FUTURES TENNIS ACADEMY

Why Choose Futures?

• Futures Tennis has been recognized by Tennis Australia as a national multi-award winning Newcombe Medalist.
• We have thirty years of experience and history.
• As one of only fifteen nationally recognized Hot Shots mentors we are considered “Hot Shots” specialists.
• Among our venues we have the largest community club in Victoria offering modern facilities with a vast selection of services & programs.
• Convenience & comfort! We’re large enough to cater for your every need, but small enough, to know you by name.

National & State Awards
2010 Winner Tennis Coaches Association of Victoria “Club Coach of the Year”
2011 Winner Victorian Tennis Awards “Most Outstanding – Hot Shots Excellence”
2011 Winner Australian Tennis Awards “Most Outstanding – Hot Shots Excellence”
2012 Winner Australian Tennis Awards “Most Outstanding – Club Coach Excellence”
2016 Winner Australian Tennis Awards “Most Outstanding – Club/Centre East Malvern Tennis Club”

What do we believe?
We believe in inspiring the next generation of tennis players, and particularly, pride ourselves on developing and growing participation at the grassroots level. Therefore, our goal, is to develop family friendly community tennis hubs where people come to play our great game.

Furthermore, since playing tennis requires a range of “life skills” we also believe tennis enhances peoples lives . Obviously tennis is about developing a players technical, tactical, physical and psychological skills, but, it also develops the social, emotional and behavioural skills as well.

The sport of Tennis commenced in Europe, at the end of the 11th century, when players first hit the ball with the palm of their hands. After 800 years, to this day, it remains a truly unique world leader in sport!

It can be a, team or individual sport, equally as popular with boys and girls. You umpire it between yourself and your opponent. You can play with and/or against the same and the opposite sex e.g. mixed doubles. The game is based on standard, not age, therefore you can play with and against all age groups. You can play it with the entire family, all year round, with minimal equipment, indoors or out and whilst playing, without realising, you are engaging in a healthy lifestyle. It is played by all countries, with equal opportunity, world wide, including adding to the game their own diverse cultures, religions and ethnicities. Subsequently, it is the most inclusive of sports with a rich and long history of bringing people together, all over the world, for your entire life. No wonder it has lasted for so long…

Lastly, since 1973, we have had the first professional sports people paid to play with equal pay for male and females, right back when a young Aboriginal girl called Evonne Goolongong from outback Australia became the first mother to be crowned the number one player in the World. What an amazing sport!

This is why we love the game and this is why we promise to promote and foster it at every opportunity.

 ABOUT US

We conduct a vast variety of innovative and progressive developmental tennis coaching/competition programs and pathways for all players but in particular, the youth, to grow grassroots tennis. Futures Tennis is committed and strives for quality delivery by: 1] providing an environment that fosters implicit learning 2] implementing only approved International Tennis Federation [I.T.F.] teaching methodologies and 3] by providing exemplary customer and professional advise.

Futures Tennis Academy has operated as a leading Australian tennis coaching company for a period of thirty years. The company commenced in 1986 after Company Director, Wes Horskins, returned from playing the ATP world circuit for six years. Whilst over-seas Wes coached for two years at the prestigious Hazza Del Algarobbo Tennis Centre on the Costa Del Sol in Spain.

After resettling to Melbourne Wes pursued his coaching career by first completing the T.C.A.V. Club Professional Coaching Course and then later became qualified as a Master Club Professional, the highest qualification in Australia. Wes’ role is now to mentor Futures Tennis coaches and guarantee quality control for all coaching programs.

Futures Tennis is the only academy in Australia to be recognized as the nations best academy in two coaching categories “Hot Shots” 2011 and “”Club Coach” 2012 and to have won the “Most Outstanding Tennis Club” in 2016 by Tennis Australia.
Wes is the Director of the company. FTA also employs a Marketing Manager and Operations Manager. FTA has ten full and part time coaches, two of those being Head Coaches. All coaches are Tennis Australia Qualified, some having run their own businesses, while others are from interstate or over-seas. FTA has international coaches from France, Germany, Spain and New Zealand. F.T.A. coaches attend regular Tennis Australia Professional Development seminars to update knowledge of the latest teaching techniques and coaching philosophies.

Our Vision
To be the most respected grassroots tennis operator and coaching academy in Australia
Our Mission
Futures Tennis designs and implements a vast variety of innovative and progressive developmental tennis coaching programs and pathways for all players but in particular, the youth, to grow grassroots tennis. Futures Tennis is committed and strives for on court quality delivery by: 1] providing an environment that fosters implicit learning 2] all coaches being qualified and professionally developed to the highest standards and 3] exemplary customer service and professional advice.

To achieve this objective Futures Tennis maximizes and leverages our strategic alliances with Local, State and National Governing bodies and participates and promotes grass roots programs such as: Hot Shots, Cardio Tennis, Mums and Tots, Tennis in Schools, School Partnership, Community Play, Kids on Court and the Australian Open Kids Day programs to offer and increase the widest possible participation.

Our Values
FTA is passionate about tennis and believe it to be the most equitable and inclusive of all the Worlds Sports. Tennis is the only sport: which all nations play, of all colours; of all religions; from the very young to the very old; with equal numbers of both genders; including the gay and lesbian; or the indigenous; can be played by both a team or individual; or even by a male with a female; one can play at world level with millions watching, or by oneself against a wall; it offers equal pay, recognition and opportunity for both genders; it can be played indoors or out and does not require more than just a racquet and a ball; it allows equal prospect for success regardless of one’s natural born size or physique; it has recognized and established International competition pathways for the both intellectual or physically challenged and provides, at the same time, an inmeasurable benefit to society, both physically and socially, by way of healthy lifestyle and family and community cohesiveness.

Yet for what is such an inclusive sport, with a tradition and history spanning and evolving over a hundred years, tennis still manages today to challenge, as it did when first invented, every aspect of human endeavor – physically, mentally, tactically and technically.

For all of these reasons, we believe tennis is the greatest of all sports and we pledge to promote and foster the game with this believe and passion at every opportunity.