Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/623806
28 ITFWORLD WINTER 2015 L eading experts in coach education, player performance and sport science shared their knowledge at the ITF Worldwide Coaches Conference by BNP Paribas, which took place in Antalya, Turkey in November with 640 delegates from a staggering 94 nations. The Conference is held every two years and is the showpiece of the ITF's Coach Education Programme. This time it was jointly organised by the ITF and the Turkish Tennis Federation (TTF) under its President Cengiz Durmus, and had as its theme 'A Player-Centred Approach to Long-term Development: Participation to Performance.' Great Britain's Fed Cup captain Judy Murray spoke at the Worldwide Coaches Conference for the second time, four days before watching her sons Andy and Jamie help Great Britain lift the Davis Cup trophy. She also took part in a panel on women's tennis alongside Biljana Veselinovic, former coach of Lucie Safarova, Nadia Petrova and Alize Cornet, Tennis Canada's Debbie Kirkwood, and Niki Kelaidis, director of Olympic preparation at the TTF. Former world No. 12 Dominik Hrbaty spoke about his playing career and his more recent experience as men's tennis head coach at the TTF, and other speakers included returning presenter Mike Barrell (GBR); Francis Roig (ESP), former coach to professional players Feliciano Lopez and Albert Costa; Gabe Jaramillo (USA), who worked with eight former No. 1 players including Pete Sampras and Monica Seles; and Carl Maes (BEL), former coach of Kim Clijsters. Veselinovic returned as a presenter on day three, and Beni Linder, Swiss Tennis head coach for strength and conditioning, headlined day four with Turkish world No. 129 Cagla Buyukakcay taking part in his high-intensity session on the BNP Paribas Showcourt. The final day saw ITF expert Doug MacCurdy present on the volley, and there was an open discussion on tennis development with international experts Hayato Sakurai (JPN), Onur Binay (TUR), Federico Marques (POR), and ITF Development Officers Cesar Kist (BRA) and Amine Ben Mahklouf (MAR). WORLDWIDE COACHES CONFERENCE COACHES IN FOCUS Judy Murray presented a new starter tennis programme called 'Miss Hits' which encourages girls aged 5–8 years old to play Beni Linder demonstrated exercises and the fundamentals of movement training for tennis Murray, Niki Kelaidis and Debbie Kirkwood on the women's tennis panel Gabe Jaramillo presented his experiences of how a junior player transitions to a professional player