Why is Ireland so crap at producing tennis players?

estebancambias · 08-06-2008 03:25PM #1

Discuss.

Weather(shouldn't be), bad coaching, just plain lack of talent?

GBX · 08-06-2008 03:28PM

Cos those who are good with sticks/bats/rackets etc generally play hurley.

estebancambias · 08-06-2008 03:31PM

Do we have any players of note?

My grandmother was a Murray so I'm thinking I might have the tennis Billy gene King. That my friends is comedy gold.

Xavi6 · 08-06-2008 03:44PM

We've never had anybody crack the top couple of hundred I don't think.

At underage we seem to be pretty good. One or two people I played juniors with/against got scholarships abroad. To be honest a lot of kids, like myself, lost interest around 17 and never kept going. I played at Leinster standard and I know pretty much everyone in my age bracket gave it up after they finished juniors. There wasn't any real incentive to keep playing when there are team sports out there that you do with your mates.

estebancambias · 08-06-2008 05:32PM

Didn't some Irish lad Pim win the first Wimbledon?

Thats impressive there Xavi.

davyjose · 09-06-2008 02:41AM

estebancambias wrote: »

Discuss.

Weather(shouldn't be), bad coaching, just plain lack of talent?

Popularity & Lack of facilities, I would say. They go hand in hand - if more folk played, there'd be more facilities (I mean courts obviously); if there were more facilities, more people would play.

Xavi6 · 09-06-2008 02:50AM

davyjose wrote: »

Popularity & Lack of facilities, I would say. They go hand in hand - if more folk played, there'd be more facilities (I mean courts obviously); if there were more facilities, more people would play.

Wouldn't agree on lack of facilities, certainly not in Dublin anyway. There are private clubs all over the place and pretty much every decent sized public park has some form of public courts.

I was a member of Castleknock for years before I moved over here and they have fantastic facilities.

estebancambias · 09-06-2008 03:45AM

Sort of off-topic but is there any clay courts in Ireland? I love playing on clay.

kmart6 · 09-06-2008 04:16AM

Yeah,there's one in Arklow afaik!

People just don't continue to play it as they get older!

GoneShootin · 09-06-2008 10:23AM

Facilities isn't an issue, but cost is. You've only two routes open to you:

1) Natural god given talent + years of expensive coaching = possibility

2) Natrual god given talent + scholarship to some foreign land = better possibility

There's a lad in Cork here who came to tennis via the "Parks Tennis" scheme. No expensive club membership needed, as tennis sessions were organised for inner city kids on tarmac courts. He was spotted as a guy with talent and was singled out for coaching. He eventually won a scholarship to some American University.

There's a issue of population aswell, and accesibilitiy of tennis at grass roots level. You can find a GAA pitch in almost every town in Ireland, but you won't find a tennis court nearby.

Another issue is the clubs themselves. So many clubs are ran by the same old committee year in year out, and the clubs themselves are only interested in the social side, with no real focus on nuturing talent.

davyjose · 09-06-2008 11:35AM

Xavi6 wrote: »

Wouldn't agree on lack of facilities, certainly not in Dublin anyway.

Hmm, I still think you're over-estimating the amount of courts available. If 1 in 5 kids in Dublin decided they wanted to play Tennis tomorrow, could they? I don't think they could.
Certainly I could be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge there isn't one public tennis court in Tallaght - a population centre of well over 50,000 people.

Marshy · 09-06-2008 11:54AM

Compare us with the UK though. They have a population of around 60 million and have only really ever had one world class player at any time ie. Murray now and Henman before him. What chance do we have with a population of 4 million. The fact is its very much a minority sport here.

jackdaw · 09-06-2008 04:24PM

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this , but it's the snobby attitude of clubs in Ireland, like sutton in Dublin, so its open only to rich kids ..

also they're silly rules like only whites allowed on court .. ridiculous ..

I'm living in Barcelona now and in a good club, we have pros emerging at our
club and there is no nonsense rules like that one, also the courts are open to all kids from different backgrounds..

Also the surfaces in Ireland are **** .. that false grass ? savanahh ??

its crap .. there is no pro tournos that have that surface,
more hard courts are needed ..

