Biggest Ever LTA Grassroots Children's Tennis Initiative to launch at The Shrewsbury Club

Pictured: Ollie Beaman, left, and Simon Ferguson, who both coach tennis at The Shrewsbury Club, with former British No 1 Annabel Croft at a training day for coaches at Wrexham.

 

The Shrewsbury Club is delighted to be backing an exciting new LTA initiative aimed at inspiring 10,000 children across the UK to pick up a racket for the first time. The LTA has launched Tennis for Kids - their biggest ever grassroots initiative - in partnership with Highland Spring, following the historic success of Team GB winning the Davis Cup in Belgium last November.

Hundreds of Shropshire children will be able to take advantage of six weeks of free tennis lessons, with youngsters who complete the course also receiving a free racket.

As the courses are designed for children taking up tennis, the exercises focus on core skills such as agility, balance and co-ordination. Beyond the practical side of the sport, the sessions will also be teaching children how to be a valuable member of a team and how to work with a partner - all in a fun and relaxed environment.

Nigel Hunter, who oversees tennis programming at The Shrewsbury Club, said: "I've been coaching for 15 years and this is definitely the most exciting thing that British tennis has launched. The buzz around the tennis coaching community has been massive - and Leon Smith and the Davis Cup team have really got behind it.

"This is all part of the Davis Cup legacy. The plan is to have 1,000 coaches who are trained to deliver six weeks of Davis Cup lessons to children free of charge and if they attend four of the six sessions they will be presented with a Davis Cup-branded racket.

"It's for children in the mini-red age group from five to eight and within Shropshire 18 coaches applied to be part of the team across the country.

"Some of the coaches went to Loughborough for a coaching session with Leon Smith, but most of them went to Wrexham recently for a training session with former British No 1 Annabel Croft."

The Shrewsbury Club will be serving up five different free courses on various days of the week in June and July.

The first starts on June 6 and will run for six successive Mondays until July 11 from 3.30 to 4.30pm. There are also courses from Wednesday, June 8 to Wednesday, July 13 (4-5pm), Saturday, June 11 to Saturday, July 16 (1-2pm and also 4-5pm) and Thursday, July 14 through to Thursday, August 18 (6-7pm).

Nigel added: "There's been a massive demand already, so we've already filled quite a lot of places. It is on a first come first served basis.

"Some courses are filling up but if a course is full please add your name to the waiting list as more courses will be announced soon and the clubs will generally contact players on the waiting lists with an alternative offer."

Participating clubs are also coming up with incentives to encourage youngsters to keep playing.

To book a place on any of the free courses at The Shrewsbury Club, email [email protected]