Sports
May 14, 2010
Grassroots offers free string course

The recently established Grassroots Tennis Club is expanding its operations.

The club is now offering a Racquet Stringing Course to the public.{{more}}

Located at the Haddon Courts on Murray’s Road, the Grassroots Tennis Club is equipped with a new Gamma Stringing Machine.

The man behind the operations, Grant Connell, told SEARCHLIGHT that the main aim of the course, which is free to all participants, is to “teach the youths how to string a racquet. This would save costs when they are on tour.”

The course, which starts Monday, May10, will be conducted by Dr. John Frederick, who is a Tennis Scholarship recipient and who became a certified stringer while at collegiate level.

Sessions will run for two weeks on afternoons, Monday to Friday, from 4pm.

Officially opened February 24, Connell related some additional objectives of the course.

“We at the club seek to train two boys from Liberty Lodge which would allow them to have an alternative means of income,” Connell stated.

Connell said, once trained, the young men would be paid to string racquets brought to the Club by members.

“Once someone is trained, the machine will be accessible to them at a minimal cost,” he added.

Connell, a former President of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Tennis Association, is hopeful the local Tennis Association would distribute strings which they receive from the ITF so both the strings and the machine to restring the racquets would be easily accessible.

Set up mainly to cater for those who cannot afford a coach and court fees, the tennis programme at Grassroot Tennis Club continues to empower the youth of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.(RT)