Ryan Golesworthy has been selected to attend a Talent ID camp at Bath University

Totally Tennis Mini Tennis performance player Ryan Golesworthy has been selected to attend a second Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) South West Regional Talent ID camp at Bath University after his first successful visit in December.

Six-year-old Golesworthy was initially selected by Hampshire LTA Performance co-ordinator Heiner Wirtz-Fielding and was one of only seven players who attended the camp on December 13, joining three other Hampshire players, along with two from Dorset and one from Somerset.

The camp focused on both physical and tennis assessment and was part of the LTA's development and ongoing support of players by the Technical Services Department under the new structure for British Tennis.

The second camp will focus on these elements again, analysing players in all areas of physical development, including running and throwing skills.

Talent ID days are planned so that the coaches running the session can make physical, technical and tactical evaluations of each player.

The physical tests can include an overarm tennis ball throw, a sprint, which is measured at five metres, 10m and 20m, a standing broad jump, a hexagon jump and a star drill.

Height and weight are measured, plus grip strength. Results are then fed into a courtside laptop so that everything can be collated quickly and results fed back to coaches and parents.

The results collated will form the basis of a national database and will allow the research department to begin to establish norms for each test in each of the identified years of birth.

After his great success at both the two Alton and Fleming Park Mini Red Tournaments, Golesworthy travelled to Weybridge, in Surrey, to compete in the St George's Hill Mini Red event.

Twelve players were split into three boxes of four players with the winner of each box progressing to the final box.

After winning his box, Golesworthy came up against two strong home club boys, who were both a full year older. He held his own but finished third overall after a close match. With the score 9-9, he lost at sudden death 10-9.

Golesworthy was selected to be part of Totally Tennis' Mini Tennis Red Performance squad earlier this year after his potential as an up-and-coming young player was identified. Now he plays twice a week in these 1:4 ratio squads as well as having three individual lessons with coach Mike Gill, who also accompanied him and his parents to the talent camp at Bath.

As Head of Mini Tennis at Totally Tennis, Gill has a particular interest in the younger players at the club and he is working with Wirtz-Fielding, who visits the club fortnightly to develop the talented players who play in the Red and Orange performance squads.

Gill said of Golesworthy: "Ryan is a fantastic younger player and has reaped great success at the Mini Red tournaments. He played really well at St George's Hill and held his own, but the strong winds and older players proved too tough.

"I found the structure of the camp at Bath really helpful and it's really good to have a player, especially one so young, involved in the national Talent ID programme."

British number one Andy Murray's mother Judy, who is also a National coach, is now a LTA Talent and Performance Manager (TPM), working for the Technical Support Department headed up by Steven Martens. Mr Martens is using the mum's first-hand experience as both a coach and tennis parent to help up-and-coming talented players.

4:46pm Tuesday 29th January 2008

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