Little J's First Tennis Coaching Session #ParkLives

This weekend we wanted to try something new with little J. We are always looking for new activities to keep him entertained, especially with the summer holidays close by. We recently heard about  Coca Cola GB ParkLives and it looked great. Coca Cola ParkLives offers a wide range of free activities at your local park. There are all types of activities to get involved in, all you need to do is pop your postcode in to the website and a list of sessions popped up. We did just that on Sunday and the closest session for us was Tennis in Birkenhead Park. It was a very wet Sunday but we still popped along and lucky for us the rain stayed off. 

 Little J has never played real tennis before, although he does own little plastic sets suitable for the garden. When we told him he was really excited and couldn't wait to get there saying the old classic from the back seat 'Are we there yet?'

 There is a main entrance to the park for cars which leads to the main car park and visitor centre however there are plenty of roads close to pedestrian entrances and one was just by the tennis courts so we parked there. As it was wet we were not sure if the session would go ahead but as we approached we saw a tennis coach waiting to greet us. 

We hadn't booked a session so we completed the form with our names and details and we were shown on to the court. 

The tennis coach pointed us in the direction of the racquet's and balls and little J was able to pick up a racket straight away and have a little practice on a small net set up just for his age range. The choice of rackets was very impressive for a free session, and Little J was able to pick a his own colour from a selection of racket's his size. 

The coach made us feel very welcome and as some more people arrived two more coaches arrived too.  One coach took the adults over to a separate court and two coaches took the children.

Firstly, there was a warm up session. The coach told the children to do little jogs from one end of the court to the other, side steps, high knees and other simple exercises to get the children warmed up, then the children split into two groups based on their age ranges.

Our coach was really good with the two little ones he had to work with, concentrating on teaching them to return the ball over a small net from his underarm throws. He showed them how to hold the racket, how to stand, where to start and where to end the swing. He gave them lots of encouragement and congratulated then when they returned the ball. 

Little J was very pleased with himself when he consistently started to return the ball and really was listening to the coach and following the instructions. Credit to the coaches who are fully trained and either leaders or volunteers from the local area, they kept the children's concentration levels up and helped them to enjoy the session.

Little J really enjoyed the session and can't wait to go back next week to learn some more. In fact he wanted to go back as soon as we started to head home.

I have looked into joining tennis coaching sessions at one of our local gyms before and was a bit put off by the cost. The fact that this is free is really impressive and the standard of the coaching is definitely something I would pay for.  

We will definitely be going back to Tennis next week and will also be trying out some more activities over the Summer. Manchester is a very popular location for activities and we are hoping to sign up to family circuit and family fishing. 

For more information on the free activities available head over to Coca Cola ParkLives and pop in your postcode. 

Michelle

*The ParkLives activities are free of charge, however I was compensated for my time of writing this post*