BTA family of players: Tebatso
Each person and every player is unique and needs to be treated in a unique way. In order that our players should be able to reach their full potential, we need to see their individuality in all its dimensions and respond to it accordingly.
We closely analyse their game, their personalities, their game styles, the whole array of their strong qualities and points to work on. On the basis of this analysis, we can create programmes that are tailored to our players’ needs at a given moment in time. However, the work doesn’t end at this stage. We see players in a dynamic way as well as their potential. The process of improvement never ends and our programmes need to be constantly adjusted. This belief is the foundation of our individualised approach towards training and communicating with our players.
Our full-time players are with us all year round and we become very attached to each and every one of them. Tebatso, who is a player from South Africa, joined our academy in 2016. She left her country to pursue her tennis dream even though it is never easy to leave your family and friends and start everything again in a completely new setting. However, Teba is a born wanderer, for her life is a journey and every chapter of the journey is a different adventure.
Mentally, she is a player who is naturally driven by intrinsic motivation. And this is truly a great asset. The source of her impressive work ethic are not trophies and rankings but self-improvement and the joy she gets from playing the game. It is unique as she doesn’t need to be pushed as far as everyday grind goes. She needs encouragement and support; she needs confidence and belief but she doesn’t need to be pushed to work hard. She is capable of putting in hours of work as if effort came to her effortlessly. Our whole team has always admired this feature of hers.
Teba always searches for ways to improve herself both as a player and as an individual. Very often she doesn’t realise how tough a person she already is. She is also too humble to see what an amazing character she is. This unawareness is one of the greatest things about her.
For our whole team it is a great pleasure working with Tebatso.
Eric, our fitness coach, has been working with Teba on numerous aspects. She has improved tremendously in the triple flexion (hip-knee-foot) fundamentals in changes of direction and acceleration. They were working a lot on her scapular stability and she has significantly improved on the external rotation degrees of her shoulder. Importantly, they have been able to improve her overall metabolic capacity.
