ABOUT ME

Hi. Not an inspirational title for a page, but I guess this bit is �about me� so it�ll have to do.

My name is Bruce Tarran. From February 2007 I have joined a great club called The Leicestershire Lawn Tennis Club as Head Coach. Up to April 2006 I was Head Coach at the Penzance Tennis Club in Cornwall. Before this for 13 years I was at Totteridge Tennis Club in North London. The first club I coached at was Bounds Green, an excellent and friendly 3-court club in (you�ve guessed it!) Bounds Green, and after that at Waterfall Tennis Club in Southgate, a really pretty club (but watch out for the flies off the brook). originally with 8 courts although I think only 5 of them are now in working order.

I�m an LTA Licensed Professional Coach having passed my Pro exam way back when in 1989. Before I started coaching I used to play tennis all the time. I loved it like a drug. I still love it but can get depressed when I now lose to disrespectful pupils who four years ago came up to my knees. I don�t think I was ever a great player - I did play junior and senior County tennis for Hampshire and competed at Junior Nationals with very early exits - but I was always a bit of a hacker really. Although always a trier, and like I said - I loved it.

It is something I like a lot - seeing someone who has hardly picked up a racquet, coming to a place in their life where they develop a love for tennis that fills them up with enthusiasm. I think I see myself in them when I was younger. I suppose it doesn�t really matter what it is - trampolining, netball, tennis, whatever. It�s nice for a child to be special at something. And I think tennis is a particularly good sport for a kid to do - it�s social, provides good friends, a safe environment, it�s good for self-esteem as they improve - tennis is a great game for any youngster to play.

Having said this I don�t mean you have to be a County player or better to get a great deal of fun out of playing tennis. I�ve taught loads of kids, individually and in groups, who don�t play tournaments regularly but still love the game. And by being in a strong environment with positive peer pressure I do believe they can still be strong players in their level and continue to get a lot out of tennis all through their lives. That�s the great thing about tennis - there are so many levels. So find your level, and enjoy it. But strive to be as good as you can be - this is a very satisfying thing.

Originally I�m from Hampshire but I�ve lived in London since I was 18. I�ve worked as a coach for the South-East Region and for 14 years a Middlesex County Junior Performance Coach. Middlesex has become my adopted county and I think over the years I�ve worked with most of the County squads, boys and girls, in all age-groups. I was also coach to the Middlesex Poly High-Level squad when it was the only place of Higher Education in Britain providing a structured coaching schedule for National standard students.

In 2001 Totteridge was accredited as a National Junior Performance Club by the LTA, at that time the first in Middlesex. This was a great achievement for an outdoor 9-court club, and one which belonged to all the juniors who played at Totteridge through those years.

I moved on to Penzance in Cornwall in March 2005, the club achieving Performance Status in March 2006, and then to The Leicestershire in February 2007. I hope that the current crop in both clubs will go on to even greater things. But most important of all, whatever their standard, I hope that they will continue to play and enjoy tennis for the rest of their lives.

Bruce Tarran
2007.

As a tennis coach I�ve been more successful. I think I�m a better coach than I was a player. I�ve been individual coach to a couple of girls who were National champions in their age-group, and quite a few pupils who�ve done much better at Nationals than I ever did. And in addition to this very many kids, most of whom started with me as tiny beginners, who have been county champions, reached Nationals or represented their county.