
Photo credit Sports Hive
Sports Hive offer tennis coaching for adults and children all year round in Ealing, West London. Sports Hive is a DSActive partner club and has been delivering DSActive tennis sessions for over 18 months.
Emily is one of the Sports Hive tennis coaches and she told us a little more about their fundraiser for DSActive.
Why did you do a fundraiser?
“Sports Hive like to help out charities that are close to their heart. We have been running a DSActive tennis session for a year and a half, we thought we would raise awareness and funds during one of our tournaments. We decided to do it on our annual Club Championships Finals Day. Juliet (Edward does our session every week) was given two t-shirts signed by Andy and Jamie Murray at one of the DSActive tennis festivals, we organised a raffle and were pleased to raise £200.”
What is your future goal for your DSActive tennis sessions?
“We are running an indoor session every Wednesday from 6pm to 7pm for the Winter season and preparing the children for the festival in March and maybe future competitions. We hope to grow the number of players and increase awareness of the session. Organising a little competition between local clubs and adding a Down’s syndrome tournament to our Club Championships is also something we hope to achieve this year.”
What do you enjoy about the sessions?
“Coaching this group is always a pleasure and so grounding. Nothing is impossible for them, they are always positive, enthusiastic and smiling, it is good to see them enjoying themselves. It is very rewarding for us as coaches to see the smile on their face, see how proud they are when they hit the ball and rally with us. We see the improvement weekly not only with a racket and a ball, but also their coordination, balance, agility, motor and social skills.
We are so grateful to Sports Hive for putting on this fundraiser for DSActive. The club and coaches have been superb from day one. Our partner clubs play a vital role within their local community and they are leading the way.
A big thank you to Sports Hive Tennis club.
To find a session near a DSActive session near you click here or if you’ve been inspired to set up your own DSActive session, you can email the DSActive team to find out how.