Memorandum submitted by the Lawn Tennis
Association
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
— In 2005 the LTA will invest £15
million of its money into grassroots tennis, this constitutes
49% of our annual investment in British tennis;
— Investment geared towards increasing
levels of juniors playing by 5% annually and modernising the club
network;
— Participation has grown hugely. 4.6
million playing tennis in 2004, up from 2.9 million in 2003. 500,000
kids between 4-10 now playing Mini Tennis;
— Since 2000 we have invested over
£13.5 million into over 100 facility development projects
as grants or loans, creating 44 new indoor courts and 85 floodlight
courts;
— Investment has been on the strict
proviso that the clubs work with us to become accessible to all,
less elite and more welcoming;
— £1 million invested into City
Tennis Clubs to take tennis to the inner cities ensuring over
25,000 kids a week are playing tennis;
— Mini Tennis now in over 700 clubs
nationwide. RAW Tennis launching this year to build on huge numbers
entering the sport at early teens;
— Over 1,275 clubs offered free days
of tennis to almost 70,000 people as part of Play Tennis 2004.
Now UK's largest sporting participation event;
— There are 2,750 trained and licensed
coaches in Great Britain ensuring that anyone entering the sport
receives a quality experience from it;
— £1.5 million has been invested
by the LTA over the past four years to create indoor and outdoor
tennis facilities in 41 Specialist Sports Colleges and to allow
20 Tennis Development Officers/Coaches to work full-time in the
education sector. 40,000 kids a year playing in national schools
tennis competitions;
— LTA received first ever government
funding in 2002 with CCDP investment and 2004 with WSP funding.
But we still face shortfall compared to other countries. It would
cost £1.2 billion just to get to a similar level of indoor
courts as France thanks to their local government investment programme.
INTRODUCTION
As the governing body for tennis in Great Britain,
the LTA's aims are clear. We are determined to ensure that this
country becomes a great tennis nation again. To do that we need
a vibrant network of accessible, affordable clubs with juniors
and performance at their heart, which is why everything that the
LTA does now is focused on three key areas—performance,
kids and clubs. We want to encourage more people to pick up a
racket and have a go and to ensure that those playing the sport
continue to do so.
We have made great progress already and we remain
committed to supporting and growing the sport of tennis at all
levels throughout the country.
As an association we remain one of the few national
governing bodies fully committed to investing in both the elite
and grassroots of our sport. This year we will invest £15
million into grassroots tennis.
For the first time ever as an association we
have also begun to receive government funding through both the
exchequer and Sport England. The CCDP funding of £3.1 million
a year for three years and Whole Sport Funding of £12.8 million
will also be invested into key community projects.
OBJECTIVES
The LTA's mission is quite literal: More Players,
Better Players. At the most basic level we are committed to three
broad objectives:
— To increase the number of juniors
playing the sport by 5% per year
— To modernise and ensure a vibrant
network of clubs, increasing by 5% per year
— To identify, develop and support
the most talented players and achieve six players in world top
100 by 2009.
Supporting these broad themes, and outlined
within our recent Whole Sport Plan submission to Sport England,
are a series of key performance indicators. These form the framework
for the delivery of our vision for tennis in this country and
outline the ambitious targets that we believe will make tennis
the most popular individual sport in this country by 2012.
CURRENT INITIATIVES
To deliver these ambitious targets, we have
a series of initiatives in place to deliver tennis at all levels
of ability and age. We are committed to ensuring that tennis facilities
are available to as many people as possible and that the experience
of playing the sport in clubs, schools or local authority facilities
is a positive one. We have worked hard in recent years to increase
the levels of participation across age groups and the retention
levels within the sport by making the sport more relevant, fun
and accessible. And we have been successful. Participation figures
are rising because of our grassroots work with 4.6 million people
playing the sport regularly in 2004, up from 2.9 million in 2003.
CLUBS
Club Vision
Tennis clubs are the backbone of tennis in this
country and have been the focal point of our work to make British
tennis more inclusive and available for all. At present we have
2,683 affiliated clubs in Great Britain and they are supported
by Club Vision, our club modernisation programme. Introduced in
2000, Club Vision aims to provide a robust framework for practical
and financial support that is tailored to the needs of individual
clubs. Since 2000 we have invested over £13.5 million into
over 100 facility development projects as grants or loans. This
has created 44 new indoor courts and 85 floodlight courts. Investment
has been on the strict proviso that the clubs work with us to
become accessible to all, less elite and more welcoming.
Club Vision relies on fluid, constructive communication.
It was created after an extensive consultation process with clubs,
and the people who run them. Together, we're looking at ways to
get more clubs affiliated to the LTA; to increase and improve
levels of coaching; to raise standards of junior and adult tennis;
to spot and nurture exceptional talent. We need more and better
facilities across the country if tennis is to really fire the
public imagination—and for more than just two weeks at the
end of June. Indoor facilities in particular are required and
we face a huge gap in numbers compared to other countries. In
France for instance, who have enjoyed sustained government funding,
they have 5,000 extra indoor courts than us—a funding shortfall
of £1.2 billion.
