Mercury Engineering sponsor Ireland’s up and coming tennis players through the Paul Casey Tennis Academy for 2011 and 2012

The Casey Tennis Academy began in Riversdale Sports Club, in Glasnevin, back in 1989 as the brainchild of Paul Casey, who together with his brothers Conor & Owen started coaching groups of tennis players on the finer points of playing and participating in club, interprovincial and international level tournaments.

3 years after launching the academy and as a result of significant demand in new locations, Paul and the team moved to the Kilternan Sports Hotel and operated successfully there from 1992 until 2003. Following a years break in 2004, when Paul coached overseas, the academy operated in Bective Ltc in 2005 and is now located in Glenageary Lawn Tennis Club, where it has been growing and developing local talent since 2006.

The purpose of the Academy is to provide performance coaching to juniors who show an aptitude for tennis, at a fraction of the cost of private one to one coaching. The techniques being taught are the most up to date and current training principles, learned and studied continuously by the key members of the coaching team, all of whom coach and attend technical coaching workshops at both national and international level annually.

During the academy, the emphasis is on court work to ensure that the students are ‘doing’ the techniques correctly, but this key ‘doing’ element is greatly supported with practical tests on each of the 4 key areas that will ensure development and progression for the students. These are the Technical, Tactical, Mental and Physical components of Tennis.

The Academy runs for 3hrs per week, 30 weeks per year, and costs 1,200 euro, which compares extremely favourably with the cost of private one to one coaching fees, estimated at 5,400 euro annually, and even more favourably when compared to what the top Under 12s in IRELAND are investing, at circa 10,000euro per year to train.

For 2011 and 2012, Paul Casey is delighted to announce that Mercury Engineering have agreed to sponsor the academy. This very generous support has been provided, on a ‘no strings attached’ basis, which means that Paul can decide, depending on the areas of greatest need in the academy, how to best use the funding, to deliver what will be the most comprehensive academy programme ever.

To date the funding has been used to enable the academy provide over 60 hours of extra physical, technical & tactical training free of charge to the current participants. This equates to the students receiving 150 hours of top class performance training during the summer months and the difference in terms of advancement for the individuals is immense. Paul expects that the impact of the additional training hours, provided free, courtesy of Mercury Engineering, to be demonstrated at the end of this year in both the Leinster Tennis and Tennis Ireland rankings. Paul said, “I am not expecting miracles, just improvement based on what was covered and taught during the year.  If they do what they have been training to do in a Match Situation, the Results will take care of themselves”.

The overarching GOAL for students, who are developed through the Paul Casey academy system, is to secure a 4 year Tennis Scholarship to a Top University in America by the time the student finishes their secondary education, (leaving cert) at age 17/18.  Although this goal may not be achieved for every student, it demonstrates the high quality of coaching and expectations being provided by the coaching staff. 

To date Paul has helped secure Scholarships for over 20 Irish juniors at top US universities such as Harvard, Notre dame, Ohio State, Arkansas State, University of Houston among others. Many of these students went on to become Pro, Davis and International Cup players for Ireland when they completed their University education.

Since its launch in 1989, the Casey Tennis Academy has produced ATP Players, Davis Cup Players and over 30 Junior & Senior Internationals. The program started out with 26 juniors aged between 8 & 13. Of that group, 23 are still involved which is a great achievement, considering both the variety of distractions and the personal demands of the academy. This statistic is very commendable considering the wider drop out rate for students in this age category.

The Paul Casey Academy approach is all about high quality, performance improvement for each individual student and is a very intensive and focussed program. It is not for everybody, but to ensure goals and objectives are achieved and understood for each student Paul Casey personally assesses all students before admitting them to the academy.

In terms of Pauls experience and credentials, he has represented Ireland at both Junior & Senior level. He has been a member of the Davis Cup Squad, a National Coach for Tennis Ireland, and an Irish Olympic Qualifying Team Coach. In addition to team coaching, Paul has been a personal coach to 6 Davis Cup players and 6 ATP Professional players. Paul was also the Leinster Squad Head Coach for 10 years.

For further details or Enquiries, you can contact Paul direct on, 087-6770573, or via email at paulcasey72@hotmail.com.