Over 10 years ago Skipton Tennis Club in North Yorkshire did not exist, but now after much hard work and incredible commitment from those around the club it became Yorkshire Club of the Year for 2017-18, has a thriving membership of over 250 players and a weekly coaching programme of 300 children. Skipton TC in only a short history has to date had a remarkable journey, and the driving force and inspiration for this club Adam Cox shares some of the ups and downs and lessons this 5-court club have picked up along the way.
What motivated you to set-up this tennis club?
In 2005 an opportunity arose to negotiate a lease for some land and develop a tennis club; I had been coaching tennis at a local school since 2000 with a small programme of 80-100 players and on graduating from university in 2004 I felt that this was an incredible opportunity to combine my love of tennis with my interest in business and marketing. I presented the idea to the trustees of the land who at the time were very sceptical as I was 24 years old with no financial backing; all I had was a vision and a dream.
The dream was to build a tennis club that could service the whole of Craven with a membership base, coaching programme and strong community links. After negotiating the lease and a £75k loan from the LTA the dream started to become a reality. The initial project was a cost of a £102k, I sold my house to raise the capital needed to provide the extra £27k, lived at home with my parents and built the club….and the rest is history.
In establishing the club I wanted to bring something affordable and accessible to as many people as possible who wanted to try, learn and play tennis. The vision was to develop a club where the coaching programme and membership could be combined, allowing the introduction of social tennis, teams and coaching. Over the past 10 years the programme has developed to support 28 primary schools, 4 secondary schools (allowing 600 children per week to play regular tennis), we have 14 club teams, 3 very well attended social tennis nights, over 300 people attending weekly lessons at the club, and a 10 week holiday club programme where over 450 children attended in 2017. We also have a number of club sponsors and work closely with many local businesses to help promote the sport. We have roughly 1,000 players per week getting the chance to play the sport.
What have been the hardest challenges for the club to overcome?
Finances always dictate the amount of development that can be done in terms of improving the facility to meet the demand. The LTA were very supportive with an initial loan of £75k, but the loan was personal, so the risk was personal. As we have a lease on the land we had to negotiate legal terms with the landlord (sports centre) to ensure we secured the club for tennis, we now have a 99 year lease securing the site for tennis development. But the dealings with the landlord and getting this lease agreed took far longer than I had initially anticipated.
Aside from this, as a new tennis club we had to have a thorough and targeted marketing plan to enable the community to know we existed and what we offered. And with any club or group of people there are politics and these have to be carefully managed to make sure everyone gets what they need and expect from the club.
Over the years the club has managed to significantly increase participation & membership – what advice would you give to other clubs trying to do the same?
Organisation, marketing, creativity, quality and PASSION are important. It is important to be aware that any other sport or club with their National Governing Body will be trying to attract children, families and players to their sport. So use every tool available to market and communicate. Email, text, social media, notice boards, open days and club sponsors will all help increase a clubs profile. However quality and added value are also important. At Skipton we do our best to add value to membership. One of the schemes we have in place is where we negotiate a number of local discounts with other businesses exclusive for tennis club members. Members also get access to a drills court with a coach every Tuesday. This is a FREE clinic for club members to get weekly advice and stay in touch with the coaches.
It goes without saying we try and provide the best tennis experience we possibly can. Providing quality and flexibility helps retain players. Local schools and the PE premium is very important, so to understand how schools work and how they spend their PE budget is essential. We have significantly increased participation through school initiatives, and also attracted many new families to the club this way.
The club has developed excellent community links. How did the club go about setting these up & what value does this bring?
We work very closely with the School Games Organiser, PE co-ordinators and the local council to set up school tennis activities. Over the past year we have delivered the following:
- Weekly lessons for 14 primary schools.
- Tennis open days for another 14 primary schools.
- Secondary school enrichment weeks /days for years 7-11.
- A work experience programme for the local secondary schools and colleges
We then provide a range of offers to invite players to attend the club, including 6 week coaching sessions at an introductory rate and free Friday’s tennis for all in July. This works well in the build-up to our holiday clubs and the schools heavily promote this for us.
We offer a disability programme led by one of our coaches every Thursday morning and again the local council, sports centre and schools help us promote this. What we do with the schools and our disability programme really does help raise our club’s profile within the local community, and helps to foster the community-feel that is at the heart of our club. This has been the main driver for our increase in participation.
Over the course of this journey what are you most proud of?
It does make me feel very proud to make a real difference to the sport I have loved since a young age. The club and initiatives have allowed over 4,000 people to experience the sport over the past decade many of who still play today at universities and in parts of the UK. I have seen friendships grow, social groups expand and seen first-hand how sport can improve confidence.
The proudest moment to date is being awarded the LTA North Region Club of the Year for 2017, it really does feel like what we are trying to do for tennis has been recognised by the LTA and I would never have thought that from an idea 10 years ago we would be at this stage.