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At Sway Tennis Academy we have always put the player at the centre of all we do. We want players to love every aspect of their tennis experience, to commit to the game long term, achieve their goals and develop all the life skills that a healthy sport experience can bring. We know that a programme must be much more than just coaching lessons so that this does not become the sport. Below you can see the core elements of our programme plus a description.
The reason we all learn to play tennis is to compete. Many other sports run a competitive programme alongside training. Think of junior football or cricket, training during the week and then matches on the weekend. Too often in tennis we let the coaching become the sport. Whether it be challenging how many skills you can achieve, playing with parents in a doubles festival or winning points for your team, competition is a very important part of a player’s development. At Sway Tennis Academy we offer various types of competition with fun introduction skill events for players new to the game, to more serious singles events for more experienced players. As a minimum we run competitions on one week per half term during all group lessons in a Team Challenge style event to allow players to compete but to have the support socially of team members. Our upcoming competitions can be found on the ‘Competitions & Events’ page.
Coaching needs to ensure the maximum progress of technical, tactical, physical and mental skills in players. By age 6 children can already understand the basic concepts of tennis i.e. a court, net and sending and receiving a ball with an opponent. We maintain this idea by implementing a games based approach, especially with our youngest age groups, such as, not wasting any shots in tennis by always having a returner when practising serves. This could include just catching the ball rather than sending it back. You can see more information on our junior and adult coaching pages.
It is important for players to practice away from the coaching arena to help with their development. This can be maintained by playing at the club with friends and/or family at least once a week. Part of our lanyard sticker system for ages 4 – 10 rewards extra free time play. We also offer a fun match practice junior evening session on Monday evenings, 5- 6pm for over 10s. This session is free for members and £1 for non members. Some of our competition events are match play based with the focus more on practising playing matches rather than the results. Watch out for these on our competition page.
We want every player to love every aspect of their tennis experience. The opportunity to socialise plays a key role in this and is essential to our health. Tennis allows you the opportunity to have fun, build skill and develop alongside others. This creates a sense of belonging and helps players connect both on and off court. Competition, coaching and practice play can all allow players to socialise and we help create a sense of belonging with the tennis club Adidas clothing range, our sticker reward system and our tennis at home activities.
Parents play a pivotal role in tennis and children depend heavily on their involvement, support and encouragement. They can also help to manage a player’s expectations and progress. It is also important for parents to understand what role the children want them to play in their own tennis development. We understand this important part parents play and so aim to communicate regularly to help support them with every stage of their child’s development. We encourage parents to be involved with key areas their children are working towards and why. We will also be introducing termly reports to help this communication. Our Tennis At Home page allows parents to take part with their children to help with their development away from the court.
Craig and Marian McEwan founded Sway Tennis Club in May 1984. Craig has coached at county, regional and national level, with 3 of his former pupils gaining world rankings in the Men’s game and a Junior player achieving top 100 status. He is a former LTA Tutor, Examiner and Referee, and has a special interest in and experience of wheelchair tennis at international level. He holds academic qualifications in Education and Psychology and is a qualified Sports masseur and Reiki practitioner.