DTB: Becker accompanies talent course, DTB sets up new junior teams

In the last two days Boris Becker,”Head of Men’s Tennis” of the German Tennis Association, accompanied a training course for a group of young male players at the DTB national base in Hanover.

At the side of DTB national coach Peter Pfannkoch and Jan Velthuis, the 50-year-old worked with top talents between 15 and 19 years of age on two courts every day from morning to night.”You can’t change the technique in two or three days, but you can explain new philosophies about world tennis to young players,”said Becker at a press conference at the headquarters of the DTB on Thursday afternoon. Becker continues:”What we had announced is now taking place: visits to the DTB federal bases, a close exchange with the national coaches – I enjoy my work a lot.”.

His focus in the days of Hanover was on tactical issues:”World-class tennis players change every 18 months. They learn new ways of playing so that their opponents can’t adapt to them so quickly. That’s why I’m trying to teach the young talents that, in addition to a plan A, they need a plan B and a plan C as well. At the end of the course, Becker drew a positive conclusion:” I am in good spirits that we have some talented young players. Becker had already visited the German Youth Hall Championships in Essen at the end of November and gained a first impression of the young talents there.

DTB Sports Director Klaus Eberhard also sees a positive development in German junior tennis. At the beginning of the year, the umbrella association adopted a new promotion concept to provide even more intensive support for the best national talents:”Our new structures in the competitive sports sector have raised our entire promotion of young talent to a significantly higher level. We are once again internationally competitive,”says Eberhard. The federal bases have been strengthened enormously in the past few months, the sporting management at the locations in Oberhaching, Stuttgart-Stammheim, Hanover and Kamen (accreditation by the DOSB is still pending) is now each with a national coach.

The youngsters from the DTB Talent Team will also benefit from this in 2018. With Daniel Altmaier (19), Louis Weßel’s (19), Marvin Möller (18), Rudolf Molleker (17), Henri Squire (17), Leopold Zima (17), Justin Schlageter (16), Moritz Stöger (15) and Max Wiskandt (15), the group of particularly strongly promoted players consists of nine young men and juniors. They are to be prepared for a professional career by means of comprehensive support and targeted, individual measures and are to be introduced step-by-step to the expanded world leaders.

The female junior staff will also continue to develop in 2018. Barbara Rittner,”Head of Women’s Tennis”, presented in Hamburg the new composition of the Porsche Talent Team, which has now been introduced five years ago. In addition, they receive extensive subsidies from the exercise bikes, additional units with fitness coaches, individual training plans from our Fed Cup fitness coach Mike Diehl or financial support for working with mental trainers. In this way, we relieve the families and relieve the players of a certain amount of pressure,”says Rittner.

In addition to the Porsche Talent Team, the Porsche Junior Team – a kind of “substructure” for nine of the best girls of the years 2002,2003 and 2004 – will be officially introduced at the beginning of 2018 “The focus will be on courses to which we invite the players, especially during the school holidays. We also want to promote these vintages more individually,”says Rittner. Rittner describes the recently extended cooperation with the automobile manufacturer Porsche, the premium partner of the world’s largest tennis association, as “a great success story”.

At the beginning of his second term in office, DTB President Ulrich Klaus is also looking positively into the future at the head of the umbrella organisation. Two and a half weeks after the DTB general meeting in Wiesbaden, Klaus said:”We will continue the successful work of the past few years and further professionalise the DTB by gradually implementing an Agenda 2020.” The 67-year-old emphasises above all the importance of the new competitive sports structure, which was made possible in particular by the first-time inclusion of the DTB in the basic funding provided by the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI). It is clear, however, that we want to further expand and optimize these structures. Our goal is to become one of the world’s top three tennis nations by 2020.”