The Great British Tennis Weekend

There is a vicious rumour going around that photographs have surfaced on the internet of me. Photographs I never thought I would be sharing with anyone. Photographs of me… playing tennis at BritMums Live last week!

Ha! It’s all true and I think there may have also been a few witnesses! It’s actually rather a sweaty experience playing tennis in your jeans by the way, just FYI. And you may notice that the tennis racquet is blurred … that’s because I was clearly hitting the ball way too fast. (Thanks, I think, to my friend Vi for taking the photos.)

I was as surprised as anyone when I found myself enjoying a game of tennis with a young man from the Lawn Tennis Association (stop it!), and even more surprised by how less rubbish I was than I thought I’d be. After all, I haven’t played tennis since I was 15 so that’s 15 (OK, 30) years ago. Shocking really, considering I always enjoyed it as a sport, but I don’t think I was unique in dropping a sport I loved when I became a teenager and, ahem, certain other things caught my eye.

I think I’ve mentioned before that Dad was convinced I’d be playing tennis for England had I just kept it up as a sport, and I don’t have the heart to disappoint him so just say, “You know what Dad? I think you were right … I should have carried on playing.”

But I’m a great believer in age never holding you back from doing the things you want and, especially as I am finding my feet in this whole fitness ‘journey’ I’m on, I’m excited to see whether I am actually capable of doing things as a 45-year-old that I did when I was younger. I never thought I’d manage a Zumba class six months ago and yet here I am, cycling 7kms twice a week to get to a class!

Anything is possible.

So upon returning from BritMums Live, I was all fired up and signed up for a game of Cardio Tennis (without actually knowing what it was), and a lesson, at one of my local tennis clubs. I headed down there last Sunday with the intention of seeing whether tennis would be my new ‘thing’. Unfortunately, as is the case with me these days, things didn’t really pan out as I had hoped and I didn’t even get to hold a racquet. Such a shame as I was really excited to have a proper game, but equally relieved I never got to find out what Cardio Tennis was!

But … a very old school friend of mine saw me wanging on on Facebook about how excited I was to play tennis again and she said that she plays every week with her teenage son, who, annoyingly (for me), is apparently very very good, and would I be interested in joining them one weekend? Coincidently, the weekend we have arranged to meet up is next weekend, which is the Great British Tennis Weekend – good timing or what? (So that’s Saturday, 16 July and Sunday, 17 July.) So I’ve said yes but have taken several things into account.

1)  I’m not a fit young teenager.

2)  I’m nowhere near as fit as my friend, who is an absolute machine.

3)  I’m still very overweight.

4)  I haven’t played tennis properly for 30 years.

5)  My enthusiasm is bigger than my lung capacity.

But I’m going to do it anyway.

The Great British Tennis Weekend (#GBTW) is a nationwide event and has been set up to encourage families to go along and try tennis for themselves. You can search for your local club via ClubSpark, just click HERE. Sessions are free, it looks like lots of fun and like I said, you’re never too old to learn something new.

I would really love to hear whether you’ve managed to sign up with your family or, like me, as a solo player because TEENAGERS (*eye roll*) and I’ll hopefully report back after next weekend’s tennis game, if I haven’t been completely annihilated by a 14-year-old.

Wish me luck!

I’m working with the Lawn Tennis Association on their #GBTW campaign.  Sign up for your FREE tennis activity here