Final week, Tennis Canada hosted the primary of three nationwide growth camps for its U15 Prospect Crew in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Current on the camp was Nova Scotia native Joni Colburne, an up-and-coming participant who was invited to hitch the U15 staff as a U12 athlete.
“It felt wonderful,” stated Joni when requested about her response to the invitation. “I wasn’t anticipating the invite, and I really feel like it’s an excellent alternative for my growth, hitting with the older women, and simply pushing myself even tougher.”
Born in 2012, Joni is the top-ranked U12 women doubles participant and No. 2 U12 women singles participant as of this March. She competed within the U12 and U14 Fischer Junior Nationals in April, the place she positioned first within the U12 women doubles division, third within the U12 women singles division, and fourth within the U14 women singles division.
“It’s a privilege to be at these camps,” she stated. “It’s a must to be disciplined on your self to indicate up on time and put together properly.”
Joni credited a lot of her growth on the camps to Tennis Canada’s high-performance coaches and workers, noting that she’s been working with “one of the best coaches in Canada; in all probability one of the best on the earth”.
Steve Mahar, Joni’s coach for a few years and Director of Tennis and Participant Growth at Tennis Nova Scotia, spoke positively in regards to the camps to the Chronicle Herald final week: “It’s turning heads right here. We’ve got all these gamers and nationwide coaches coming right here—a number of them for the primary time, and it actually places us on the map, and it’ll hold us within the dialog for extra camps.”
Though Joni plans to maneuver away from Nova Scotia to pursue a spot on the coveted Nationwide Tennis Centre introduced by Rogers in Montreal alongside her brother Caden, Mahar is thrilled along with her growth and optimistic about the way forward for Tennis in Nova Scotia: “Hiring the teaching workers that we’ve managed to get within the final couple of years has been enormous. After all, getting a few star gamers like Joni and Caden to interrupt via and begin creating perception in different youngsters. Now, behind them, we’ve got another U12 youngsters which can be climbing the nationwide ladder.”
This nationwide camp offered Tennis Canada’s U15 gamers with a chance to coach with the nationwide teaching staff on the Sobeys Atlantic Tennis Centre in Halifax, which was formally opened in November 2020.
Coaching with the U15 gamers, Joni has loved studying about “self-discipline, willpower, and being respectful to all people,” crediting the success of the off-court growth periods on the camp.
The nationwide camps are designed to enhance participant growth at a tennis fundamentals stage, particular to every participant’s wants. The high-performance teaching staff gives worthwhile alternatives for participant growth each on and off the courtroom to assist them on their path to turning into well-rounded tennis professionals.
“I’ve actually been having fun with it; it’s felt like a staff sport greater than a person sport to this point,” stated Joni, praising the camaraderie created via these camps.
The high-performance pipeline is designed to assist gamers like Joni attain their long-term tennis targets by transitioning younger gamers into worldwide competitions and high-level matches. Whereas Joni highlights an invite to Tennis Canada’s NTC as considered one of her greatest junior targets, in the long run, she hopes to develop into a top-10 participant on the WTA Tour and win a Grand Slam title.
