Sports Hero

Over 20 years ago, tennis was an expensive sport to play with a high entry threshold. Today, tennis is widely welcomed by the general public, and both men and women and the young and the elderlies can play this sport, making it one of the most popular parent-child sports in recent years. In this issue, we invited Mr. Matthew Cheng, the Chairman of the Federation of Community Tennis Clubs with this interview to elaborate on his experience in setting up the tennis club and contributions to the development of tennis.

Over 20 years ago, Strong passion that influences others

Mr. Mathew Cheng knew nothing about tennis but developed a strong interest in tennis after participating in a regional tennis class organised by the Government. In order to test his skill level, he participated in many competitions and won numerous awards. Later, he took a tennis coaching course and became a coach, and then set up a tennis club to promote tennis.

Mr. Cheng emphasised the integration of tennis into his lifestyle so that the affairs of the tennis club wouldn’t become a burden to him. He also introduced his wife and son to tennis, and made tennis a family activity.

Promotion from many aspects and highly effective training

Mr. Cheng knew that in order for one to become enthusiasm in tennis, one must first know about tennis. The tennis club organises many training classes in Sham Shui Po District for children, youths, members of the work force and elderlies to reach out to people on many levels. In order to increase the efficiency of promotion, he also started Christmas classes, Lunar New Year classes, and parent-child classes, etc., to attract more people to participate in tennis. He puts a lot of effort into arranging venues and often hosts events to allow tennis enthusiasts to compete and have more exchanges.

He established a simple and direct training method to teach children, and it has remarkable effects as you can master the basic skills after completing the summer vacation class. In addition to helping children develop interest in tennis, the tennis club also discovers potential athletes and recommends them to take professional training so that they can join the Hong Kong team in the future and become a new force in the Hong Kong sports.

Making good use of funding to popularise the sport

Mr. Cheng believes that the LCSD’s Community Sports Club Project is able to effectively promote and popularise sports by reaching deep into the community, which is very helpful to grassroots citizens. This Project arouses public interest in different sports from the perspective of leisure and recreation, and organises children’s training classes to help the next generation cultivate the habit of exercising, discover their potential and development.

He hopes that the LCSD’s venues would be upgraded to the professional level so that they could be used for the hosting of various sports competitions, especially international competitions. Local athletes can enhance their skills through competitive exchanges and strive for Hong Kong’s success.