You two recently paired up as a team. How did you find each other and was it an instant gelling?
Warner: “Mark was my junior tennis coach during my high school years. A few years after attending SIUE, Mark and I began corresponding again and soon began to practice on the paddle court. It wasn’t until this year that we seriously discussed pairing up. We are good friends off the court, and we were curious to see how our strengths would complement each other on the court.”
What about each of your styles of play do you think make your team strong?
Warner: “Through the use of spin on both serves and overheads, we try to keep our opponents neutralized from attacking from the backcourt; as a righty/lefty combo, we find sometimes we can create more pressure on the net team with our forehand drives and blitzes from the middle of the court.”
Where do you see yourselves having[...]
Close to 100 players took part in seven hours of clinics over the course of two days hosted at the Kingsway Platform Tennis Club in Toronto, Canada. Juan Arraya was joined by Mark Fischl, Brian O’Connor and Newfoundlander Mark Parsons, along with Toronto’s own Paul Stulac on the Kingsway courts and led a series of clinics and exhibition matches on a challenging weather weekend.
Adults and juniors who had never picked up a paddle took part along with seasoned level 1 players.Beginners, intermediates and advanced players had only one negative comment about the clinics – WE WANT MORE! [enlarge image to read more]
Some days you win, some days you lose, and some days... it’s hot – at least by paddle standards. Nevertheless, over 60 players braved the 88-degree temperatures on Saturday, October 8 to participate in an APTA-sponsored clinic and exhibition on the brand new Homestead Country Club courts. Homestead Country Club is located in Prairie Village, Kansas (about 10 blocks from Kansas City), and has about 300 members, many of them active tennis players on Homestead’s 16 hard courts. This summer, with great help and support from the APTA and its grant program, Homestead recently built two new platform tennis courts and began offering an economical seasonal platform tennis membership.
To launch the inaugural season, several pros came in for a Wilson-sponsored APTA/PPTA clinic and exhibition.
The Kansas City paddle community was excited to welcome Nathan LeFevre, Mark Fischl, Sebastian [...]
The Chicago Charities tournament has become second only to the Nationals for paddle treasure.
Good work and good play go hand in hand every year at the Chicago Charities tournament, where the proceeds benefit a charity chosen by the CC committee. Glen View Club of Golf, Illinois, hosted the highly-touted tournament, known for its quality of play.
Teams came from all over—including California, Canada, and Connecticut—to vie for the Charities cup and to support a great cause, The House of Peace Shelter. And no good deed goes undone—everyone received favors of warm picnic blankets and paddle DVDs for their participation.
Hall of Famers and former national champions dotted the draw sheet for both the men's and women's events. The women played on Friday and Saturday morning of a golden weekend. The worst element the women had to deal with was bright sunshine. With a field embar[...]
Camaraderie and Victories on the Courts Despite Wicked Weather
by Mark Berton
For this year's APTA Junior Nationals, getting there was half the battle. If you were coming from the West, driving and flying into Philadelphia was a relatively benign process. But the draw sheet demonstrated just how hard the traveling was for anyone coming in from the North and the East, as numerous last-minute cancellations whittled away players.
At the hosting club, Waynesborough Country Club, workers were out early clearing three inches of snow from the walks, and while temperatures hovered in the low 30s, the wind chill was in the low teens.
On the courts, though, you wouldn't know it, as kids who were shivering and putting on layers hut-side, quickly discarded layers as their games warmed up.
Boys and Girls 10s
Boys and Girls 12s Ben Delaney took his second gold at the Junior Nationals,[...]
We are proud to announce that Nindy Pike of Haverhill, Massachusetts, will be joining our team as associate editor/writer.
This new part-time position has been created because of the steady growth of platform tennis and the increased need for APTA member communication.
Pike was chosen from more than 50 qualified applicants from across the country.
In the summer of 2010 Wilmington Country Club built a new platform tennis facility. With four courts and a fantastic hut, the complex sets a high standard for any club that intends to build the “best” new facility. As WCC starts its second paddle season with the new facility, the number of paddle players has soared. This brief history may provide other clubs with a road map for going from “just okay” to great.
WCC was founded in 1901. It has always been a premier golf club in Delaware. The South Course (one of two 18-hole courses) was designed by Robert Trent Jones. It is consistently rated one of the top courses in the country. The tennis facility boats 17 tennis courts including the only grass courts in Delaware as well as three indoor courts. Year after year the squash program produces nationally ranked juniors and college players.
The sport of platform tennis experience[...]
In December, 2011, Hall of Famer Hank Irvine gave a two-day PPTA certification course at The Villages in Florida, a large 55-and-over retirement community. Their six ground-level asphalt courts were opened in March 2010. Since then, free lessons or clinics were held on Wednesdays and Fridays year-round by resident volunteer instructors who had played paddle before moving to Florida. The certified developmental coaches are now new members of the PPTA. They are now in the process of reviewing their teaching format based on what was learned from Hank Irvine's course, his suggestions and the PPTA manual.
This community is in its last expansion, growing from some 86,000 residents to reach about 110,000 by 2017. As more residents desire to learn to play paddle, the plan is for the new certified coaches to teach other residents to become volunteer coaches.
Hank's story is fascinating. He[...]
Tim was the 34th President of the American Platform Tennis Association (APTA) and served in that capacity from May 2009 through April 2012.
From an organizational perspective, Tim formally created a Committee structure for the Board to operate within, where a Committee Chair led every key APTA initiative and that Chairperson (and team of Board members/volunteers) was the champion of that initiative. This structure allowed every Board member to be an active member of the Board, lead an area of the sport in which they were interested and stay focused and organized on all projects in our sport. Committees ranged from ‘Grow the Game’, Rules, Platform Tennis Magazine, Branding, Seniors and more.
Tim focused his Presidency on 'Growing the Game' and the three primary Committee's committed to this cause were:
Grow the Game Committee: Chaired by Peter Lauer, the Board provided o[...]
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