One of the most important things to us as a coaching team is giving everyone the chance to play tennis, whether people want to play once a week, more regularly or even compete at tournaments.
A few of our Juniors compete on a regular basis and we have asked Emma and Sebby to share their tennis stories with us, so far…
First off is Emma Fitzgerald, aged 10.
“When I was younger, as both my sister and brother did, I played tennis. I started playing when I was 4, I didn’t play that much when I just started, but I did do a Saturday morning session with Tom at Elly Shearman Tennis Coaching.
“I often played tennis with my family and soon after, at the age of 6, I started playing in league matches for Kings. As I got older, I played a little bit more by doing a few more sessions and tournaments. However, it was only recently that I started putting in more time and effort and training harder. There are some really cool things you can do with tennis, like making loads of different friends from different regions.
“When you start competing, you can play in the county squad and possibly even play county cup and county nationals like I did. You can also play tournaments where there are always lots of friends and usually a ping pong table to play with or somewhere to get warmed up for your next match. But even with all of this you can still play all your other sports, like for me I love swimming and hockey!”
Sebby Fry, aged 10, is next up!
“I first started playing tennis at the age of 4, at David Lloyd. I stayed there for a year and I then stopped for a bit while we found a new club. I then went to Bristol Uni where I had lessons with Ollie, one session a week.
“I had the Red Ball County trials which I didn’t get in, but I was okay with it because it didn’t make a difference to my love of tennis. Meanwhile I was invited into the mini maroon programme, that involved a 1 to 1 with my new coach Ali. I then got into county squad for Orange Ball. After that I got in to the county cup where I played No.2.
“Then I went to David Lloyd a bit before we stopped at Bristol uni. At the beginning of the year we then moved to Kings to play at Elly Shearman Tennis Coaching where I have improved so much more. I find playing with Elly Shearman Tennis Coaching so much fun because I can play with everyone whilst learning so much.”
