| ITF Junior Tennis Initiative – 14 & Under Development Programme |
 | | School Tennis Initiative in Malawi |  | | Children participating in the JTI programme in Uzbekistan |  | | ANZ Bank are in their 15th year of sponsorship of the JTI programme in the Pacific Oceania region |  | | Junior Tennis Initiative launch in Santiago, Chile |
The ITF operates a number of programmes to assist member nations with tennis for players between the ages of 6 and 14. We believe that each nation should be focusing a great deal of their activities on this age group and over the past 10 years, we have developed the following programmes that member nations can benefit from, which we believe have helped many countries to develop effective junior programmes:
- The School Tennis Initiative - this programme was introduced in 1996 with the aim of helping nations introduce mini tennis in schools and clubs to children aged 6 - 11 years old. This programme has been very successful with over 80 countries involved in the programme and since 1996, over 3 million children have been introduced to tennis.
- The Performance Tennis Initiative was introduced in 1999 to encourage nations to focus on developing regular “performance training” for their best juniors in the 14 & Under age group (14 & Under; 12 & Under and 10 & Under) at national level and depending on resources, at regional and club level also. In addition, The Performance Tennis Initiative also gave incentives to nations to establish new tournaments for the 14 & Under age group at national level. The feed-in system of competition was encouraged for this age group.
- The Equipment Distribution Programme provides free equipment such as mini tennis bats, mini tennis nets, tennis rackets, transition/low compression balls, top grade balls, training balls and strings which can be used in the above programmes. The level of equipment provided depends on the projects being implemented by each nation and is based on recommendations and feedback from our Development Officers who visit the nations in their region on a regular basis.
In the past, each of the above programmes operated independently and nations applied for assistance specific to each programme. Over the years, we have seen these programmes become more and more interlinked and therefore, from the end of 2004, the way we administered and operated the above programmes changed.
The above mentioned programmes are now known as the Junior Tennis Initiative (JTI) and this programme covers the following:
mini tennis (School Tennis Initiative)
performance player training and tournaments (Performance Tennis Initiative)
the provision of equipment (Equipment Distribution Programme).
Countries involved in the Junior Tennis Initiative are expected to put together (in conjunction with our Development Officers), their own Junior Tennis Initiative (in effect a 14 & Under player development plan), ensuring that there is a logical link between the various 14 & Under programmes operating at national level. ITF support for mini tennis, player training, new tournaments, equipment and any co-ordinator subsidies is now based on the totality of the Junior Tennis Initiative plan in place in a particular nation.
In most countries, the JTI co-ordinator performs the role of a junior national coach and ideally should have the following profile:
Level 2 or 3 coach or equivalent
Good educational background
Good playing level
Good organisational and administration skills
Good communication/people skills
Hard working.
The new process simplifies the administration and ensures that nations do not look at each of the above projects in isolation but instead, try to put in place a cohesive plan for 14 & Under tennis in their country.
Any National Association requiring further information or the application procedures, should contact either the Development Officer for their region or the ITF Development Department in London on development@itftennis.com.
To read about successful programmes around the world, please refer to the PDF documents and the news articles below.
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