It's common fact that children who play more tournaments get better at playing tennis. Tournaments are a great way to test what the children have been learning in lessons and also provide lots of valuable information on what the child needs to work on to get better.

It's really easy to enter LTA tournaments. They run all-year-round, almost every single weekend of the year, and during half-term and in the school holidays, there are even more!

You might be pleasantly surprised to see how close some of them are to you, and to top it all off, they're great fun! Some are definitely better than others as they are all organised locally by clubs and coaches. We have plans afoot to run some at Wraysbury Lawn Tennis Club, but this is a little challenging as obviously we only have three courts available and have coaching sessions, adult and junior club sessions and social tennis to accommodate as well. However, we will try!

To enter a competiton or tournament, all you need to do is search on the LTA website to find the best competiton for your child.

There are over 7,000 events nationwide at any one time!

It's easier finding competitions if you log in. You'll see relevant competitions for your child's age and location and you'll see more information about the tournament.

You can adjust the filters on the right hand side of the tool and then save the changes, which will then make it your default search.

The search tool starts with the age of ther player:

• Mini-tennis - 5-10 years
• Boys 11-18 uears
• Girls 11-18 years

There are even sections for Adults, so if you fancy dusting off those college tennis shoes, get involved! Come join us at the club on a Tuesday night from 7:30-8:30 to hone your skills! It's a drop-in session so any week you're free just give me a shout on the day so I know to expect you!

Keep practising!

Doug