The Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association welcomes Mr John Goede, ITF Development Officer for the English-speaking Caribbean, to the Bahamas. Mr Goede has been the Development Officer for the region since 2013. Over the past 11 years, we have seen his impact on the development of tennis not only in the Bahamas but the region. John has hosted numerous training courses for both coaches and players in the Bahamas. In 2022, John visited Abaco and Eleuther, where he conducted training sessions. In 2023, Mr Goede conducted the first-ever regional training camp at the National Tennis Centre in Nassau, Bahamas. The players came out of the camp energised and experienced very good results in the Cotecc Tournament held immediately afterwards.
During this visit, a number of training sessions were scheduled with juniors ranging in skill levels from developmental beginners to high-performance players. The first session featured the young children at the National Tennis Centre. The sessions included hand-eye coordination drills, consistency drills and competitive drills. Mr Goede also conducted sessions with our BLTA tournament players and national team players in Nassau and Freeport, Grand Bahama. Many of the top, talented junior players took advantage of the sessions at the YMCA in Freeport and at the National Tennis Centre. We know that they will put the instructions and tennis nuggets they received into practice.
The BLTA is appreciative of the support of the International Tennis Federation over the years and of John for his oversight of the region for the last 11 years. With his training of our Play Tennis coaches, we have seen a resurgence in the BLTA’s Play Tennis Bahamas program, which focuses on introducing new people to the sport. He has also led Level 1 and 2 Coaches Courses that the BLTA has offered free of charge to many of our local coaches, which in turn has positively impacted the quality of our players over the years.
We continue to receive invaluable guidance and support from him in his role as Development Officer. There were also productive meetings with the executives of the BLTA and the GBTA during his time here. President Perry Newton noted that “We have definitely witnessed the fruits of his training and oversight in The Bahamas. We are thankful to have him here again and to share his knowledge and expertise with us.”
Original Post Date: May 2, 2024