Xavi6 · 09-06-2008 04:56PM

davyjose wrote: »

Hmm, I still think you're over-estimating the amount of courts available. If 1 in 5 kids in Dublin decided they wanted to play Tennis tomorrow, could they? I don't think they could.
Certainly I could be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge there isn't one public tennis court in Tallaght - a population centre of well over 50,000 people.

Well I'm from D15 and off the top of my head I could think of at least 5 or 6 different public tennis courts that are involved in the Kit Kat tennis. That's how I started out before I started playing seriously. In my experience the facilities are there and there's a large amount of kids playing the sport at a young. It's when they get older and can't play soccer, GAA, hurling and tennis that the decision is usually made to drop tennis first.

jackdaw wrote: »

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this , but it's the snobby attitude of clubs in Ireland, like sutton in Dublin, so its open only to rich kids ..

also they're silly rules like only whites allowed on court .. ridiculous ..

I'm living in Barcelona now and in a good club, we have pros emerging at our
club and there is no nonsense rules like that one, also the courts are open to all kids from different backgrounds..

Also the surfaces in Ireland are **** .. that false grass ? savanahh ??

its crap .. there is no pro tournos that have that surface,
more hard courts are needed ..

Savannah courts with good drainage best suit our weather. There are plenty of indoor/hard courts around too. Outdoor hard courts just get flooded too easily.

MisterAnarchy · 10-06-2008 12:04PM

jackdaw wrote: »

Also the surfaces in Ireland are **** .. that false grass ? savanahh ??

I am not a fan of Savannah either.
It varies hugely in consistency especially with the layers of sand applied.
We used to have hardcourts at my club but they replaced them with Savannah as the older players were complaining of the impact on their knees.
Big mistake in my opinion ,the hard courts are a much better surface .
If the Savannah courts are wet they are almost unplayable,ball shoots off at crazy low angles.

chiefwiggum · 14-06-2008 10:46AM

i was involved in the junior tennis coaching for national squads for years and the sport faces some serious problems firstly i agree the lack of top coaches in the country is a major stumbling block,ireland has many other sports to compete with tennis like soccer rugby football and hurling all of which are much cheaper to play which makes tennis look like an elitist sport,it is expensive to play if you are any good between racquets which can cost up to 250-300 squid each and coaching which could be up to 10 hrs a week at up to 50 squid an hr for the best coaches here,we have produced some top players but they get offered big scholarships to the states where the college circuit is probably the toughest in the world and they decide to use their teenis to get their degrees and return to social tennis and the ones who do want to progress to pro status decide to do stupid things on nights out in grafton street

GoneShootin · 14-06-2008 11:31AM

chiefwiggum wrote: »

racquets which can cost up to 250-300 squid each

You're joking right? That's only if you walk in blindfolded into a high street store and ask stupidly "gimmie your best racket".

Shop around online and you'll get far better prices.

davyjose · 14-06-2008 06:13PM

Hint hint ^^^^^^

GoneShootin wrote: »

You're joking right? That's only if you walk in blindfolded into a high street store and ask stupidly "gimmie your best racket".

Shop around online and you'll get far better prices.

BDPinDublin · 26-06-2008 07:49PM

I bought a quite good Wilson tennis racket for 35 euros and I'm playing for free in Marlay Park (near Dundrum). I'm from Brazil and I disagree tennis is a sport for minority here (ok... can be, but by population option). In Brazil there isn't any public tennis courts.

And about famous tennis players in Ireland, I think it's possible to appear some (people just need to play more) - Switzerland have less than 8mi inhabitants and Federer is always playing in international championships.

I use to play with a friend of mine. If there are 2 buddies looking for a tennis match 2 x 2, just PM and let's see who is better!!

Goodluck2me · 30-06-2008 08:26PM

chiefwiggum wrote: »

the ones who do want to progress to pro status decide to do stupid things on nights out in grafton street

wow thats harsh

geoff29 · 30-06-2008 10:19PM

goodluck2me wrote: »

wow thats harsh

he was referring to an incident which happened a year or two back...

I know another person who got a great scholarship overseas but blew it because he wanted to drink and the rules said he couldn't. He got kicked out. I'm sure there'll be a mixed reaction to that comment but - I doubt the Federer Express and those lads would have been as thrilled by drink as the Irish are.

I doubt I need to say it but, Tennis is viciously hard. You are one person by yourself - if there are any mistakes, whether due to lack of prep or whatever, you are left totally exposed. It's not like rugby etc. where even if you have a bad day - you can be rescued by your team-mates.

