Sorvald named PTR Professional of the Year
February 20, 2014
Hilton Head Island, SC — Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) will present its annual awards last night during the 2014 PTR International Tennis Symposium. The event, which includes 40-plus on court and classroom presentations for tennis teachers and coaches, a trade show and tournament, is being held February 20-23 on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Oivind Sorvald, of Lieskogen, Norway, has been named PTR Professional of the Year. A PTR member since 1980, Sorvald has been a PTR Tester since 1992. Currently, he is the Director of High Performance and Coach Education for the Norwegian Tennis Association (NTF), where he has conducted coach education courses for more than 20 years.
Recently, Sorvald established the TEN4 Academy in Oslo for the 25 best performance players in Norway. He created and organizes the annual PTR/Tennis Norway Symposium. Sorvald also hosts PTR Certification workshops so others can learn to teach the game. He is a member of the Tennis Europe Development Committee.
Earlier in his career, Sorvald served as Director of Tennis for Van der Meer. He also had stints as the Tennis Director at the Oslo Tennis Club in Norway, followed by the Director of Tennis position at the National Tennis Center in Oslo. Level 3 educated, Oivind has coached tennis players for more than 30 years, and has 25 years experience of using video analysis. Sorvald is a member of the ITF’s Intro to Tennis Taskforce. This committee has been instrumental in the 10 and Under initiative, Play and Stay, and the recent Tennis Xpress program. He represents Norway at the ITF AGM and other industry events.
Over the past decade, Sorvald has developed a program and a method for analyzing technical and tactical factors in the game. He has worked as analyzer for several world class coaches for a couple of Top 10 ranked female players in the world. In the past five years has developed and implemented a new framework for coach education in Norwegian tennis. PTR members may recognize Sorvald from the 2011 DVD Effective Feeding Techniques.
PTR is the largest global organization of tennis teaching professionals with more than 14,600 members in 121 countries. It has the greatest percentage of multicultural and women members of any such organization. PTR is dedicated to educating, certifying and servicing tennis teachers and coaches around the world in order to grow the game.