City Tennis Clubs
Tennis in the Community
The LTA is committed to ensuring that tennis
remains accessible across all levels within the grassroots arena.
We aim to achieve this by developing sustainable partnerships
with education, local authorities, Sporting Organisations and
other national agencies that share the same core vision in establishing
pathways into tennis clubs and non-commercial operations.
For too long tennis has been perceived as a
white, middle class sport. The LTA is determined that everyone,
from all social and ethnic backgrounds, has the opportunity to
play this lifetime sport. That is why we launched the first City
Tennis Club in Hackney in 2001. There are now 27 nationwide from
Edinburgh and Glasgow to Southampton and Bristol.
The CTC programme focuses on the regeneration
of park and school courts in deprived inner city and urban areas.
It aims to give people the chance to play regular tennis in a
safe, open and friendly environment for as little as £1 a
session.
The £1m in grant aid already invested in
the 27 clubs has been money well spent. They have been a huge
success in linking with the local community and schools. They
have provided over 150 dedicated tennis courts in inner city parks
and have between them fostered links with over 250 schools and
eight Active Sports partnerships. The clubs have ensured that
over 25,000 kids, from non-traditional tennis backgrounds, are
now taking regular tennis sessions each week. With six additional
local authorities in discussion to open further clubs, we will
continue rolling out the programme in 2005.
Already we are beginning to see a more representative
mix of people coming into tennis, and we've enlisted some high-profile
support to help continue the trend. Prime Minister, Tony Blair,
who is an official ambassador to the CTC programme, hosted a reception
at Downing Street to mark its second anniversary last year. Footballer-turned-TV
host Ian Wright, tennis stars John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Venus
Williams and Roger Taylor have also been actively involved and
have hosted tennis clinics in London clubs over the last 18 months.
COACHING
The importance of the tennis coach in the development
of a club programme of coaching, competition and social activities
cannot be underestimated. Creating more career opportunities for
tennis coaches remains a target area for the LTA. The LTA Coach
Database has over 6,000 qualified tennis coaches of which 1,115
coaches work full time (more than 30 hours a week), 1,157 coaches
work between 15 and 30 hours a week and 2,543 coaches work for
less than 15 hours a week.
The LTA's Coach Education programme currently
offers coach education qualifications across three different levels
to ensure coaching standards remain high and consistent. This
structure will change in accordance with the United Kingdom Coaching
Certificate (UKCC) and a five-tier structure will be in place
by January 2007. Since 1996, the LTA has run a Coach Licensing
Scheme (CLS), which operates as a Personal Development Plan (PDP)
for coaches already qualified. Coaches need to gain credits to
maintain the three year licence. There are 2,400 fully licensed
coaches in GB of whom 262 are licensed performance coaches.
Coaches remain an integral part of the success
of any sport, and particularly tennis. At present there are 2,750
trained and licensed coaches in Great Britain ensuring that anyone
entering the sport receives a quality experience from it. The
LTA also ensures that all licensed coaches are CRB checked and
cleared.
Coaches play an integral role in attracting
kids into the sport. That is why the LTA is working hard to ensure
coaches come from all backgrounds of life and already over 850
(31%) of coaches are female.
SCHOOLS TENNIS
The most popular place for people to take up
tennis is in schools. As well as attracting more players into
the game it is important to retain those players and help them
to fulfil their potential. Our focus in schools is:
— to provide teachers, coaches and
others working within schools and school sport partnerships with
the right training, resources, and support to make sure pupils
receive a sound, fun introduction to tennis, and
— to provide links between schools,
local authorities and clubs to help and encourage pupils to play
outside of school on a regular basis in a club.
Our school's strategy is delivered through the
British School's Tennis Association (BSTA) which currently has
over 3,680 schools as members. The Association aims to promote,
support and encourage the teaching and playing of tennis in places
of full-time education.
The BSTA delivers tennis across the state and
independent sectors. £1.5 million has been invested by the
LTA over the past four years to create indoor and outdoor tennis
facilities in 41 Specialist Sports Colleges and to allow 20 Tennis
Development Officers/Coaches to work full-time in the education
sector. This includes support for specialist sports colleges.
We are also working closely with government
on school sport provision. Tennis has been selected to be a focus
sport within the Physical Education School Sport Club Links project
and will receive £750,000 of government funding over the
next three years. Although the government funding is only for
England, Welsh and Scottish schools and clubs will benefit from
the products and resources that will be developed to support the
programme.
Finally, we have ensured good support for teachers
and ensured it is very closely linked to the roll out of the new
infrastructure. Training courses are delivered annually to primary
and secondary school teachers and also to students in Higher Education.
