MP's visit Southfields for Cardio Tennis - News - Wandsworth School Games

MP's visit Southfields for Cardio Tennis

Cardio Tennis is a tennis-based workout which is done on court to music, and can engage mixed ability groups on a single court or sports hall.

Though just a stone’s throw from the venue for The Championships, Wimbledon, the Cardio Tennis session felt world’s away from the hallowed lawns of the All England Club. 

13-year-old pupil Lydia Bekouchi, commented: “That was so fun – I got my heart rate up to 163 and I’ve never done that before.

“I’ve never had facilities like this before and it just makes you want to get up and play so you learn more when you have these facilities. I didn’t think that tennis was for me before this but it’s actually really fun.”

The session was organised by the LTA and the School Sports Partnership, and attended by some tennis-interested Parliamentarians ahead of a visit to nearby Wimbledon.

Members of Parliament Angie Bray MP, Chris Kelly MP, Gareth Thomas MP, John Mann MP were all at Southfields with LTA Head of Business Development Tom Harlow, and Sport England Directors Lisa O'Keefe.and Caroline Weber. 

Southfields Community College offers an extensive range of sporting activities to its pupils, and the local community, through access to its facilities in the evenings and at weekend.  Almost 10 years after it invested £455,000 in the centre in 2001, Sport England returned to see that its investment is still making a huge contribution to sport in the area. The school has received subsequent investment from other partners, including the local council.

Southfields Community College is at the centre of the School Sports Partnership in Wandsworth, South-West London, which is working to offer pupils across the Borough the opportunity to participate in quality physical education and sport both during and beyond curriculum time every week, as part of the five-hour offer.

Chris Whitbread, the Director of Specialism’s at Southfields Community College commented: “The funding has been absolutely amazing, our sports facilities over the past few years have just developed and developed.

“We currently have four outdoor tennis courts and one indoor tennis court available. A lot of our kids now play tennis as part of their key stage 3 and key stage 4 learning. We’ve got a really keen group of students that come out in break time to play tennis and we provide them with tennis racquets and balls – so days like today are fantastic.

“A number of kids have recently shown interest in playing tennis outside of school in tennis clubs which I’m sure will happen – we’re trying to make sure that they get a good basis in their lessons and then hopefully some of them might take it forward.

Cardio Tennis originated in the US and the LTA is rolling it out in Britain as part of its drive to engage more people in tennis and grow the popularity of the sport. The session at the school is one of a number to test how secondary pupils respond to Cardio Tennis. The activity includes drills for absolute beginners through to advanced tennis, and it can also be used for mixed ability groups and with mini tennis.”

Another pupil who enjoyed the session was 16-year-old Shaquille Cummings who has taken up a voluntary assistant role at the school. “Cardio tennis was tiring but enjoyable. I don’t really play tennis but I think it will help me to learn how to play the sport and increase my fitness.”

He said: “I got in to a sports course through school and as part of that I have to teach kids in sports so I went out to several different primary schools and got involved with them and since then, I have come back to my old school and am participating in activities like today.

Jenny Lewis, Head of PE at the school also praised the activity, she said: “It’s massively important for kids to be able to commit to something like sport and activities such as this. The kids at this school come from various different backgrounds and it just gives them the chance to express themselves in a different way than just being out on the streets and doing things that maybe they shouldn’t really be doing. It gives them the opportunity to follow a dream or learn something new.”

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