WHO WE ARE
OUR NETWORK- SPARTA360
We are a Network supporting young athletes who have the desire, but not necesarily the means, to pursue a career in tennis.
OUR ORIGINS - WIMBLEDON
We started in the summer of 2017 when a young player asked us to arrange hitting partners for her in South West London during a home visit . This led to arranging sponsorship, coaching, pro academy placement, physicians, and other professionals to assist her tennis. 9 months later she played at Wimbledon. We were then approached by others. And so our Tennis Network was born ...
OUR NAME - SPARTA
Sparta was a warrior society in ancient Greece. Spartan culture was centered on loyalty to the state and military service. Sparta configured their entire society to maximise their proficiency at all costs, with complete focus on training and excellence in every aspect of thier army.
OUR PHILOSOPHY - 360°
We concern ourselves with ALL aspects of athlete development and performance both on and off court - the "full circle" or 360 degrees. We believe in a marginal gains approach - originating from the idea that if you break down everything you can think of that goes into a sporting discipline, and then systematically improve each by a small margin, you will get a significant increase when you put the component gains together ( "The Compund Effect"). We have built a Network or team that caters for all the components of an athlete's physical, psychological, strategic, tactical, technical and environmental performance and development. We focus on Tennis. We aim to apply this concept to other disciplines.
OUR MOTTO - ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Pronounced "Moh-lone Lah-Veh", Molon Labe is Greek for "Come and get it". It originates from King Leonidas of Sparta, in a message to King Xerxes of Persia, when an overwhelming Persian army demanded that the small group of Spartan warriors drop their weapons. Leonidas replied "Molon Labe" (Come and take* them) and 300 of his Spartans, and Leonidas himself, were killed - but in so doing took huge tolls on the enemy and stalled the Persian army for long enough to let the rest of Greece prepare themselves for the war.
*The origin of the word tennis is late Middle English tenetz, tenes ‘real tennis’, and is apparently from Old French tenez ‘take, receive’ (called by the server to an opponent), imperative of tenir. Sparta360 was set up as a Network to support tennis players who have the desire, but not the means, to pursue a tennis career.
OUR MOTTO - ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Our athletes are therefore selected for their grit and focus —the tenacity and stamina to work hard in pursuit of a goal, despite obstacles. We believe that "comfort is the enemy of progress".