Newcastle welcomed young people to find out more about getting involved in tennis and not forgetting the post lunch Harlem Shake!
We could not have asked for a better group of people who brought great ideas and banter to Newcastle’s version of the nationally led Young Volunteer Forums. It was the first of its kind in the region and was fantastic to meet so many young people wanting to get more involved in our sport.
The event started off with some off court download of information about British Tennis and what areas the young people have already been involved in. This was followed by an on court session, which really started to explore key skills to help with running activities. It was an absolute bonus that Wendy and Ibby from the North East Visually Impaired Tennis Club were on hand to show us Sound Tennis. The group then played against each other with some SIM glasses (kindly donated by the Tennis Foundation and in partnership with the local charity VINE) on that simulate different levels of visual impairments. This was a really humbling experience for the young people and they competed against each other in the Team Cone Challenge!
Following this it was music blasting, ready for a cardio tennis session pre-lunch! Unbelievable times as they literally didn’t stop for 20minutes solid and must have burned around 300 calories at least! The energy in the room was incredible and for those who hadn’t experienced cardio tennis before were blown away by the fast paced, pumped up and fun way to keep fit on a tennis court!
Lunch was followed by the Dragon’s Den Pitch and ‘Ultimate Tennis Taster Activity’ where the young people had to develop a 2 minute sale of their taster session that they were tasked to deliver to the rest of the group. Abigail headed up the girls team and came up with the Harlem Shake to get everyone pumped after food o’clock! We all got ready and watched the National Tennis Centre’s version of the dance. With army sideway rolls Wendy ‘Glasperette’ set the pace, then managed to bump into Jo who was trying to attempt to look cool at the front (Wendy actually saved Jo from further embarrassment!!!). With the Harlem complete we went across to the courts for the on court delivery. This was awesome from both groups. It was brilliant to see the difference from the beginning to the end of the day where everyone was booming their voices out, clearing communicating and leading the sessions!
The day was then wrapped up with information about career pathways in tennis, case studies and where to find to play, compete, volunteer or coach.
Jo Cunliffe who led the session was certainly chuckling all afternoon,
“It was great to meet a number of youngsters with different goals and aspirations. Even only in a few hours they really showed why they are involved in the sport and how they can get more involved. Their enthusiasm was fantastic and we could instantly tell they would be able to inspire more people to get involved in tennis. We are really excited about seeing them progress in the future and help grow our sport, whether that be in a school, club, park, university, college or leisure centre!”
Young volunteers included Chris, Patryk, Aidan from Framwellgate School along with Abi, Sam, Ibby, Stuart, Niamh and Melissa Lowe who are all from various tennis clubs across the region.
The regional one day forums have been established to identify, encourage and retain successful young volunteers in tennis. The forums will provide an opportunity to promote local volunteering opportunities and the available pathways for career development, they will also act as a recruitment tool for the National Young Volunteers Weekend 26th/27th/28th July 2013.
Please find video from one of the on court sessions led by the young volunteers here