So, like other solo sports, it takes huge determination and drive - and that seems to be something Irish people possibly lack: that total and utter discipline. We have heart - but do we have that discipline???? It seems that those out in eastern europe have it - they see the chance to better their lives. And hats off. I remember reading about how Ivanisevic was solving family problems when he was a teen with the money he earned - and how I think he had to do military service at some point in between?!!?

Having said all of that, I do agree that we don't have the facilities either. Now I know there are courts in parks etc. but - when you are a teenager in that 'will I give it everything' mood - you prob want to play in a club and the fact is that, in Dublin at least, playing clubs is damned expensive. Even now - I frankly can't afford to do so.

And again, I agree there's huge competition with other sports

ByrdsFan · 02-07-2008 01:15AM

goodluck2me wrote: »

wow thats harsh

more harsh on the chap left brain damaged becuase of it

I do believe if as many kids in Iireland played tennis as they do football, we would find a world class player.

I dont think we have had any Irish in the singles at Wimbledon since Matt Doyle in the 80s. I do hope one day we get a world class player who will be challenging for slams.

loyatemu · 03-07-2008 03:12PM

same problem they have in the UK - its an elitest sport, theres a lot of competition from other sports (rugby & cricket there, rugby and GAA here, as well as soccer obv.).

The number of public courts is increasing but because there weren't many in the past there isn't much of a culture of playing tennis outside its usual middle-class enclave.

The brits produce the occassional good player purely because they have a much larger population than us - in comparison to similar sized countries like France and Spain, they are doing very poorly.

Mr.Nice Guy · 05-07-2008 05:29PM

You would think we'd be able to produce good tennis players since hurley generally requires good hand-to-eye coordination.

I think there needs to be someone to fly the flag for the country in order for there to be enough interest generated in the sport. It's just not popular enough over here.

Pigman II · 06-07-2008 11:42AM

We're (for the most part) a classless society. We need a solidly defined upper class in order to breed a proper tennis culture in this country.

GoneShootin · 06-07-2008 01:17PM

Pigman II wrote: »

We're (for the most part) a classless society. We need a solidly defined upper class in order to breed a proper tennis culture in this country.

Sherifu · 06-07-2008 01:41PM

estebancambias wrote: »

Discuss.

Weather(shouldn't be), bad coaching, just plain lack of talent?

We have a small enough population, but that's not the main reason. I think it's the small number of courts / people actively playing it in Ireland.

I usually play twice a week on clay and I love it. I used to play in Ireland weather permitting. Too much wind.

kinaldo · 06-07-2008 05:30PM

Very few Irish seem to have more than a passive interest in tennis outside of Wimbledon. I played in school at junior level for a while but I wasn't very sporty back then. When I really fell in love with tennis I looked into joining clubs around Ballsbridge and aside from the cost you need two references from existing members. Almost as elitist as golf, but at least golf generates a lot more interest and we can produce the odd world class player.

MisterAnarchy · 07-07-2008 02:44AM

loyatemu wrote: »

same problem they have in the UK - its an elitest sport

Bull****
Elitist ? Are you joking me ?
Racket membership at my local club is 250 euro a year .
4 all weather floodlit tennis courts and 2 squash courts ,play as much as you want.
Thats less than half the cost of joining most gyms.
I know what I'd prefer to spend my money on.

Xavi6 · 07-07-2008 02:53AM

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

Bull****
Elitist ? Are you joking me ?
Racket membership at my local club is 250 euro a year .
4 all weather floodlit tennis courts and 2 squash courts ,play as much as you want.
Thats less than half the cost of joining most gyms.
I know what I'd prefer to spend my money on.

100% agree. Most people have only started going to the gym cause it's become 'cool' in today's society. Feck that, I hate running for no reason i.e., on a treadmill, but I'll run around a football pitch or a tennis court all day if I can.

MisterAnarchy · 07-07-2008 03:00AM

Xavi6 wrote: »

100% agree. Most people have only started going to the gym cause it's become 'cool' in today's society. Feck that, I hate running for no reason i.e., on a treadmill, but I'll run around a football pitch or a tennis court all day if I can.

Wholeheartedly agree.
Tennis is great exercise and a great sport as you use most of the muscles in your body.
Plus its fun.

Why is Ireland so crap at producing tennis players?

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