TC Dettingen/Horb, a tennis club based in Horb, Germany, is building its membership through cross-sport youth offerings and two decades of children’s rights advocacy rather than on-court programs alone, tennis.de reported.
The club’s development starts well before children pick up a racket. Cross-sport offerings including children’s sports, a tennis kindergarten and a ball school introduce young kids to movement and club athletics, creating early touchpoints with tennis. The approach strengthens the youth pipeline while winning families over to club life for the long term.
“TC Dettingen near Horb is a club for everyone: young or old, regardless of social background,” said Nini Korat, who handles public relations for the club. “Everyone is welcome and finds the right offer. It is precisely these members who make the club so special by playing on one of the many teams, getting involved in the youth committee, giving training, organizing events, camps, tournaments and outings, or actively maintaining cooperations with the surrounding schools and kindergartens.”
From Ball School to Team Play
The club’s early-engagement model creates a pathway from general movement to competitive tennis. By offering Kindersport, Tenniskindergarten and Ballschule, TC Dettingen/Horb gives children structured ways to develop athletic fundamentals while becoming familiar with the club environment. That familiarity, the club reports, translates into sustained participation across age groups and into volunteer roles within the organization.
Members contribute across the club’s operations, from coaching and youth committee work to event organization and school partnerships. This volunteer infrastructure, Korat said, keeps club life active and diverse.
Social Engagement Beyond the Court
TC Dettingen/Horb has also built a profile that extends past sport. The club serves as a network partner of Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk, the MACH DICH STARK campaign against child poverty, and various initiatives supporting democracy and human rights. Campaigns such as “#bewegt gegen Rassismus” underscore the club’s values-based orientation.
A distinctive feature of the club’s governance is the participation of children and adolescents in club development and training design. For 20 years, the club has worked intensively on children’s rights issues. The visible result is the exhibition “Kinderrechte im Tennisclub” (Children’s Rights in the Tennis Club), which can be loaned out nationwide.
Awards Recognized Beyond the Region
The club’s approach has drawn recognition at state and national levels. Honors include the “Stern des Sports,” several development prizes from the WLSB, the Lotto-Sportjugendförderpreis, the STB Innovation Prize, and a commendation in the DOSB Fair Play Prize. The awards indicate that the club’s model is noticed well beyond Horb.
The example of TC Dettingen/Horb shows that member recruitment does not rely solely on athletic offerings. Qualified coaching structures, strong cooperations, targeted youth development and a club profile that reaches people beyond the tennis court are decisive factors. For many clubs, that combination offers a path to positioning themselves for the future.
Worth a look
