and demanding at times when you are working hard to give your players as many opportunities for growth and development as possible. It is about creating positive experiences and life memories so hopefully they will one day want their own children to be involved in the sport.

I’ve always believed Tennis Coaching is much more than just hitting balls, dodging balls, or having a first-class sock tan! Coaching is an interaction in people's lives. The person who comes onto the tennis court might be a student, a family member, a businessperson or maybe someone who just wants to hit a few balls and have a chat.

Understanding the person’s Why first and foremost, is a priority.

My philosophy revolves around the responsibility as Coach to develop strong relationships and help our players understand decision making in all areas of their lives, not just in how to win a tennis match. We can help them develop character, discipline, self-motivation, self-worth, and an excitement for life. To achieve these objectives, we raise the standards that the players and others around them have set. Then we help them reach those standards by continuing to develop appropriate relationships with them based on trust, open communication, care and respect.  When character development is the foundation of the program, the people you encounter will get the most out of their experiences and realise their full potential. This is the culture I strive to create in my staff and in the young coaches who come into the courses I facilitate and mentorship programs I’m involved in.

TFS: In your coach development role you see many towns and tennis centres:

How do you see the current state of tennis in the country compared to the rest of the country?

HM: There are a lot of clubs and towns across the country that don’t have a Coach driving participation and growing their club. It seems the younger generation aren’t as keen to consider a career in Coaching but see it more as a ‘side hustle’, thus the Coach workforce is aging. It’s also evident there has been a gradual decline in volunteers and most likely due to a struggle to balance the demands of life. A further shift in personal priorities and lifestyles due to the pandemic has led to a re-evaluation of volunteering commitments and seen a lot of clubs’ struggle to recruit and retain people to continue to run the clubs and maintain that strong role that tennis clubs play in social and community life.

There are hubs across the country where tennis is thriving, and this is due to strong coaching programs where the Head Coach is the ‘driver’ of the sport.

Certainly, interesting times ahead in Tennis. In the City areas we see many centres which are leased and fully operated by the Coach. Maybe, with the decline in volunteer run committees, Country Clubs may have to look to these operating models to inject life back into some centres.

The standard of players has definitely declined as families are less keen to spend their whole weekend or even a whole day Sunday to travel to tournaments or experience match play.

Tennis, unlike most other sports, is unique with no specific start and/or finish times which doesn’t make it a positive ‘sell’ to new families who know, if their child plays in a soccer carnival for example, that they may play at 10am, 11.30 and 2pm and then go home. Tennis needs to do a better job structuring match play events to entice families to travel.

TFS: How has the introduction of UTR impacted on tennis in the country areas?

HM: UTR has had a hugely negative impact on Tennis in country areas BUT the previous points system also caused a lot of issues. The negativity around UTR has been impactful for emerging players due to the fact that many Clubs don’t have the quantity of quality so players are playing within a much smaller group which isn’t conducive for UTR. Unfortunately for country tennis what we did see first-hand with the introduction of UTR was that the City people didn’t need to travel anymore to ‘chase’ points, thus the tournaments suffered. What Tennis Australia didn’t realise was that the country tournaments were much more than just tennis. They were important for the local economy and for the Clubs to be able to leverage grant applications for infrastructure upgrades with Local Govt on the back of hosting successful events where Councils have to inevitably choose which sports to support.

Notwithstanding, Clubs have to be more proactive and develop different ways to run events, promote tennis, inject money into the coffers and keep people in the Sport.

TFS: What do you see in the future for country tennis? 

HM: My hope for country tennis is that Clubs continue to thrive and offer a place for people to gather which is more than just tennis. Let’s promote social health and wellbeing and provide a space for connectedness, for social interaction, networking and the formation of lasting friendships. As a sport, Parkes Tennis has players from 3yrs to 87yrs involved in programs throughout each week. Tennis welcomes everyone and is truly the sport for a lifetime. I want to be driving around the countryside and seeing people playing on tennis courts and not seeing them lay dormant, overgrown with weeds and turned into makeshift chook pens or horse paddocks.

Competitively it’s tough. To develop players they need competition (in various forms) and they need volume. Time on court is crucial but it needs to be purposeful and engaging to continue to grow the athlete. Travel, time and resources are key in giving country athletes every opportunity to reach their potential.

TFS: How can we help country tennis?

HM: Tennis as an organisation needs to identify and support country athletes who are tracking well with travel and accommodation assistance so they can compete at the level required.

We need promotion of Tennis Coach as a career choice needs marketing and the opportunity to offer some kind of incentives to live regionally like the medical and teaching professions offer. This could help rebuild country clubs sitting dormant without a full-time coach.

We should reward Country Clubs and Centres that are supporting National programs. Too often the decision makers seem to take the easy option and allocate multiple events to the same City Clubs.

We need to offer money can’t buy experiences during the summer of Tennis to key Coaches at Country Clubs to promote the sport Eg-kids on court, meet the players etc. These type of offerings can inject huge interest in the sport throughout the wider community and build into programs for Term 1 each year.

The biggest issue around tournaments is that the higher level events could be played at centres 3hrs+ outside the Metropolitan basins in each state to encourage/lure players and families out to the Country areas. I don’t believe 250 events need to be played on Grand Slam surfaces but instead place them at country venues to showcase tennis and assist in the Clubs leveraging Local Govt with economic value to the wider community. Country venues vary rarely compete with other tennis venues for infrastructure money. They have to compete for funding with other sports. Tennis MAs can help create opportunities to assist in this area by taking tournaments and events out to country areas and not keeping them within 2hrs of the city.

TFS: You are clearly still very passionate about tennis and country tennis in particular. I wish you all the best for the future.

HM: Yes, I still love it even after these years. Cheers.

Tennis in the country clearly faces some challenges but with people like Helen fighting the good fight there is no doubt tennis will not only survive but thrive for many years to come.