Why We Are Different
We have 3 types of sessions. Beginners for those who don’t have a racket and haven’t played before. Improvers for those that can start getting the ball over the net (still on a small court with sponge ball) – and then we encourage children to play our tournaments (both short tennis and full tennis.
We don’t hold children back
Children (and parents) are told “You can’t play with a proper tennis ball on a big court until you are old enough”.
We don’t believe this. We think that as soon as a child can play full court, they should – just like the Spanish, Eastern Europeans and the Americans do – the countries that tend to produce all the champions! So we follow that model, not the strict LTA model which we think can hold children back.
And on our small courts – we call it ‘short tennis’ – we play with a larger sponge ball, not a ‘mini red’ ball. Because with a sponge ball the child can develop their shots much better than with a lighter version of a small tennis ball. They can hit through the ball properly. And once they develop a full shot there is no reason why they can’t play full size tennis with proper balls – just as they do in Spain, which produces the most champions.
Matchplay
This is the one key difference. We believe that children should be playing matches – learning how to lose and win well – as soon as they can get the ball over the net quite consistently. Again, they do this in Eastern Europe and Spain.
Matches are not encouraged in the UK because the system is not designed for it. It is designed for coaches, who make the vast majority of their self employed income from coaching. Our children are simply not used to matches, even though that is what they want to play!
Make it easy for children to play
Many of you have told us the feeling. You have to sign up to be a member of a local tennis club to play (often a daunting prospect for parents) and then there is no-one to play with. Yes, there are sessions run by the coaches but often these are poorly advertised and unclear. Which session should my child be at, is the question we’ve heard a lot.
So our answer is to make it easier to play a match and play tennis. Getting your child a tennis session or match should be as easy as buying off Amazon!
Ability, not age
We don’t believe that children should be held back by age. If a 9 year old can play full court against a 13 year old of similar ability, then why not? It’s not like team sport where children contact each other – a net divides them!
Stop the cheating!
A major difference is that we have scorers, or umpires, for every match. Because if you’ve played in any LTA events you will know that cheating is rife, and causes children to lose their interest in tennis.
We do prizes!
In LTA tournaments they are not allowed to give out prizes. Yes, really! It’s a combination of wanting the coaches to buy the LTA medals, and not wanting one tournament to be better than another. We think it is wrong, so we have great prizes for all our tournaments.
Parents not allowed!
If you have played in an LTA tournament, you’ll know that there are rules that children are not allowed to wear a smart watch (really?) and parents are not allowed on court. One of our staff witnessed a distressed child on a far court in tears with the coach unsure whether to trust his instinct and let the parent on to comfort the child, or follow the LTA rules and not allow it.
We do not believe in any of this! So if you are a parent and you want to help or encourage or advise your child – you can, with our pleasure – remember, all our matches have umpires so it doesn’t matter.
Janali Manamperi
Janali is one of Sri Lanka’s top women’s tennis players who still plays in the Billie Jean King Cup for her country and in national tournaments. Janali is in charge of our tennis team and programme.
Gemma Goh
Gemma is the captain of the womens team at the University of Warwick and an accomplished tennis player.
James Ockelford
James has ten years of tennis coaching and PE teaching experience. He is an accredited LTA Level Four Tennis Coach with a BA Hons Degree in History and International Relations. Within the same period, James has been involved in sports development, contributing enormously to the development of Leisure Leagues' presence in the East Midlands, which has since become the region's biggest provider of community football.
Harry Tippetts
Harry is our hugely likeable senior coach at many of our venues. The kids just love him. Come and see why!
Xander Macrae
Xander is a qualified coach who mainly teaches children at clubs in Warwickshire, as well as being a key part of our team.
Louis O'Malley
Ben Fowler
Why We Are Different
We have 3 types of sessions. Beginners for those who don’t have a racket and haven’t played before. Improvers for those that can start getting the ball over the net (still on a small court with sponge ball) – and then we encourage children to play our tournaments (both short tennis and full tennis.
We don’t hold children back
Children (and parents) are told “You can’t play with a proper tennis ball on a big court until you are old enough”.
We don’t believe this. We think that as soon as a child can play full court, they should – just like the Spanish, Eastern Europeans and the Americans do – the countries that tend to produce all the champions! So we follow that model, not the strict LTA model which we think can hold children back.
And on our small courts – we call it ‘short tennis’ – we play with a larger sponge ball, not a ‘mini red’ ball. Because with a sponge ball the child can develop their shots much better than with a lighter version of a small tennis ball. They can hit through the ball properly. And once they develop a full shot there is no reason why they can’t play full size tennis with proper balls – just as they do in Spain, which produces the most champions.
Matchplay
This is the one key difference. We believe that children should be playing matches – learning how to lose and win well – as soon as they can get the ball over the net quite consistently. Again, they do this in Eastern Europe and Spain.
Matches are not encouraged in the UK because the system is not designed for it. It is designed for coaches, who make the vast majority of their self employed income from coaching. Our children are simply not used to matches, even though that is what they want to play!
Make it easy for children to play
Many of you have told us the feeling. You have to sign up to be a member of a local tennis club to play (often a daunting prospect for parents) and then there is no-one to play with. Yes, there are sessions run by the coaches but often these are poorly advertised and unclear. Which session should my child be at, is the question we’ve heard a lot.
So our answer is to make it easier to play a match and play tennis. Getting your child a tennis session or match should be as easy as buying off Amazon!
Ability, not age
We don’t believe that children should be held back by age. If a 9 year old can play full court against a 13 year old of similar ability, then why not? It’s not like team sport where children contact each other – a net divides them!
Stop the cheating!
A major difference is that we have scorers, or umpires, for every match. Because if you’ve played in any LTA events you will know that cheating is rife, and causes children to lose their interest in tennis.
We do prizes!
In LTA tournaments they are not allowed to give out prizes. Yes, really! It’s a combination of wanting the coaches to buy the LTA medals, and not wanting one tournament to be better than another. We think it is wrong, so we have great prizes for all our tournaments.
Parents not allowed!
If you have played in an LTA tournament, you’ll know that there are rules that children are not allowed to wear a smart watch (really?) and parents are not allowed on court. One of our staff witnessed a distressed child on a far court in tears with the coach unsure whether to trust his instinct and let the parent on to comfort the child, or follow the LTA rules and not allow it.
We do not believe in any of this! So if you are a parent and you want to help or encourage or advise your child – you can, with our pleasure – remember, all our matches have umpires so it doesn’t matter.
Janali Manamperi
Janali is one of Sri Lanka’s top women’s tennis players who still plays in the Billie Jean King Cup for her country and in national tournaments. Janali is in charge of our tennis team and programme.
Gemma Goh
Gemma is the captain of the womens team at the University of Warwick and an accomplished tennis player.
James Ockelford
James has ten years of tennis coaching and PE teaching experience. He is an accredited LTA Level Four Tennis Coach with a BA Hons Degree in History and International Relations. Within the same period, James has been involved in sports development, contributing enormously to the development of Leisure Leagues' presence in the East Midlands, which has since become the region's biggest provider of community football.
Harry Tippetts
Harry is our hugely likeable senior coach at many of our venues. The kids just love him. Come and see why!
Xander Macrae
Xander is a qualified coach who mainly teaches children at clubs in Warwickshire, as well as being a key part of our team.
