The summer months bring tennis to the forefront of most people’s mind. With Queens and Wimbledon dominating the airwaves, strawberries and cream, balmy warm evenings (or not as seems to be the case in 2019!), it’s easy to think tennis is only in our sights when the weather warms up. However, that is not the case at Amesbury. Head tennis pro Andy Warry and his growing team of Amesbury Tennis Academy (ATA) coaches work tirelessly all year round to nurture and develop our pupils, with tennis lessons being taught to pupils, from as young as 2 years of age.
ATA has a fantastic track record when it comes to coaching our pupils. In addition to regular tennis lessons within PE sessions, ATA now has over 170 pupils playing within group tennis lessons and performance tennis numbers now stand at a healthy 41 players. Many pupils from as young as 2 years of age are able to experience tennis lessons. They are taught a variety of skills, which not only help them to develop their ability to play tennis but also help with either hand-eye coordination, which in turn helps them to develop their writing skills.
Our pupils also get the opportunity to play in many of the local and regional tournaments. We were delighted to once again host the Surrey Schools Tennis Association event in May this year, resulting in Amesbury winning the U8 silver medal, coming a close 2nd to St. Georges Weybridge. June saw us enter the U9 Tennis Festival at Wimbledon School and come 3rd overall taking the Bronze medal. In Cranleigh’s Tennis Festival we came 2nd and Rugby School’s IAPS tennis tournament, which last year saw us win U13 mixed bronze medal and U11 mixed tennis gold plate, and this year we won Gold with our u/11 Boys and Mixed Teams. With our track record of winning 90% of matches across the board to date, we’re hoping our final weeks of term will be equally as successful.
We are very proud of the achievements our pupils, past, and present, have made. Current pupils, Henry, Lucy, Rosa, and Arthur have all got call backs for Surrey County level with Hayden achieving regional and county levels. Old Amesburians Jodie Burrage is currently world ranked WTA 233 and Emily Lindh Gallagher is ITF ranked 190. Dan Cochrane is an Ex ATP player and Resident Head Tennis Professional in America working with John McEnroe.
Amesbury has forged links with local schools and is proud to support Hollycombe Primary school with a tennis programme. Currently we provide 8 players with free tennis coaching and this is an initiative we are hoping to expand in 2020.
ATA holiday tennis camps are open to all children, not just those studying at Amesbury. The camps are open to children aged from 3 years to 14 years of age and are a great way for them to learn and develop their tennis skills. They include a variety of training exercises and coaching.
For further details on our summer tennis camps, please visit www.amesburyschool.co.uk/the-extra-dimension/holiday-courses/
