Tennis
It's fantastic news that outdoor tennis courts will reopen on 29th March and coaching can restart. Tennis in schools can restart on 8th March!
However, in the meantime, we've got some great tennis activities for you to try at home thanks to the LTA.
They have been running Tennis at Home activities and videos and we've chosen our favourites to share with you whether you would like to work on tennis skills and exercises, knowledge or experience home coaching.
COACHING
Yes, you read that correctly! Coaching has been available from LTA Coach Development and Learning Manager, Matt Smith. We’ve put some of his videos below so you can still take part. It's fun for all the family!
“The LTA Tennis At Home coaching series is an excellent way to keep the family entertained, as well as fighting fit both physically and mentally during lockdown. The classes include a host of fun tennis activities exploring technique, footwork, rallying, volleying and serving to improve your skills. Anyone can take part, either on your own or with someone in your household, and the interactive challenges and games will help players get ready for when we can eventually return to court. Tennis enables families to have fun, play and socialise, so whether you’re a seasoned veteran or want to learn a new skill, we want to get as many people involved in Tennis at Home as possible.”
SKILLS AND EXERCISES
These activities can be done indoors (please be careful!!) or outdoors. You don’t need any tennis equipment. If you don’t have a ball use a pair of socks. If you don’t have a racket you could use a book.
With a Racket
Without a Racket
British No.3 Harriet Dart has shared her tips for Tennis at Home:
“At Home where you have limited space you can do a lot of movement exercises, you just need a little bit of floor space. I’ve been doing a lot of this especially during the most restrictive lockdown times in the last year. Figure of 8 is a super easy exercise you can do, all you need is a couple of tennis balls, or if you don’t have any to hand you can use a few tins of baked beans! Place the balls/tins a few paces apart, and then move as quick as you can in a figure of 8 around them, aim to keep a good posture and have fast feet!
When restrictions allow you to get on court, you can practice your serve, but if you have a wall near you, you can also use the wall. I used to do this a lot when I was younger! I played US Open and Wimbledon against the big stars on the wall – it was a lot of fun for me.”
TENNIS BUMPER QUIZ
Why not brush up on your tennis knowledge with this fantastic quiz? All the answers are at the end...no peeking!
https://www.lta.org.uk/globalassets/play/lta-youth/lta-youth-activity-card-8-11-years.pdf
WORDSEARCH/ ART and MIND GAMES
Tired after all of those activities? Here are some tennis-related challenges you can try at any time.
https://www.lta.org.uk/globalassets/play/lta-youth/lta-tennis-activity-week-1-warm-ups.pdf
PLAY TENNIS
If you want to find a court or coaching near you visit www.lta.org.uk and click on ‘Play and Compete’. This will give you a ‘Find a tennis court’ and ‘Find a tennis coach’ link.
If you want to start competing once tennis starts again follow ‘Play and Compete’ and follow links to Junior tennis competitions, Youth competitions, Disability competitions and Junior County Cup.
