What a journey Derbyshire’s Andy Wood has had from promising badminton star, to becoming a GB Olympic Head Coach and co-founder of Derbyshire Institute of Sport. Along the way, he’s inspired huge numbers to play sport and from a badminton perspective coached Simon Archer and Joanne Goode to GB’s first ever Olympic medal for Great Britain (Bronze) in Sydney 2000 as well as coaching Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms to Silver Medal at Athens Olympics 2004. Andy has an inspiring story and an exciting current chapter with the Derbyshire Institute of Sport. I hope you’ll enjoy listening to Andy as much as I enjoyed speaking to him.

Find out more about the Derbyshire Institute of Sport here: www.derbyshireis.co.uk

It was fascinating to talk to Michael Gradon, the CEO of Game4Padel - one of the fastest growing companies in one of the fastest growing sports in the UK.

Padel was described recently as the biggest fitness trend of the Summer by GQ magazine. Jurgen Klopp loves it, Pep Guardiola loves it, Annabel Croft loves it, Zlatan loves it, my Mum loves it and so does my wife and my children. 

Michael has a wealth of experience within the corporate World and the tennis World having been on the board of Wimbledon and Game4Padel is growing quickly and has Andy Murray among their investors.

As you’l hear, Michael doesn’t just believe that padel is going to be big, he believes it is going to be MASSIVE.

From a participation point of view in the UK, can it grow to be bigger than rugby? Bigger than cricket? Bigger than netball?

Listen to this episode and find out just how MASSIVE Michael believes padel can become…

For more info on Gsme4Padel, please visit this website: https://www.game4padel.com/

Tennis is a game for life and today’s interview proves it! Professional tennis players may retire on average at 27, but for amateur players your tennis career can run and run up to and beyond your 80th birthday. Seniors Tennis GB are passionate about inspiring players who are over 35 to get involved in the game from giving it a go, to playing competitions and even having a chance of representing GB. As you’ll hear from Seniors Tennis GB Head of Selectors for the men’s teams Edward Oakenfull, whatever your level there are some fantastic opportunities to get involved…something I’m planning to do!

Head here for more info on Seniors Tennis GB: https://www.lta.org.uk/compete/seniors/

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Fantastic news! John of Rolleston Primary School where I coach has been named the LTA School of the Year for the Midlands! This follows on from the school being named LTA School of the Year for Staffordshire.

The recipe that has led to this Award has featured six main ingredients that when mixed together produces an ever so ace tennis programme. Find out what the ingredients are in this short episode…

For more info about the LTA Youth Schools programme, please visit: https://lta-tennis.force.com/schools/s/

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Tom Murray has had an amazing journey from teaching English to a future World No.1 at a Spanish Academy as a young tennis hopeful to heading up one of the World’s fastest growing sports at the LTA. Hear how Tom has helped drive the growth of the game in the UK, what the future holds for padel players and coaches and which World Cup winning footballer he played padel against…

My club Church Broughton Tennis Club has just opened the county's first padel tennis court. We are having an open day on Sun 1 May - find out all about Church Broughton here: https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/ChurchBroughtonTennisClub/ and if you'd like to come along please email me at [email protected]

To find out more about padel in the UK please visit: https://www.lta.org.uk/play/ways-to-play/padel/

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He’s so excited and he just can’t hide it, Paul from online retailer PDHSport is a massive fan of padel and he thinks you’ll like it… 

Find out why in this introduction to padel as we discuss why Paul is enjoying the sport so much at the brand new court at Church Broughton Tennis Club where I coach. 

As you’ll hear, Paul has a number of reasons why he thinks padel is a fun sport for the whole family…

The court at Church Broughton is Derbyshire’s first padel tennis court and we are preparing for a big Open Day on 1 May. If you’d like to come along please visit this Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/1pgBrwqse (you don’t have to be a Facebook member to view). You can book a free slot to give padel a go at the Open Day here: https://bit.ly/PadelDay. As well as all the padel action, we will have loads of tennis fun going on to. It should be an ace day

For all your padel rackets, padel balls and padel gear, do head on over to PDHSports.com.

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Ellen Taylor is a Coach at Church Broughton Tennis Club. Ellen has put a tremendous effort into organising a She Rallies Fun Day at the club on Sat 2 April between 2-4pm. Everyone is welcome at the day, but the aim is to get as many women and girls playing tennis as possible. It was brilliant to hear from Ellen about why she is so passionate about the She Rallies initiative which is brought to us by Judy Murray and the LTA. Enjoy listening and if you’re anywhere near Church Broughton on 2 April, do come on over for some tennis and amazing CAKE!

If you'd like to book a spot on the Fun Day, please visit: https://bit.ly/SheRalliesCBTC

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Tips for tennis parents really is the specialist subject of today’s guest. Lisa Stone is a tennis parent, a tennis broadcaster and the person behind the ever so ace podcast called ParentingAces whose slogan is For Tennis Parents by A Tennis Parent. So who better to deliver our next Top Five Tips For Tennis Parents? As you’ll hear, Lisa has some fantastic advice for all of us tennis parents!

To find out more about ParentingAces, please visit Lisa's website: https://parentingaces.com/

You will also find Lisa on these social channels

https://twitter.com/ParentingAces

https://www.instagram.com/parentingaces/

https://www.facebook.com/ParentingAces

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Hello everyone and welcome to this impromptu podcast episode. I’m delighted to say I’ve won an Award in the Derbyshire Tennis Awards!! Let me take two minutes to tell you all about it…

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SwingVision is the tennis app featured in Apple’s TV commercials!

If you’re a tennis coach or player with a liking for apps, then I reckon you should find out about SwingVision - and a great place to start is my interview with co-founder and CEO Swupnil Sahai! 

SwingVision brings you video highlights, shot speed and placement analysis and even the ability to challenge line calls. It’s easy to set up and use and is backed by Andy Roddick and James Blake. Swupnil has a great story of his first encounter with Andy Roddick - let’s just say if you ever lose your phone, you’d do well to have Swupnil in your locker room!

As you’ll hear in the podcast, Swupnil has a fascinating story! A story of making contacts and making things happen. An encounter on LinkedIn led to Swupnil getting a placement and then job at Tesla where he worked on the auto pilot team and got to know and hang out with Elon Musk.

Yet he gave that role up to follow his passion for tennis and use his expertise to launch SwingVision. And I for one am glad he made that decision…

UK COACHES: If you are an LTA Accredited+ Coach, you can currently get a 100% discount on SwingVision meaning it is completely free!! That is a saving of $149.99 per year. Find out how to claim here: https://www4.lta.org.uk/Members-Area/coach/resources/benefits/swingvision_discount/

UK PLAYERS: If you are an LTA Advantage Member (it’s free to join) you can get 20% a SwingVision subscription. Head here: https://www.lta.org.uk/advantage-home/benefits/detail/?benefit=BF-0049

For everyone else, please find out more about SwingVision here: https://swing.tennis/

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