Across the city there are over 20 established clubs, over 30 community sites boasting tennis facilities and 27 indoor courts, 6 of which are based at Leeds City Council's John Charles Centre for Sport.
Accompanying a comprehensive network of links between clubs and schools is the High Performance Centre based at Carnegie at Leeds Met University. Strong links with the performance programme at the John Charles Centre for Sport means that gifted children in Leeds have the best possible chance of realising their potential.
Tennis in Leeds is coordinated by Leeds City Council's tennis development officer. The primary focus of this post is to develop tennis within the city, through club links, school partnership work, close links with the YLTA and coordinating city wide tennis schemes. The role also oversees the Tennis Centre at the John Charles Centre for Sport, managing the team of coaches and their delivery across the city.
Mini tennis in schools
The tennis development officer secures funding for, and coordinates the delivery of coaching programmes in schools. This includes providing suitable equipment, along with teacher training to ensure the school-based delivery of tennis is sustainable. Clear exit routes into established club and community mini tennis programmes are given to every child.
Every year the tennis development officer works alongside the School Sports Partnerships to deliver the Primary Schools Mini Tennis Challenge, the largest city-wide mini tennis competition in the country. Over 100 schools from across the city take part, with the finals hosted at the John Charles Centre for Sport and coordinated by the tennis development officer.
School/club links and competition
Developing and maintaining solid communication and pathways between schools and clubs, inter-club and along the performance pathway are essential to maintain the strength of tennis within the city. Leeds boasts performance and development cluster leagues, where clubs from across the city can enter junior teams to compete against each other at all levels of the mini tennis pathway. Leeds also has well established Leeds Leagues, ranging from U12s through to senior teams.
Clubs host their own calendar of domestic competition and tournaments. Perhaps the largest of these is the City of Leeds Junior Tennis Tournament, taking place in August each year. Hosted at the JCCS and run by the tennis development officer, the City of Leeds attracts over 250 top junior players from all over the country.
Tennis camps
The City of Leeds Summer Tennis tour delivers high-quality summer camps for young people at venues across the city. The programme runs for the length of the school holidays and sees between 2 and 3 separate tennis camps being run each week. They provide fantastic opportunities for young people between the ages of 8 and 15 to play and improve their tennis.
For further information on athletics within Leeds, please contact:
Charles Tatman
Tennis Development Officer
tel: 0113 3950186
email: tennis@leeds.gov.uk