The Tenzin Dolma family from the Kippax Tennis Club proudly supported their tennis enthusiast daughter through the program. Photos: 5 Foot Photography.
“You don’t have to be the best player to be a leader.”
That’s the message a former Canberra professional is sending to the future of Tennis ACT.
Now Tennis ACT’s women & girls lead, Alison Bai is rolling out a program to expand the minds of the future leaders of the tennis world – beyond performing at the highest possible level.
She says sport needs more than just good players.
“It’s not all about your performance or winning. Tennis is a great sport that needs leaders and we really want to educate the future generation of players on how to do that,” Alison says.
“The best thing about tennis is that everyone can play. You can play from when you’re eight until you’re in your 80s.”
A keen group of young tennis enthusiasts has spent the past eight weeks learning about what it takes to be a leader in the sport.
Tennis ACT started the 2024 Learn2Lead program earlier this year, inviting girls and young women to join in the fun and learn all things leadership by embracing different techniques to expand their knowledge.
The program, designed to equip young people with leadership skills and build their self-confidence in the field, took place online and in person.
Participants took part in an all-day launch event at the Canberra Tennis Centre in April. A series of online workshops followed in ensuing weeks with participants encouraged to embrace their inner leader.
Alison says the program’s first year, in 2023, had been a massive success.
“We had plenty of girls show an interest last year from tennis clubs from across Canberra all aged between 14 and 18 and the feedback was that they got a lot out of it.
“One of our girls from last year was so excited by the opportunity that she is now hoping to transfer the skills she learnt and work at the 2025 Australian Open which is great to see.”
The 2024 program saw 10 girls eager to learn about leadership in the game they most love.
One participant, year 8 student Peyton Greenhalgh has been playing tennis since early primary school and says the program is a great experience.
“My coach suggested I sign up for it and I’m really glad I did because it was lots of fun,” Peyton says.
To learn how to be a leader and better students, attendees discover how different people learn and why.
“We learnt a lot about different ways different people learn, including us.”
The girls took a series of personality tests to establish how they each best retained information so they could effectively pass on their skills to others.
“It was really interesting to see how some people understand things better in different ways; for example, some people are more visual, and some understand things better if they’re told or shown.”
Peyton, who plays tennis at Kaleen and at Canberra Tennis Centre, says she loves the game and the community element.
“I love getting to know people and making new friends, but it’s just a great game to play.”
Peyton will be joining her fellow tennis enthusiasts for a graduation ceremony to talk about everything they have learnt in the program.
“It will be really good to play a few games and talk about what we know because of the past few weeks.”
To get involved in all things tennis in the capital visit Tennis ACT.
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