Good morning Ryan Hanrahan, it’s good to have you here today.  Please introduce yourself and tell us your tennis story?

Good morning Mark, it’s great to be here. I run Velox Tennis & Velox Sports in Sydney, Australia.

I have been teaching and coaching tennis for 12 years now.

My passion is to grow the sport and make tennis more accessible for the wider community. Keeping the sport on people’s mind as a real option on a bigger scale is what I am hoping to achieve.

Thanks Ryan.  Please tell us a little more about the tennis facility you run in Sydney.  

Of course, Velox Tennis is located in South Sydney in a location called Sutherland Shire. I am based in Sutherland which is the centre of the area.

The local centre/facility has 4 courts run by the council the local Leisure Centre. The Leisure Centre attracts over 2,000 people through their doors each day.

The courts are also surrounded by 13 other sports. You can call it a sporting hub if you like.

Also, we run Multi-Sport & Table Tennis from the local Tafe (College) across the road. We train the students in their sports and fitness courses in Tennis, Table Tennis & Modified Multi-Sports and help them get work in the schools.

Which age ranges do you market your brand to, and how do you promote this to your community?

Our brand is marketed to students in Primary & High School which range from 4 to 18 years. We run adults programs as well.

We do a lot of our promoting through facebook advertising. I really believe it’s the most efficient way. We have a good presence within the Schools.

I am also the ambassador for StarsTV Sutherland. StarsTV is made of characters/mascots such as Sports Star, Fitness Star, Healthy Star & Active Star to promote to kids to keep healthy & active. We go around to School Fairs, Fun runs, Charity events and more to give a bit of cheer for kids and to promote the local businesses and schools.

The kids really love it and this really helps Parents and Kids alike to our programs.

How has COVID-19 effected your business plans for 2020?  Whilst a majority of us are on lockdown and not on court, what are you doing to keep yourself busy?  

Yes, yes. Covid-19 has put a halt to a few big things we are doing in the local community on the court.

At the moment we aren’t running any lessons as the courts have been locked with extra locks by the council.

I am busy putting together content that helps kids work on their match play in the home & backyards. This will be coming out very soon.

Have been working on a new incentive, Make Tennis Great Again.

Make Tennis Great Again purpose is to interact with the outside community e.g. Other Sports, Schools, Child Cares, College & University

We look after the people that matter in the community in their stages on life and also as a whole. We train others how to do this with their local communities wherever they are in the world.

Its interesting you mentioned multi sports earlier Ryan.  Do you think there is scope to integrate multi sports into coaching qualifications?  How would this help the tennis community?

Thanks for bringing this up. Multi-Sports play a huge role in Tennis. It’s the most Multi-Sport orientated Sport in the world.

A lot of Tennis training on and off the court combines many of the skills as a whole package, overlapping with many other sports.

Training coaches how to teach Multi-Sports give them a great foundation moving forward to understand how the body works.

Knowing how to coach and teach Multi-Sports also help get into the schools as schools as looking for Multi-Sport programs. You can stay in the school the whole year round rather than just a term.

Finally, tennis coaching is a tough profession to be in and there are many competitors out there.  What do you do to attract your players so that your programme stands out from the crowd?

This is a great question and I would love to put a different perspective on it.

But first let’s start with what we do to stand out. We pride ourselves on delivering Tennis as a whole rather than just lessons for all levels including 3-year old’s who have never played. We pride ourselves on teaching kids how to rally as efficiently and quickly as possible.

On the first part of the question, I don’t see that Tennis is saturated as a sport and I love to share my successes with other coaches to help the sport grow. We can leave the competition to the court.

Thank you very much for taking the time to chat with me today Ryan.  You are welcome to contact Ryan to ask any questions you may have via email on ryan@veloxtennis.com or you can visit his website by clicking here.  

Likewise if you would like to be interviewed in this format on a topic of your choice, please dont forget to contact Mark Wylam via Whatsapp on +353867922188 or email on info@sportsprosconnect.com

Mark Wylam (Owner Sportsprosconnect.com)