Seventy-two coaches from 11 nations attended the 5th ITF African Regional Coaches Conference, which ended on Friday 24th November. The Conference was held in co-operation with the Egyptian Tennis Federation, CAT and the Smash Tennis Academy, at the Novotel Airport Hotel, Cairo and was designed to bring coaches from throughout the region up-to-date on the latest coaching and sports science news.

The Conference featured keynote international speakers Steven Martens (BEL) and Frank Zlesak (CZE), whom made presentations both on-court and in the lecture room. Martens is the Technical Director of the Flemish Tennis Federation and has worked with players such as Sabine Appelmans, Kim Clysters, Justine Henin, Xavier Malisse and Olivier & Christophe Rochus. Martens’ presentations focused on the development of a power serve, discussing the key biomechanical principles in and giving many on-court tips.

Zlesak gave 5 interesting presentations on a range of topics including psychology, fitness training and talent identification. Other speakers included: Samuel Lopez (ESP): Drills for high performance players, Dermot Sweeny (ITF): Advanced drills for improving the return of serve, Prince Madema (ITF):How deep focus on the ball influences technique in 14&under players, Karl Davies (ITF): Essential skills for junior players & Five ways to use your forehand as a weapon on clay, Khaled Farouk (EGY): Bridging the gap between practice and real match situations, Amine Ben Makhlouf (ITF):Tactical/technical approach through situation training, Hichem Nasser (ETF): delivering quality coaching and Hichem Riani (CAT): Feeding balls to advanced players in the 5 situations of game. ITF Development Director, Dave Miley gave 2 excellent presentations on increasing tennis participation worldwide.

Patrick McInerney, ITF Assistant Research Officer did a great job during this conference.Mr Tarak Cherif, CAT President and Mr Ismail el Shafei, ETF President and ITF Board honoured by their presence this Continental Coaches Conference.
The Confederation of African Tennis would like to thank Olympic Solidarity for supporting the event, as well as the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the Egyptian Tennis Federation and Smash Tennis Academy who coordinated the event.