The Schools Tennis Road Show visited Winchester this week with the aim of helping teachers and schools representatives inspire schoolchildren to take up tennis and emulate Wimbledon champion Andy Murray.
More than 3,000 people have attended the Schools Tennis Road Shows since they began in 2009. This year’s Road Show, organised by the Tennis Foundation with support from the Lawn Tennis Association, will visit 16 towns and cities across Great Britain.
The Schools Tennis Road Show aims to help teachers bring tennis to life for their pupils and will provide an overview of all the support available to schools, highlight new resources and products, and demonstrate practical ideas for delivering tennis lessons in a school setting.
The Tennis Foundation’s Head of Education Tom Gibbins said: “The Road Show is a great chance for us to promote the resources available to support teachers to deliver tennis activities that inspire all their pupils that tennis is for them.”
Tutors Paul Williams and Phil Leighton put everyone through their paces with practical sessions looking at competitions, including timed tennis events, and also offered some top tips for developing pupils’ technique.
Local Tennis Development Manager, Zoe Bambridge, added: “British tennis’ Schools Programme is fantastic for teachers and pupils in the area. Once they have a taste for tennis in school, youngsters are often inspired to pick up a racket outside of school and that’s fun for the whole family and local community to get involved with.”
Everyone that attends the Road Show will receive the new Guide to Schools Tennis 2014, a Timed Tennis resource and a copy of the Tennis Satellite Club Toolkit. A £50 Schools Tennis equipment voucher will also be awarded to all attendees, as well as entry into a prize draw to win a pair of tickets to an LTA Major Event in 2014.
For more information on the Tennis Foundation’s support for primary, special and secondary schools please visit www.schoolstennis.org. You can also follow the Road Show on Twitter using the #schoolstennis.