In the last academic year, 1750 primary school teachers, 550 secondary
school teachers and 750 students attended courses. The approach
is bearing fruit and we now have over 40,000 kids competing in
our national schools competitions.
KIDS
The LTA believes that tennis clubs should be
places where children between the ages of four to 18 can meet,
enjoy themselves, and benefit from a positive introduction to
the game. Once clubs become places where kids genuinely want to
spend their time, junior programmes will blossom—which can
only be good for the future of the game. The LTA refuses to fund
clubs that do not share this ethos.
The LTA has spent huge amount of time and resources
in overhauling the sport at junior level.
Mini Tennis
Mini Tennis, a version of the sport designed
specifically for four to 10 year olds, was introduced in 2001
and has been a huge success.
In GB there are now 730 Mini Tennis clubs, with
over 500,000 kids playing this form of the sport and 12% of the
target age group now play tennis regularly. Each LTA County Association
has its own dedicated County Mini Tennis Coach to help continue
this growth and support existing clubs and coaches.
Mini Tennis has been a huge success at introducing
new generations to tennis, it is now the second most popular sport
for school kids under 11. The next challenge is to ensure they
remain in the sport throughout teenage years.
RAW TENNIS
Participation "drop out" in early
teens is a problem for all sports and is recognised by Government.
The LTA has been very successful at getting new generations into
the sport at young ages and is now concentrating on keeping them
in the game. One of the main ways will be through the introduction
this April of RAW Tennis, a radical new junior approach to tennis
for 11-17 year olds that aims to address the drop out issue.
Designed after an extensive study into young
people's lives, RAW Tennis was developed to attract and maintain
young peoples' interest in tennis. It will aim to develop tennis
skills by focusing on the bits that young people enjoy the most:
the game, the competitiveness, the individuality, the camaraderie,
and is backed by an inspirational and interactive website.
Play Tennis
To correct the perception that tennis is an
expensive sport to play, we introduced the Play Tennis promotion
in 1998—whereby clubs open their doors to everyone for a
day's free tennis and coaching. Thereafter affordable programmes
to maintain people's interest are offered.
In 2004 over 1,275 clubs offered free days of
tennis to almost 70,000 people. Three-quarters of them had barely
picked up a racquet before, and over 30% on non-members joined
their local club after taking part.
Now in its eighth year, the promotion has become
the country's most successful national sports participation event.
PROGRESS AND
MOVING FORWARD
The LTA has made and is making huge progress
in grassroots tennis. Participation levels across the board are
rising and our initiatives are introducing and keeping new generations
of kids in the sport. The launch of RAW Tennis this year will
undoubtedly build on this success.
However, in comparison to other leading tennis
nations we still lag behind in terms of government support and
investment into programmes and facilities.
While government money, until very recently,
was not invested into the LTA, individual lottery awards for tennis
were made. According to government figures, in the region of £90
million of lottery money has been invested in tennis since 1995.
The majority of this was through local government investment and
not directly to clubs or schools.
After a lengthy campaign by the LTA in Whitehall,
the perception of tennis began to be changed round by 1999/2000
as key initiatives were introduced, such as Mini Tennis, City
Tennis Clubs and Club Vision, and began to make a difference in
terms of encouraging new players and reforming the club network.
These changes, combined with awareness raising
in government circles has seen a change in this investment pattern.
In 2002 the LTA received its first ever Exchequer
funding, with £3.1 million a year for three years awarded
to the LTA for grassroots tennis investment. This Community Club
Development Programme (CCDP) money is now in its second year,
with the first wave of this money being invested into new indoor
and floodlight facilities throughout the country. This funding
arose directly from the LTA lobbying campaign in association with
the other four Sports.
The LTA were then invited to submit their Whole
Sport Plan (WSP) and state how we would spend any lottery funding.
This invitation was made in the light that direct lottery funding
to individual projects would cease and that all lottery money
would now be channelled through NGBs.
This was followed by an initial grant of £500,000
for 2004-05 and an additional £12.8 million of Sport England
funding this year for the next four years via the WSP process.
In addition an application for funding for the National Tennis
Centre has been made. Of the £12.8 million, only £8
million could be spent as the LTA saw fit in pursuance of its
WSP. This is to say £4.8 million was ring-fenced and could
only be spent on specific projects that met Sport England requirements.
While this award was welcomed it does represent a significant
reduction in lottery money coming into tennis.
While the LTA acknowledges that this Government
is investing significant sums in school sport, it believes there
remains a significant funding shortfall for sport in the community.
In tennis alone the move to WSP funding from lottery funding has
effectively seen a 50% drop in investment into tennis.
The LTA has made grassroots sport a focal point
of its strategic mission and we have had huge success in recent
years through sustained and strategic investment in community
sport with participation levels rising significantly and tennis's
popularity amongst younger age groups increasing. A solid base
has been put in place and with further support and investment
from government grassroots tennis will thrive.
4 April 2005
| 
