Holy Cow! It’s November!
For those who haven’t been to the club lately, yes, there are a few cows, cattle, calves, and heifers living next door where the corn used to grow. I believe I own the only club where you can bring a kid in for a lesson and have him/her pet a cow on the way out! With the nights getting longer, I have one request. No cow tipping please.
More Staff Additions!
We are building a relationship with Western New England University with them providing us some of their men tennis players as instructors. Also, with this, you will likely see some of the kids hitting here and maybe even the entire team practicing here. While all these guys are great players, I love having them work with the kids as studies have shown younger kids much better connect with coaches more their age.
Josh Marx and Eston Fowler, current Western New England singles and doubles players, have joined the staff and are teaching junior programs on Wednesdays, our Thursday adult clinic, and filling in as needed.
High Performance Tennis Juniors
Ellington Racquet Club has the good fortune of having
Coach Wayne Harrell on our staff. Wayne is regarded as one of the best high-performance coaches in New England. He has coached a number of kids who ended up playing Division 1 college tennis including Ellington’s own
Lexi Kubas (teaching at ERC) and Donovan Rodrigues. As Wayne works with high performance juniors, he won’t be working with everyone.
I recently talked with the parent of one of Wayne’s students who told me how Wayne was more than a tennis coach for his child. Wayne helped the player when he was “lost” and he trained the player using methods that no others had ever considered. In the parent’s words, Wayne created a great tennis player, an even better person, and helped the entire family all while teaching the player a few hours a week and not requiring the player to be home-schooled or on the court without end. As the owner of ERC, those were great words to hear about one of my instructors. As a parent, they were even better feelings to have had shared with me. Please let me know if you have a potential high-performance player. ERC and Wayne can accommodate him/her.
Stringing and Other Racquet Maintenance
Remember, our own
Scott Barker regularly strings and re-grips tennis racquets, if you have the need for such. Just leave your racquet at the front desk and we’ll get it back to you, usually in 48 hours.
Sunday Tennis Mixed Doubles
Okay, we said mid-October, but we really mean ASAP. We will be restarting our Sunday mixed doubles play. If you and a partner wish to join us, please let me know. If you’d like to join us and need a partner, let me know that too. We’re looking to play on Sundays from 3:00 to 5:00.
A Pickleball Tournament
Pickleball players, our friends from
UCONN Pickleball will be helping us conduct a DUPR-rated pickleball tournament at the end of January/beginning of February. The tournament winner will be rewarded with a cash prize. Stay tuned for more details!
DUPR Ratings – And How to Get One
DUPR, or Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating, is a rating system for pickleball players. The DUPR rating system ranges from 2.0 for beginners to 8.0 for professionals. DUPR ratings are based on a player’s wins and losses, the rating of their opponents, and whether the game was rec. play or a tournament. Players also receive separate ratings for doubles, singles, and mixed doubles.
To get a DUPR rating, you'll need to:
· Go to the DUPR site (or download the mydupr app) and sign-up for a DUPR account.
· Play at least 5 rec games and enter them in your DUPR profile. Or play in DUPR tournaments or leagues.
· DUPR will give you a provisional rating after a few games are entered.
Pickleball Leagues…
We are looking to start an internal league on Tuesday nights. We expect play to occur 6:30 to 8:00 or 8:30. It would be great if we could get the leagues going in early December. The league will be co-ed. Please
let us know if you’d have an interest in joining our league.
Your UCONN Pickleball Team
The UCONN Pickleball team will be hosting Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) on Saturday morning, December 6th at Ellington Racquet Club for their next home match. Please stop by and check out the action.
Let’s Keep in Touch!
That’s it for this month, but please keep in touch with any questions or suggestions you have. This is your club!
Thanks,
Tracy French
Ellington Racquet Club
Email: Tracy@ellingtonracquetclub.com
Phone: 860-962-9641
