BROOKE ELMER

I attended Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School for ten years and graduated in 2008. Currently I am at the University of Queensland studying a Bachelor of Psychological Sciences. I completed my Tennis Coaches Australia Development Coaching Course (level 1) in 2008 and have been working for Tall Gums Sports Centre since that time.

I began playing tennis at the age of seven and had my first taste of private and group lessons in Brisbane under Rod Frawley. I have always enjoyed playing sport and initially chose to pursue tennis to learn something different, and because I had always enjoyed attempting to play tennis with my Dad in our street at home. After almost three years of being coached in Brisbane, I moved and began having lessons at the Karalee Tennis Centre where I stayed for a number of years and entered tennis competition for the first time through Ipswich fixtures. To further my experience and confidence on the tennis court, I also became involved with tennis at the University of Queensland, participating in both an advanced squad and their own weekly competition. Following this were my first few attempts at tournaments.

Just prior to moving into high school in 2003 I became interested in the idea of playing for my school in the Queensland Girls’ Secondary Schools Sports Association (QGSSSA). This is where I first met the school coach Stuart Ware, a tennis coach and owner of Tall Gums, and soon after, I began having lessons and playing fixtures through Tall Gums Sports Centre. From the point of my introduction to the community and atmosphere at Tall Gums in 2003, my tennis flourished. I received regular private lessons as well as training in squads and throughout that time I have represented Ipswich at a district level as well as in competitions such as the Perrett Shield and the Thompson-Alder Cup. I continued to play regularly in Tennis Qld Sanctioned open and age tournaments and at its highest my ranking was around 50 in Queensland for my age group before I made the difficult decision to focus more on academics rather than tennis in the final few years of my schooling. In addition to this, I competed in the QGSSSA school tennis team for all five years of high school, three of which I was a member of the Open team. In those three years the Open team was also fortunate enough to represent Metropolitan West in Rockhampton in the Qld School Sport/Tennis Qld Secondary Schools Team Tennis State Finals Competition.

Tennis always has been and continues to be a large part of my life. I still compete regularly in Ipswich fixtures representing Tall Gums and occasionally in tournaments, but now with tertiary studies to manage I have refocused my attention and am doing my best to encourage and inspire younger players to improve their own tennis experiences in whatever capacity I can.