With the recent success of local sporting hero Gordon Reid winning his first Australian Open Tennis title and other British players doing well in the same competition, it seems a perfect time to highlight current investment to develop Tennis at grassroots level.

There’s a real need for sport to become more inclusive and for clubs and organisations to work creatively to engage with individuals or groups no matter their needs or ability levels that are often wrongly perceived to be a barrier to participation.
An exciting development currently underway that seeks to start to address this is a tennis project benefiting pupils from Parklands (SEN) School in Helensburgh.

Argyll and Bute Council Active Schools has been working in partnership with John Wilson the lead Tennis coach at Craighelen and Helensburgh Tennis Clubs (overseen by Chris Bowman Tennis) over the last few months to bring Tennis to the pupils at Parklands school.

Initially John visited the school weekly to run some introductory fun tennis based sessions with pupils and staff. Over time and after building a rapport with the pupils it was decided a logical progression would be to introduce the pupils to a real club setting and for them to experience the far better facilities at Craighelen Tennis Club.

Active Schools Coordinator Martin Caldwell highlighted the importance of developing these strong school to community sport club links that allow the young people a pathway in sport and support and help grow junior numbers in the local clubs. In the case of the Parklands project it offers the pupils and their families an opportunity to be part of a local community club away from the school environment.

John Wilson, an experienced tennis coach who has been working with the pupils commented, “The progress made by the pupils in a relatively short period of time has been fantastic. The tennis programme encourages movement and fitness as well as learning the basics of hitting a ball. It is important to provide opportunities in sport and physical activity and encourage people not to fall into a sedentary lifestyle”.

Although Active Schools funded the initial cost of the project there could be possible funding available for another block of sessions with the medium to longer term aim for the pupils and families to attend Craighelen Tennis Club independently.

Gwen Gilmour Head Teacher at Parklands commented, “we are absolutely delighted with the partnership project with Active Schools and Craighelen Tennis Club. I’m amazed at how well the pupils have taken to the sessions which have been positive in terms of growing confidence, teaching new skills and of course the physical benefits attributed”.

The term ‘lasting legacy’ is often used loosely and with no real lasting impact. In order to promote an uptake of sport there needs to be a consistent effort made to provide young people opportunities to experience sport in a safe and fun environment.

This is exactly what Active Schools Coordinator (Martin Caldwell) hopes can be achieved with a joined up approach to Tennis Development locally, working closely with local community clubs Helensburgh, Craighelen and Cardross and volunteers associated. Over the coming year there is a number of exciting tennis developments that will happen locally including taster sessions in schools, recognised coach