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New pro at Orangeville Tennis Club

April 30, 2014   ·   0 Comments

 

Tennis is on one of those sports that can be either very frustrating or very enjoyable.

Like golf, you are on your own when the game starts. If you lack the skills to play you will find it a challenge – but when you discover your place in the game, it’s a sport you can play for a lifetime.

The Orangeville Tennis Club is getting ready for the 2014 season with the windbreaks in place, a new court – to make it four – and a new tennis professional that will guide players through the summer.

Tennis pro, Joanna Phang, comes to the Club with a long list of credentials and a family tradition of being involved in the sport.

“I’ve been playing since I was 11,” Phang said of her start in the sport. “My Dad is a tennis pro in Malaysia and both my brothers play and teach in Malaysia as well.”

As an athlete, Phang represented Malaysia in the 1999 Federation Cup in Thailand and the 1998 South East Asian Games in Jarkarta Indonesia. She was ranked in the top ten in Malaysia from 1998 to 2001.

Phang is a certified Tennis Canada Instructor and attended Chicago State University in the NCAA Division 1, on a full scholarship.

She has been involved in teaching tennis at various clubs since she was 16 years-old.

After taking a break to start a family, Phang said “now that they (her children) are older, I’m back in to teaching tennis.”

For tennis enthusiasts, the 2014 season will be a good year to improve their game as Phang starts a series of sessions for the summer.

“I’ll be running summer camps and junior and adult lessons. Also private and semi-private lessons. I’m providing a service to members who would like to improve their game. There will be a lot of events going on. There’s the competitive A and B teams, house league, and some weekends there are doubles fun tournaments. When the members play a couple of these events, and feel they may want to improve on something, they will come to me and ask ‘can give them a lesson to improve on my back-hand, or my serve,”

Dedication and practice, Phang said, is the key to both improving your game and enjoying the sport.

“The first experience is important,” she explained. “If your first experience is mainly picking up balls and hitting the ball over the fence, it’s no fun. I want to change that. I want people to have fun. It’s a lot of ball and racquet control. When you watch TV and you see two pros banging the ball back and forth – it doesn’t happen the first day.”

If you want to learn the game the right way, the Club is offering an outstanding deal for this season.

When you join as a member, you can pay an extra $10 on top of the membership fee and you will get four lessons.

“It’s really to get people acquainted with ball and racquet control, having some fun on the court, getting to know some friends, and you find a couple of people you click with on the court,” Phang said.

The Club held a special open house and registration day on Saturday, April 26, to give visitors a look what the Club has to offer.

“Today is our registration day,” explained Club executive member Mary Philp. “It’s an open house when people can sign up for lessons and memberships. We have house league, mixed doubles, and the A and B inter-club divisions where we play other clubs in the region.”

The Club is run in co-operation with the Town of Orangeville and both contribute to the financial upkeep of the courts while the Club takes care of the maintenance of the facilities.

Several other groups, such as the high school tennis club uses the courts as part of the deal.

“These are the only functioning courts in the town,” Philp said.

There will be a another opportunity to register when the Club holds a second registration day.

That will take place on Friday, May 2, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.  in the club house behind the courts at Rotary Park on Second Avenue.

The Club offers something for everyone – from kids programs up to adults who take the sports seriously and want to play at a competitive level.

You can find out more by visiting the Club’s website at www.orangevilletennisclub.com.


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