If you’re a regular here, you’ll know we love tennis. Both myself and The POD Father played regularly before POD came along in 2010. Last year we got to dust down our rackets after a five year hiatus, largely thanks to Mark Warner Holidays, and POD even had a go herself. On the back of the Aegon GB Davis Cup win, the LTA has recently been giving away free six week tennis courses as part of their #TennisForKids initiative. We’ve loved being part of this campaign with BritMums and we’ll be writing about it very soon. POD’s relished the four lessons she’s had thus far so the first Great British Tennis Weekend couldn’t have come at a better time.
If you’re not familiar with the Great British Tennis Weekend, it provides adults and children with the opportunity to take free coaching. It’s a brilliant initiative and while we’re already fans of tennis, it’s a great way for everyone to have a go. We attended attend the Great British Tennis Weekend at Woking Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Hook Heath – a club we’d not visited before. It has 17 tennis courts, ten of these are floodlit plus there are mini options available too. Surfaces include clay, grass, acrylic and Macadam so something to suit everyone.
POD’s group lesson took place across two mini tennis courts with a coach called Anna who was excellent. The children had rackets in their hands swiftly and POD did well once she remembered which hand to hold it in (she’s a leftie). Initially everyone took a partner and played with light, oversized balls which were lots of fun. POD got a few shots and stopped the ball too – a great effort given she’d already had gymnastics and Stagecoach before we arrived! Her #TennisForKids lessons have provided her with a great introduction so it was lovely to put what she’d learnt to practice in a different environment.
Once the group had had a good go with the large balls, they moved on to hitting tennis balls over the net. Bollards positioned on the other side were the target and Anna was on hand to help each of the children with their strokes. They all stood in a line and got to have a good few shots before finishing up with a game. The half an hour sessions seemed surprisingly long and it was really well organised too which meant there was no waiting around.
Once POD had finished we headed over to another court as the POD Father had a lesson, funnily enough with Anna. Again it was a good sized group and initially they played with softer balls to assess the bounce before moving onto harder balls. With the sun shining brightly above us, we couldn’t have asked for a better place to sit to watch all the action. The POD Father hasn’t played since last summer so it was good for him to get a little practice in – even if he did borrow my racket!
We couldn’t have spent our time at a nicer club, not only does the Woking Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club have amazing facilities, the team were brilliant too. We’re hoping over the coming weeks POD will love tennis just as much as we do so we can join and start playing regularly again.
The next Great British Tennis Weekend takes place on the 16th and 17th of July 2016. To find out where you can place tennis for free, check out the #GBTW website.
Wow, you guys certainly had fun playing tennis!! I love little PODs face when that ball just bounced out of reach! Bless her! It’s awesome that you have passed on your love of tennis to her – it’s a sport she can enjoy for decades to come!
Give her a bit more practice and she might even get as good as her Great Grandmother was in her time!
[…] Do make sure you sign up for the Great British Tennis Weekend as there are thousands of free events taking place throughout the summer and all across the country with sessions to suit the whole family. There are Highland Spring Mini Tennis sessions, family time, free play, Cardio Tennis and many other activities. We had lots of fun at the last one in May, check out this post to read more. […]