EL link to US tennis academy

WHEN you hear the familiar twang of the voice you may be justified thinking the kids are being taken through their drills on the tennis courts by an American coach, writes Eddie Botha.

But the voice belongs to Ashley Hobson, a homegrown Eastern Cape product, who runs Hobson Performance Tennis Academy in Snellville, Georgia. The son of Mike and Wendy Hobson of Gonubie, he graduated with a BA LLB from Rhodes university, before deciding he’d rather coach tennis than spent hours in lawcourts.

His CV is impressive. Before moving to Snellville, which is a 30 minute drive out of Atlanta, he coached the Davis Cup teams of Hong Kong between 1996 and 2001.

During that time he also coached Hong Kong’s Federation Cup team. Other accomplishments include World Youth Cup and World Junior tennis coach.

I visited Hobson’s academy to watch how he and partner Chris Palmer, who also coached in Korea and the Caribbean, take an outstanding group of school kids through their paces. At first, because of rain, the pupils were given a psychological build-up by Palmer. Video clips are used to analyse a player’s performance, as well as strength and weaknesses.

Then off they went to the fully- equipped gym, which forms part of the tennis complex, and that is owned by American businessman Brian Malone. This includes a full length pool, a number of courts, two of which have American claycourt surfaces.

After completing their gym exercises, the kids were taken to the courts, where Hobson and Palmer put them through a number of routines – volleying and practicing kick serves over nets of which the heights had been extended.