"Twins"

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Here is a picture of one of my up and coming 8U QuickStart player Gracie. We happen to wear the same outfit this particular day in clinic. We are gearing up for summer tennis camp on June 18th. Gracie has been in my class now for almost a year at St. Johns Tennis Academy. Gracie has moved to playing my top two courts in class and plays a competitive game of tennis. She has had 10-20 ball rallies with fellow players in clinic. I look forward to seeing her play in our QuickStart team tennis and eventually to the bigger 60' court.

Saint Johns Tennis Academy U10 team wins 2nd place!

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This is one of Mills Fields first U10 teams for Quickstart Junior Team Tennis.  They recently played in several junior team tennis matches this past season on the new 60' regulation court for 10 & under.  This team has some talented players and we look forward to several of them keeping tennis as their favorite sport to play for a long time.  Congratulations on winning 2nd place for your first season in JTT!

April Sanchez.....your my hero!

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Featured in this article is April Sanchez, one of our junior academy players.  She just won second place at a tournament over at the St. Johns Golf and Country Club for 10 & 12 U.  The reason my caption reads "your my hero" is because of what and how she did in her tennis match leading up to the finals of this tournament.  April fell on the court during the match suffering a pull in the groin muscle of her right leg.  She favored the leg after her fall but played on in the match.  April is a pretty tough cookie in my book and she LOVES tennis!  This is a girl who will not give up easily and fights to win in a match. April had a decision to make after suffering from an injury but played on until she finished the match.  She won it!  She was on her way to the finals when the pain was too much to bare and had to withdraw.  Later on she found out the leg was bruised and swollen by the doctors.  It was wise of her to stop!  Let me tell you that is not an easy decision for an any avid tennis player to make.  It was a mature decision on her part and I commend her for playing tough til' the end and making that decision to stop when the pain was too much to bare.  Athletes sometimes make the wrong decision to not stop and they find out later that they do more damage to the site of injury when they don't rest and push on through pain.  Pain is an indicator that there is something wrong.

If you can stop and rest it's more likely that your recovery time will be easier and quicker which is sweet news to any athlete.  Athletes do not make very good patients!

Congratulations April!  You are becoming an awesome and beautiful tennis player in the eyes of your coaches at St. Johns Tennis Academy.  You rock!

Coach Heather Lester, Cheryl Keller & Bill Angus

Mills Field Tennis Courts to be resurfaced!! Courts closing in the upcoming week for repairs. (New Information added)

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Hello tennis families -

As we all know we have been anticipating the St. Johns County Parks and Recreation decision to resurface the 4 hard courts at Mills Field. The time has arrived and we are SO excited! I just received the announcement today that the courts will close in the next week.  We now do not have an exact date because the county depends on a purchase order to begin process.  Please be patient and check this website DAILY for notice of closing.

The courts will undergo a pressure wash, blasting, resurfacing, filling of cracks and crevices. The nets will be taken out and then replaced. The new colors of the courts will be green and outer boundaries will be red. We will then have permanent QuickStart lines painted as the newest edition. Hooray!

For all my enrolled students there will be a break in service for those two weeks, that is the only bummer! So we will resume your normal clinic schedule as soon as the maintenance is done in the window of two weeks without delay.

I will keep everyone posted by this website, so please check it often with updated pictures and notices from me. Thank you for your patience.

St. Johns Tennis Academy

St. Johns Tennis Academy U18 Advance team will go to nationals!

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The Summer Section Championships is a national qualifier, with the winning divisional teams advancing to represent Florida at the USTA Jr. Team Tennis National Championships. The 2011 USTA Jr. Team Tennis National Championships will be held in Surprise, Ariz., on Oct. 20-23 (14 and under division) and Oct. 27-30 (18 and under division) at The Surprise Tennis and Racquet Complex.

Jacksonville's team "904" won the 18-and-under Advanced championship, edging another Jacksonville-area team, the "St. Johns Acers." Team 904 was captained by Don McCauley and Cheryl Keller, and comprised of players Amanda Keller, Andrey Majkic, David Tossavainen, Ethan Wichtendahl, Jaclyn O'Brien Switkes, James Edward Gray, Katie Fitt, Lara Dedic, Mitchell McCauley, and Sarah Jane Jones.

