21 February 2011 | Tennis West

A record number of tennis coaches from around Australia and some parts of the world, descended upon Melbourne Park from January 13-15 for the 2011 Australian Grand Slam Coaches’ Conference.

“This was the fourth year we’ve run the Australian Grand Slam Coaches conference, and it was a record breaking year because we got over 250 people participating in the event,” said Travis Atkinson,  Manager – Coach Development for Tennis Australia.

Matthew Bull of Onslow Park Tennis Club in Perth was among the attendees at the three-day event.

The conference program had a talented line-up of speakers including Roger Federer’s coach Paul Annacone and the former fitness trainer of Andre Agassi, Gil Reyes.

Gil Reyes was a late addition to the conference program, which thrilled Bull, who recently won the Australian Tennis Award for Coaching Excellence in Tennis Australia’s kids’ starter program – MLC Tennis Hot Shots.

“I booked in to do the conference and was quite happy with the speakers, but to get Gill Reyes as well, it’s just a real added bonus,” Matthew said.

Bull was equally excited to hear from Annacone who has done an amazing job of developing the players at the highest level.

“Hearing Annacone speak was one of the highlights of the conference,” Bull said.  “He has worked with Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, and it was very interesting to hear more of an insight into those two players, and what they have done, what motivates them.  They are obviously very different in their outlook to the game and it was really good to hear him talk.”

Bull will be heading back to Western Australia next week to start implementing some of the things he learnt at the conference into his own coaching programs.

“I’m obviously heavily involved in MLC Tennis Hot Shots, and I’m passionate about the five to 14 year age group, so I am going to be pushing forward with that and developing that further,” Bull said.

Former professional player and Tennis Australia Academy Head Coach, Scott Draper, world leading biomechanist Professor Bruce Elliott, and skills acquisition specialist Dr Damien Farrow, were some of the other keynote speakers. As well as Michele Krause of Cardio Tennis USA, Pat Rafter’s former development coach Gary Stickler and Australian Institute of Sport Women’s Coach, Nicole Pratt.

Thank you to the following 15 coaches from WA made the trip to Melbourne for this conference:

Rick Arthur

Alesha Brown

Matt Bull

Simon Cockburn

Cameron Fenner

Andrijano Jareb

Glenn Lehman

Mark Leuba

Glen Popovsky

John Roberts

Kurt Robinson

Richard Sampson

Colin Thompson

Jamie Venerys

Andrew Woodward