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Slick
Posts:20
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| 02/22/2008 12:51 PM |
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ok, I was joking, sort of....
Here's some good stuff done for juniors on a consistent basis:
Hall o'Fame - free tourny entree, and a fundraiser dinner which contributes to....
checks for juniors to cover costs of Nationals, if they attend
*this doesn't cover the whole thing, it usually covers entree fee with some left over, depending how far away the tourny is.
Last year we had a pre nats "work shop" with Goth, Grandberg, and Hart. This was helpful for drilling purposes mainly (mechanics,serve, controling center court, etc.) Jake B also demonstrated some of the ladder drills that the national team does.
what else? Am I missing something? I think I covered the main things.
while this is all fine and good, it's not a program in my opinion, junior turnout at tournies is irregular, and juniors typically only play if they arrange it privately. Annual workshops do not consistute a program unless say, it was a weekend program.
I really don't have answers to a lack of junior involvement, but I think it's a crucial point to talk over for growing an enthusiastic base for the game.
I think it would be best to approach this from a club level, the state organization should loosely monitor the whole show, but the initiative must be taken by club pros, owners, etc. obviously MRA members aren't going to patrol for poor junior involvement.
Club initiative would be cheaper tourny rates (covered), regular junior racquetball (WITH INSTRUCTION!), and a group effort to get kids out of the club to other tournaments
granted getting a kid to a tournament without their parents may not be possible for younger players, but it was at the very least crucial for growing MY interest in the game
I also think creating opportunities for juniors form other clubs to meet adds to this, my favorite, most memorable matches are pretty much all with Juniors, oh, we had some fun goofing around too.
any ideas????
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TonyPierre
Posts:170
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| 02/22/2008 1:13 PM |
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Ya I have been struggling with this for a while. This is what we are doing this year at olympus:
6 saturday program through community ed and rec, 2 age groups.
we got around 25 kids to sign up. Thats WAY more than when I had a standing saturday morning thing. I had maybe 6 kids that took advantage of that.
Tomorrow is the first day of this, and I am excited to get the kids to know other kids that play, so after the program is finished, they can play with their little buddies.
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TonyPierre
Posts:170
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| 02/22/2008 1:17 PM |
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| Where did you,nick and eric meet? At a local tourney or a state one? |
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Slick
Posts:20
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| 02/22/2008 2:44 PM |
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met them at Olympus, I got to know them through various other tournaments including state.
I think some input from Kyle Snesrude would be appreciated here, he was tightly involved with junior rball at one point
25 kids is alot, what's the distribution between the age groups?
I have a hard time holding 4 kid's attention, much less 10 or so
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TonyPierre
Posts:170
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| 02/22/2008 3:07 PM |
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ya I will have help, there is no way I could do that alone
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esnesrud
Posts:21
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| 02/24/2008 11:11 AM |
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| i will talk to my dad about it but he wont come to the forum - doesnt know how to use a computer. |
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esnesrud
Posts:21
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| 02/24/2008 11:14 AM |
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| tp how many kids actually showed up becuase there wasnt 25 but it was still a good turnout. |
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TonyPierre
Posts:170
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| 02/24/2008 8:51 PM |
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we had maybe 3 no shows, hammer you should have taken some kids off of chad and brought them into another court
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TonyPierre
Posts:170
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| 03/31/2008 11:47 AM |
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We had a great 6 session program. It ended with a 30 kid racquetball tourney.
here are the pics
http://picasaweb.google.com/vinneeee/Kidspics
We really need to do more of this. |
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