JUDY MURRAY TOURING UK TO ENCOURAGE YOUNGSTERS TO PICK UP RACQUETS

Tennis ace Judy Murray OBE to tour UK and share knowledge with coaches and youngsters

After raising two grand slamming World Number One tennis champions, Judy Murray is the ideal candidate to tour the UK to impart her tennis wisdom to coaches and youngsters alike.

From 23^rd May 2018, she’ll be doing just that as she visits David Lloyd Clubs across the country to share her tips and advice from her decades in the industry.

Judy Murray – former Fed Cup captain – will visit six David Lloyd Clubs across the UK, including one in her home country, David Lloyd Glasgow, to impart wisdom to existing and budding coaches, as well as hosting lessons for young talent and keen tennis players.

It’s the second year that Judy has been brought on as a coach consultant for the UK’s leading health and fitness chain.

Judy Murray comments: “I’m so happy to be back in my role as coach consultant for a second successive year with David Lloyd Clubs. I’ve a huge passion for tennis and I believe that building a better and stronger delivery workforce across the UK is key to getting more kids, teens and adults playing. David Lloyd Clubs has 600 coaches so it’s great to be able to share lots of ideas on how to make tennis fun and stimulating.”

“A love of sport or physical activity almost always starts at home so it’s my goal to get more families involved.   I will run a series of workshops showing coaches how to deliver parent-child sessions in their clubs. The parent will always be the first port of call when a child needs someone to play with, so if we can show the parents how to help their kids to develop the skills you need for tennis, then it’s a win-win. But it’s not just about the physical skills, sport can help to develop all sorts of life skills too.”

Encouraging children – and especially girls – into tennis has been a passion of Murray’s for some years.

At David Lloyd Clubs alone, the number of kids in tennis has risen by over 4% since Judy began working with the health, fitness and racquets group. Her own sons were junior members at David Lloyd Clubs when they were growing up, too.

Meanwhile the LTA reports that the number of children under 10 who have played tennis outside of school in the last four weeks in the UK is just 10%, compared to 50% who have taken part in swimming and 30% in football. This figure rises to 17% in those aged 10-15.*

David Bulgin, David Lloyd Clubs Group Racquets Manager commented: “We’re thrilled to be working with Judy as a tennis coach consultant again. At David Lloyd Clubs, we’re committed to encouraging more children to get into tennis, no matter their age or ability. Judy helps to not only encourage those playing tennis, but also those teaching the sport, when she runs coaching classes for our tennis coaches.

“Judy also helps us in our mission to get more people active, whether that’s in tennis or other sports or activities. Our clubs offer a wide range of facilities, so if we can get more children and families into fitness, we can help them develop sports skills as well as all-important life skills.”   

Judy will start her tour of the UK in Glasgow on Wednesday 23^rd May before embarking on a six-day tour that will see her travel across the UK to visit various David Lloyd Clubs, ending in David Lloyd Cambridge. During her visits, Judy will host a one-hour junior coaching masterclass for the health and fitness clubs’ junior members, aimed to increase participation in tennis and sport and encourage kids to get more active.

David Bulgin from David Lloyd Clubs adds; “Judy’s interactive workshops are both fun and innovative, from games that can be done in the back garden with mum or dad to coach-led drills, she focuses on exercises that build skills vital in tennis. For our coaching teams, it’s an incredible opportunity to learn from someone who trained the former World Number One in tennis. Tennis is a great agility sport, that improves general fitness, but it also helps builds social skills and self-confidence – skills that are key to kids.”

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About David Lloyd Leisure Group

The David Lloyd Leisure Group has 112 clubs -  98 clubs in the UK and a further 14 clubs across Europe, comprising its two brands David Lloyd Clubs and Harbour Clubs (of which there are three -  Chelsea, Notting Hill and Kensington). 

On 1 June 2017 it acquired 14 UK health and racquets clubs from Virgin Active as well as opened its third Harbour Club at Kensington following a £5.5m investment and redevelopment programme. It also announced it had exchanged contracts to buy The Park Club in Chiswick, London, The Academy Club in Harrogate, and Malaspina Sporting Club in Milan. In March 2018 it acquired City Green Sporting Club near Geneva.

It has over 600,000 members and employs around 8100 people.  This includes an expert health and fitness team of over 2000 while it contracts the services of more than 600 tennis professionals.

Across all clubs, David Lloyd Leisure has over 180 swimming pools (of which half are indoor) and offers over 13,000 exercise classes per week.

Every week over 25,000 children learn to swim at David Lloyd Leisure, 16000 children learn to play in the Tennis All Stars Coaching Programme.

David Lloyd Club’s racquets facilities are unparalleled with over 1000 tennis courts as well as over 400 badminton and squash courts.

Additional facilities include health and beauty spas, club lounges with free internet access, crèches, nurseries and specialist sports shops.

* Proportion of children in England aged 5-10 years old who had participated in Tennis outside school in the last four weeks, 2016/17 =10.2%, source: Lawn Tennis Association.