As LTA coaches, myself Cefyn Jones together with Stephen Skov (head coach of our club: Rickmansworth Lawn Tennis Club) recently received top class training to become part of a nationwide army of around 1000 enthusiastic Davis Cup legacy tennis coaches.

Having successfully completed our training we both are now able to deliver a brand new 6 week tennis coaching course. The ideas look great, so if you have a keen child aged 5 to 8 years who is curious about trying tennis, you should really check out our soon to be released Tennis For Kids course! 

And it gets even better for you the parents and your children as there is no cost to attend all six sessions! Our governing body the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is covering the cost while we, the trained coaches, will be giving our time to coach your children and their friends !

And yes it gets even better again! If your child is a regular attender at one of these courses, they should get their own mini tennis racket for keeps! This presentation of the racket will happen in the sixth and final session. We will be inviting all parents and friends to be guests during this final session. The idea is to celebrate your child's achievement and to hopefully give them pointers on how to keep having fun and improving their tennis with family and friends. 

For your information, the guy in the photo with the "Great Britain" shirt on his back is Leon Smith. He captained Great Britain to be top of the world for men's team tennis by winning The Davis Cup in 2015. No prizes for guessing the other person in the picture, but just incase you didn't know it's Andy Murray, arguably the best tennis player Britain has ever produced! And without him and his brother Jamie, and a talented wider team of players and support staff, Britain would never have won this world event. The last time Britain won it was over 70 years ago.

The idea of offering six free coaching sessions (at schools or a tennis club near you) is to deliver a new Tennis Legacy to children who are fairly new to the sport.

During our training we met Davis Cup Captain Leon Smith last Friday, he was positively cheerful despite being in chilly Hertfordshire. He and other tennis experts shared their wealth of experience while also being willing to take on ideas from us the assembled coaches who were all eager to learn and reflect. It was so obvious just how genuine Leon was about helping increase tennis enjoyment to young children in the UK.

I'm not sure how many other high profile tennis coaches would swap being in Fabulous Florida with Andy Murray for delivering sessions to local tennis coaches in windy Welwyn Garden City! But Leon clearly remains grounded remembering his upbringing in the West of Scotland. While there as a young coach he was happy to help Willie and Judy Murray with their two sporty sons so that they could become great tennis players of the future.

Leon alongside other "unknown" coaches made tennis fun for the Murray brothers. These coaches knew how to encourage good skill and athleticism. It remains my hope to inspire other young people to rise high through similar activities. I think the six week Tennis for Kids course can really inspire young children. I am happy to give my time to deliver some great sessions in my local area.  

So my thanks to Leon and the Lawn Tennnis Association in inspiring myself and my fellow coaches. I think we are in an even stronger position to inspire you and your children through great tennis activities.

Watch the press and check out this website as very soon things will go live to take bookings for your child and their friends to attend one of these six week taster courses. But please be aware places are limited to 10 for each course.*

 All the best,

Cefyn

*But we are hoping that we could do more similar courses in the future*