Setting up a Walking Tennis group at your club - 9 practical tips
Walking tennis is a fun, accessible form of tennis that anyone can play. If you’re thinking of adding a session or group to your tennis club, here are some practical tips to help you get started…
Like other walking sports such as football and netball, walking tennis is an increasingly popular activity across the UK, especially for older people looking to stay active.
Walking tennis is tennis with a few simple modifications: you can’t run or jump; you use slightly different balls, and you can let the ball bounce twice for extra time.
Read a full guide to playing walking tennis and the rules here.
Adding a walking tennis element to your tennis club brings all kinds of benefits. Older members can continue playing the sport they love for longer in life. It’s great for players in rehab after an injury or operation. And you can open up your club to the wider community with a genuinely inclusive offering.
The great thing for tennis clubs is that walking tennis is so simple to introduce. You play on the same courts, with the same nets and racquets. The only special equipment you need is orange balls, but any club with junior coaching generally has a few buckets of those anyway.
That means that anyone can book a court at any time and simply play walking tennis instead of normal tennis if they like. But to get it going properly at a club and encourage people to play, you really need a dedicated session of some sort.
At my club in Bristol in England, we’ve successfully set up a weekly one-hour pay-and-play session that has a thriving group of regular players, and it’s added a wonderful new dimension to our club. Based on our experience, here are some practical tips for clubs looking to do the same…
1. Get the committee/club leadership on board
If you need to persuade club decision-makers of the advantages of introducing walking tennis, you can point out the direct benefits to the club:
It’s a potential new source of income for the club, reaching new demographics
It’s an opportunity to make use of courts at off-peak times (since many players are retirees)
It allows members to keep involved and playing at the club for longer in life and post-injury
It’s a relatively simple, low-cost way to provide an inclusive sporting offer to the local community.
2. Decide on the nature of your session
At my club we have a regular, uncoached Saturday morning session, with courts booked out specifically for walking tennis. Members can play free, while non-members pay £4 per session (or £6 for couples).
Other clubs in the local area have a walking tennis membership option instead, with dedicated off-peak walking tennis times during the week.
Or you may have a professional coach at the club who would like to add walking tennis to their roster of group sessions, and organise it in their own way.
3. Build a volunteer group
In the absence of a paid coach available to lead the sessions, the key to success at my club was the development of a core group of club members willing to volunteer. We organise via a WhatsApp group and have all established great relations with each other and with the regular players. Volunteers don’t need to coach the sessions, but at least one person must be there to open up, welcome new players, explain the rules, get out the equipment, take payments and lock up afterwards.
4. Encourage members to play
Walking tennis is a great way for members to stay playing for longer and for rehab after injury. It’s also great for novices to be able to hit with experienced players.
There can be a stigma about being ‘reduced’ to walking tennis, so it’s important to show members that it’s a fun, skilful and competitive game in its own right.
5. Advertise locally
We kicked off our walking tennis offering with a free open day, advertised locally. We put up posters outside the club and in various relevant locations (library, park, leisure centre, pharmacies etc) and had features in the neighbourhood magazine. We continue to advertise and we let people try out walking tennis with a free first session.
6. Make it fun for all participants
It’s important to ensure that all attendees enjoy the session, so we often split the group into two sub-groups. Experienced players can just get on and play a set of competitive doubles, while on a separate court the volunteer members help beginners with cooperative rallying and fun games like 3-a-side, tennis ‘volleyball’ etc. (See more ideas here: Tennis games for three players and other awkward numbers)
7. Make it social
Set up a WhatsApp group for the regular players and have a few key members on it. Use this for weather updates and cancellations, but also to help foster friendships and social events.
8. Do a risk assessment
Don’t forget to do a risk assessment when introducing a new session, according to your club and association guidelines.
9. Be patient
At my club it took a good 4-6 months to develop a substantial group of regular walking tennis players. But if you just keep it going, the group will grow over time.
Good luck with setting up a walking tennis session at your club — and do let me know how you get on, I’d love to hear about it. Email me via editor@talkingtennis.co.uk
See also:
A guide to Walking Tennis - including the rules and tips for playing
Talking Tennis with… Helen Abbott, inclusive tennis champion and co-founder of Walking Tennis
Andrew Nixon is club secretary at Bristol Central Tennis Club, which hosts a regular weekly Walking Tennis session.