Wimbledon Wednesday at Tennis Camp

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We recently celebrated Wimbledon on our own tennis courts during summer camp. We all decided to wear white, play tennis and eat strawberries to celebrate the grass court championship that was taking place all week long in England. We really get into our tennis! I must say everyone looked VERY sharp in all white during our morning drill time and competitive play. Congratulations Djokovic and Kvitova!!

Daytona Sectionals is so much fun!!

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Well, one thing the kids always look forward to is at the end of a hard season playing local matches in the Jacksonville area is to go to sectionals. Sectionals is where we get to meet and play all the junior team tennis teams all over Florida! We traveled to Daytona Beach off LPGA Boulevard to meet at the USTA Florida Tennis Center and compete with our teams. I think the kids like staying in the hotels and hanging out together the most, but they really like to compete on the tennis court too. It's a weekend full of tennis and the kids can't seem to get enough of it! This fall season we took two teams to Daytona, our U14 intermediate and our U12 intermediate teams. They played hard and competed well. I have to say I saw some really good tennis and excellent sportsmanship throughout the entire facility during this stay and it made me so proud to be a part of the sport of tennis. Tennis is a game of etiquette and the students at St. Johns Tennis Academy showed that very well this weekend. Congratulations and we are so proud of you!

Coaches Heather Lester & Bill Angus

2011 Prince Demo Racquets now in! Request to demo one during your clinic.

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We currently we have the new Prince EXO3 Black Team racquet currently used in the professional tennis circuit.I also have the new Prince EXO3 Red and White racquets ready to demo now. If you desire a new racquet with more weight, less weight, more power, more control please come talk to either Cecil Mella, Bill Angus or Heather Lester. We can help you find what you need!

Also, we are able to order Prince shoes, strings, and apparel. If your in need of new shoes because you can now see your socks thru the rubber on the bottom of your soles it's time to replace your shoes!

Layering & Hydrating in the Winter

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It's getting cold outside and Winter is here!  I see my students come out to the courts in shorts and smaller bottles of water based on the misconception that because it's colder they don't have to drink as much water.  "Oh Contraire Monfraire!"

Now that is cold your body is working twice as hard to keep warm!  You must hydrate just as much in the cold season as you do the warm season. So students please break out your larger water containers, unfortunately you do not retire those as you do your summer clothes!  You must stay hydrated just as much.

Layering clothing is essential. I would advise you start with an undershirt (possibly with wicking material to suck out moisture as you work out in clinic) as your first layer, then put on another thin shirt for your second layer on top of that and the third layer can be a pullover (fleece) or your school team hoodie.  Your fourth and last layer, which will peel first, is your jacket.  Yes!  You need all of these on very cold days when it drops below 50 and the sun goes down.

We will keep you moving but please stretch before and after clinic. Just because your young doesn't mean your not a candidate for muscle strain or pulls.  It takes your muscles longer to get warmed up in cold weather, so warm up slowly and stretch your body before and after your tennis lessons.

Our kids 7- 10 years love QuickStart Tennis at Mills Field!

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I have been teaching QuickStart Tennis for a year now at Mills Field and I love it when I hear the kids say to me "The class is over already Coach Heather?  When do we come back again?" My students have so much fun learning the sport of tennis thru games!  They are kept busy every minute of their hour lesson either with footwork drills, hand/eye coordination games, racquet handling skills with games and rally over the net with a partner.  I can teach and have 8 children busy playing tennis and having fun in one class.

The new format of QuickStart is a WIN to keep my students wanting to come back to learn more.

10 and Under Tennis
Rule Change

Daytona sectional championship...were back!!

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We had tons of fun in Daytona this last weekend, August 5-8th. St. Johns Tennis Academy entered into the summer sectional tournament with 5 teams (U14 beginner, U14 intermediate, U18 intermediate and two U18 advanced). It's a time to go and compete against all the other junior team tennis teams in the state of Florida. Most of us chose to stay in local hotels in the area of LPGA Boulevard in Daytona Beach where we can hang out with each other, as teams, when were not playing tennis and wake up as early as 7:00a.m. to play early matches beginning at 8:00a.m. Most of our teams played 2-3 matches per day and were absolutely exhausted by Sunday. It's a full weekend of sun, tennis, friends and family.

Most of our teams did pretty well. The winners of each division that finish in 1st place are eligible for Nationals competition located in Alabama in the fall. Our U18 advance team won first place last fall and advanced to Nationals winning 2nd place. Were very proud of that and you can see the banner in which they were awarded hung at the tennis courts at Mills Field. We hope to do it again next season.