ACE TENNIS ACADEMY : AN OUTSTANDING SCHOOL
Olivier Dumont and his collaborators dreamt up the idea of the Ace Tennis Academy in 2002. Since then the school has continued to grow and has become one of the most important tennis schools of the capital. It is part of Les Eglantiers tennis club in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.
The aim of the Ace Tennis Academy is to encourage children and young people to play tennis at their own level. Contrary to some other specialised structures, the academy is not at all elitist. This does not prevent some players achieving the highest levels. �The philosophy of the Sportcity centre is to encourage sport for everyone. When we decided to create our tennis school we were in complete agreement with this. We wanted to offer our students a high level of teaching with specific methodology.� confided Oliver Dumont, president of ATA. ATA has crested the wave of increased interest in tennis.
� It�s our champions, male and female, who have inspired children. Even if many people were surprised when Justine put an end to her career, this doesn�t signal the end of an era. I think it may even be the opposite.�
A PROGRESSIVE METHOD
The project was born in 2002. A pedagogical programme was put together for the five levels of instruction: baby-tennis, beginner, advanced, training and adult programmes. A teacher doesn�t have much time to turn a child from a beginner into a player capable of winning a match. The programme must be carefully planned so that all the elements are transmitted at the right time; leading to an yearly programme broken down into different cycles each containing a specific objective. This programme forces the instructors to organise their work and to know the pedagogical programmes so they may carry out rigorous evaluations based on the objectives to be reached; evaluations which they must communicate to the director who will, in turn evaluate them. As for the students, they will know which skills they need to learn.
� The team of instructors is approximately twenty-strong. We do more than just teach as we also accompany young players in their competitions. There is interactivity with Les Eglantiers. Without this, it would quite simply be impossible� says Oliver Dumont.
At the beginning of each cycle, five pedagogical meetings are planned with the following agenda: assessment of the cycle, programme of the next cycle set up by the team, detection, re-harmonisation and customization of the programme, programme carried out as a duo (two instructors, one of whom has more experience) or a trio with a physical trainer.
Each of the participants prepares an assessment of the previous cycle and presents it to the team.
The person in charge makes a global assessment of the cycle and sets the new objectives. The Academy�s speciality is baby-tennis. This discipline, reserved for children between three and nine years old, has developed in almost all tennis clubs. The objective is to show the child how to be successful; to provide him/her with games which meet his/her fundamental needs and through these games to help him/her acquire a multiplicity of motor behaviours which will ensure his/her aptitude for a more rigorous study of tennis.
