Sara Bamford - Head Coach

Qualifications:

• PTR Pro
• LTA level 4 Senior Club Coach
• AEGON British Tennis County coach of the year 2015 & 2017
• Fully licensed
• LTA Accredited Plus Coach 
• First aid trained
• DBS checked
• Cardio tennis
• U10 mini tennis performance
• UKRSA professional stringer

Other:

• U18 Girls county coach and captain
• Ladies county captain
• Bedfordshire SheRallies Ambassador (working with Judy Murray to get female players and coaches involved in tennis)

Current:

• ITF World Tennis ranking singles 17.1
• ITF World Tennis ranking doubles 13.1

Playing:
Sara started playing tennis at the age of 4 when her mum took her to short tennis at Tiddenfoot Leisure Centre. Sara joined Linslade Tennis Club when she was 10 years old and played for 8 years at the club supporting both the junior and adult teams.
From the age of 8 Sara started representing Bedfordshire and has continued playing for the county ever since. At the age of 12 Sara started playing in the senior teams. Sara is now coach and captain of the u18 county girls team and captain of the county ladies team.

When she was 18 Sara gained a tennis scholarship to America for 4 years where she attended the university of Tennessee at martin. In a team of 6-10 players Sara continuously played at no.1 and no.2 position in both singles and doubles throughout her college career. In her freshman year Sara was awarded freshman of the year and in her senior year Sara was awarded athlete of the year and had a 10-0 record within the conference.

Coaching:
Sara gained her tennis assistant qualification when she was 16 and helped out at Linslade tennis club for several years.
Whilst in America Sara worked at Malibu summer tennis camp for 3 summers. Here she worked with john McEnroe’s daughter, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son and many more! Sara returned to England in 2010 and gained her PTR qualification and went on to gain her LTA level 3 qualification and license in 2012. Sara has recently upgraded her qualification to an LTA level 4 Senior Club Coach,

Disability Tennis (Voted AEGON British Tennis East Region Disability Program of the Year 2016):

In 2014 Sara was given the opportunity to do some work in disability tennis. She went on a disability tennis awareness course and started working for the county as part of the coaching team “no barriers” based at Riverside Tennis Club. Sara took on the south of Bedfordshire focusing on Luton, Dunstable and Leighton buzzard areas. Due to such good progress, 2 years on Sara has now been able to set up Linslade tennis club as the South Beds hub club while Riverside Tennis Club remains the hub club in North Beds. Sara is now the South Beds disability manager and works with over 60 people a week in the disability programme.

*The disability programme also won the Bedfordshire county award in 2021

Sara is available for private individual lessons Monday to Saturday. 1-2-1 sessions are £35 per hour (these can be shared for £20 each). 1-2-1 30 minute sessions are £25.

To arrange a lesson or for any other information please email sara_leavy@hotmail.com or phone 07561 571578

Debbie Hobday - Coach 

Qualifications:

• LTA Senior Club Coach
• Registered Level 4
• NVQ Level 3
• Advanced Mini Tennis Coach
• LTA Accredited coach 
• First aid trained
• DBS Checked

Playing:
Debbie represented the region and county as a junior and continued to play competitive club tennis as a senior. She has 26 years of coaching experience, first working as an assistant coach when she was a young teenager and then went on to complete her LTA coaching qualifications between 2000 – 2003

She is comfortable working with all abilities and ages at club level and is passionate about teaching the game and promoting the development of the players she works with.

Debbie is available for midweek daytime coaching and charges £25 per hour, her mobile number is 07956 048006.