More than 2,000 people in Cardiff have experienced ‘tennis with a DIFF’ over the last few weeks, with new and accessible ways to play at venues around the city.
Tennis with a DIFF is being run by Tennis Wales and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) to change the face of tennis in Wales, starting in Cardiff.
It is introducing people to new and accessible forms of the game, far removed from its traditional image. The programme includes touchtennis, with a small racquet and sponge ball, played on a badminton court; heart-pumping cardio-tennis, where it doesn’t matter if the ball never goes in the court, but players burn over 600 calories with their heart rate in the peak-performance zone; and for those who are busy, there is timed tennis, where a match can be over in four minutes.
News of the success of Tennis with a DIFF comes after the announcement that Virgin Active is withdrawing from running the national tennis centre in Cardiff, and Tennis Wales chief executive Peter Drew says the success of Tennis with a DIFF reflects the positive state of the game in the city.
“There was a lot of concern around the Virgin Active announcement,” he said. “But Virgin Active was probably not the ideal business model for maximising tennis participation in this situation, so this provides a really positive opportunity to potentially bring in a new tennis provider with a business model more suited to the local requirements which can provide affordable and accessible tennis for anyone.”
Mr Drew said Tennis Wales was exploring options with Cardiff Council in the hope of helping the council to keep the centre open for tennis with an operator who can turn it into a key venue. It is hoped the centre will help Tennis Wales’ ambitious plans to double tennis participation in Wales by changing the perception of tennis, providing new and innovative formats of tennis, and busting the myth that tennis is an expensive and elitist sport.
“The average junior club membership in Wales is about 80p per week and adults about £3 per week, so it really is a very affordable sport, compared to most,” he said.
Wales already has a major success story in Swansea Tennis Centre, which Swansea Council closed in 2011, due to lack of people using the facilities.
Tennis Wales and the LTA worked with and supported a group of volunteers to form a Trust group, TS365, which Swansea council allowed to re-open the centre and take over the running of the centre.
Two years later the centre is thriving, with more than 600 players signed up to play and the Swansea Centre is seen as a model of best practice for the rest of British tennis.
Tennis Wales is now urging Cardiff Council to see whether this model could be replicated in Cardiff.
Recent research by the LTA shows that there are a huge number of people in Wales and the UK who would like to play tennis if they had the opportunity and it was presented in the right way.
“Tennis with a DIFF and the success of the Swansea centre show that tennis really is changing for the better in Wales,” added Mr Drew.
“Across Wales, in the last three years, the number of junior club members has nearly doubled, as has the number of juniors playing in tennis competitions, and the number of teams from primary schools entering the annual schools team competition has also doubled.”