Young Guns

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IMG_5458 copy.JPG — A playful and motivating environment

Young guns is a group of approximately 115 kids born between the years of 2002-2007. Among those kids there are around 30-35 girls.
"Young guns" was formed in fall of 2012 by former professional Tennis player Magnus ”Gusten” Gustafsson. The purpose of the "Young guns' project was to introduce challenges to young aspiring Tennis players in a playful and motivating environment. Being an individual sport, Tennis can at times be lonely. Hence, "Gusten" **encourage parents to volunteer as much as possible to minimize the feeling of solitude.**

ZQWTCIpKLTS7YfwT-l8AOPUVmSB274eB8nLPE60xf8I,ymbTpM_Cg9NuUR2t0MzwYYYIMr30zKL4zJUB-TM64PU[1] copy.jpg — We encourage team spirit

The group started off with 16 boys ages 7-8 years old who got together once a month and they were all rooted in various Tennis clubs in the city of Gothenburg. Together, they competed in numerous activities such as table tennis, shoe floorball, mini Tennis matches and so on. **These games were always team oriented in order to achieve the goal of feeling part of a team.**
Over time the "Young guns" project gained steam and are constantly adding new challenges to keep things interesting. They have challenged Helsingborgs Tennis Club, they have had camps, tried ice skating, played ice hockey, played friendly games against ”real ” football and floor ball teams, tried go cart and so on. As a result, some **kids have become best friends with their peers and have created a potential life long friendship with one another.**

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Fellowship

Respect

Humility

Long-term

Cooperation

Love the challenge

Education

Complement to club activity

Joy

On the children's terms

Values

The people behind ”Young Guns” believe that it's of highest priority to play different sports if you want to improve in your main sport, regardless of which it is. That’s important both physical and mentally. That, together with the joy of exceeding their own former best, stimulate them to make new goals which the team together help each other to reach. That makes the most important words for the “Young Guns”: Fellowship, Variation, Joy, Cooperation, Long Term, Challenges.

Except the work it takes to improve yourself its also of highest priority to help your friends to get better as well. Both for the kids as well as among the parents, where the thinking is that a parent will help your kids best buddy to improve.

Collaborations

Today “Young Guns” have a cooperation with Gothenburg Tennis Association. When a club finds a young player suitable for “Young Guns” the club calls the association, and when they have a group big enough they will get this new group of guys started. After it have started the parents for the kids runs the project as they want. Often the players in a certain age is too small in each club, which makes this project perfect to make kids in the same age get together to have fun and enjoy different sports and tennis challenges.

Future

The future is bright for the ”Young Guns” and as time passed both kids and parents have contributed to improving the concept and it is safe to say that it will keep getting better. The variation in activities and different experience inside the group of parents makes the flow of new ideas never ending.

The Swedish Tennisfederation are on its way to spread the concept around Sweden with the objective that Swedish tennis will grow a more relaxed environment both for adults and for the kids where they can compete at their own terms. Also the Swedish Badminton federation have started to look at this project and there could be something similar for them.