Indoor tennis courts would grow Inverness workforce - Judy Murray
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HIGH-profile tennis coach Judy Murray has lent her backing to indoor courts in the Highlands to help promote the sport’s growth.
Murray, who was in Inverness this week to deliver her Tennis on the Road programme, feels indoor facilities are a must to promote high-level coaching.
Inverness has long since been a priority region for Tennis Scotland to build indoor courts.
However, a lack of a local partner to work with caused a hold-up in these ideas coming to fruition.
The earliest expected date for them to arrive in the city is 2019, when Highland Council’s protracted sports hub project, expected to cost between £27.5 million and £34.5 million, is due to be completed.
Wednesday’s sessions at Inverness Leisure proved there is an enthusiasm for the sport at grass-roots level. Indoor courts would be a great complement to that.
"Once you get to a level where you can play on a full court, it allows you to play the sport 12 months a year if you've got a roof, with what the weather is like in Scotland,” she said.
“That enables you to be stronger – otherwise it's a summer sport and kids go off to do other sports in winter. It's then a challenge to bring them back when the weather is better.
"It would also help the number of coaches. There's very few tennis coaches in the Highlands and probably one of the reasons for that is it's impossible to work at it all year round. Having indoor courts up here would certainly help the workforce.”
The development of a smaller sports hub at Inverness Royal Academy, which opened last year, has enabled some indoor tennis to be played.
The nearest tennis-specific facility for some time has been at Stirling University, which has been cited byInverness tennis coach Mike Martin as a huge hindrance to getting hours on court, given the poor weather conditions in the Highlands.
Easing that concern would also help the region produce more top-class players and reduce the need for youngsters like Isabelle Wallace,who now represents Australia, to travel abroad to develop their careers.
"You're so far removed from the facilities you need, the burden of travelling and costs works against you,” said Murray. “I fully believe this is the time to do it while the profile of tennis is so high."
Murray’s Tennis on the Road programme aims at growing a grass-roots workforce to improve local tennis coaching.
Murray was full of praise for a new band of young tennis coaches, as staff at Inverness Leisure were put through their paces for an hour, before delivering an hour’s coaching to enthusiastic youngsters themselves.
The mother of world number one and two-time Wimbledon champion Andy, and multiple Grand Slam champion Jamie, Murray hopes now that “starter tennis” sessions can be delivered more often in the Highlands.
Aside from the High Life Highland coaches, parents of the children taking part were also invited to receive training from Murray and Kris Soutar, the programme’s lead coach.
“There’s some super young coaches here working for High Life Highland. Enthusiasm is very important; many people think they can’t coach tennis because they don’t know how to play it, or because it’s a difficult sport,” she said. “It is compared to some other sports, but we break down the skills you need and show that you don’t need an indoor court to deliver starter tennis.”
“Tennis on the Road is all about building a workforce. The important thing for us is that we’re trying to show coaches of other sports, teachers, parents and clubs, how they can deliver starter tennis to more kids, tennis and adults.
“The kids come in to show a class in action and it’s great to involve them. But the thing for tennis going forward is to have more people delivering it.”
The programme delivered two sessions at Inverness Leisure, a morning session for five-to-seven-year-olds and an afternoon one catered at eight-to-10-year-olds.
Small skill games focused on racket skills and hand-eye co-ordination, such as balloon tennis, relay races and ‘Double Trouble’, where two players roll balls to each other and aim to stop them with their rackets.
Murray is keen to grow the sport in Scotland at this time to capitalise on the legacy of he sons, who are at the peak of their careers and have boosted the sport’s reputation in Scotland.
