This month’s quote is from Venus Williams, one of the all time greats. Venus has 49 singles titles and 22 doubles titles including many with her younger sister Serena. Still an active player at the age of 40 she is inspiration for players of all ages.
“Life's a challenge but that's the best part.”
Serena Williams
Learning and playing tennis throws up so many challenges for players. For young girls and boys a common challenge is the change of ball & court size as they move up through the LTA youth stages. Their bodies will have grown and become stronger but with that comes dififcultes with balance and coordination. For all players, receiving a ball from that has travelled fro 13m - 24m away is extremely difficult on its own, before we even think about having to move and swing a racket. All of these challenges are overcome through good and regular practice.
As coaches, our aim is to challenge each student. Locating an area of weakness enables us to improve it and make them more difficult to beat.
Coaching in England, another challenge we face is the weather. But through experience and by trail and error, we know that in the winter we need to offer daytime classes or find courts with floodlights and during the summer to ensure that there is shaded areas or remind players to bring drinks and have extended rest periods.
Venus' quote is about life and tennis is a great sport for to improve your life. Tennis teaches players to embrace the challenges; to improve and work hard on their weaknesses; to set goals and have ambitions and to reward themselves when they are successful.
Tennis is full of challenges and we encourage you to embrace them when you step on to court with us this August.