Ball kid Macy Peterson honed her skills for this year’s Australian Open using tech start-up EdApp.Credit:Joe Armao
Fourteen-year-old Macy Peterson is in her third year of being a ball kid at the Open and was able to hone her skills using the app-based training.
“You learn all about the different skills and techniques and it goes through it in great detail,” she says. “You’ve got to get your rolls right and servicing the players.”
Elise Mace,who is in charge of the ball kids at Tennis Australia,says this year’s group of 380 children were selected from more than 1000 applicants.
“We haven’t been able to do much face-to-face training in the last two years now,” she says. “It’s been really amazing to be able to send this app out to everyone and say ‘Hey,download this even though we can’t see each other in person as much as we would like to,it gives some really good modules and tutorials’.”
Safety Culture,founded in Townsville,was valued at $2 billion last year after the COVID-19 pandemic increased demand for its online training platforms.