The Wimbledon Junior Tennis Initiative

The WJTI, now in its sixth year is a community tennis initiative run by The All England Club in partnership with Merton and Wandsworth. In total Dan Bloxham and his team of coaches have visited over 230 schools and given nearly 70000 kids their first experience of tennis.
Each week one school in Merton and one in Wandsworth receive a full day of coaching from Dan and his team for every pupil in the school from Nursery upwards. The WJTI has worked in all schools from Nursery and Primary through to Special Needs and Secondary. The children are not the only ones to benefit from Dan’s enthusiastic coaching. The teachers are shown how to deliver sport in school and what the standards should be for each age group. They are also invited back to the All England Club each year for a teachers evening where they can increase their skills and knowledge as well as hit a few balls.

After each visit six of the most promising kids from the school are invited back to receive free tennis at Wimbledon every weekend until they reach sixteen years of age. For those not selected the school receives information on tennis coaching and clubs locally as it is not possible to have every child back to the Club at weekends. During the course of a weekend up to 300 kids will play tennis with Dan and the team.

As the Initiative has progressed the kids who first started playing with the WJTI have offered their help with the younger players and some of the eldest have now passed coaching exams and are looking to a career in tennis.

The players who shine the brightest at weekends are invited to be a WJTI Squad Player. The squad players train twice a week in a more focused environment and compete regularly within their age groups. There are currently 40 squad players ranging from 5 to 18 years of age. Almost every player in the squads has won an event in their age group in Surrey.   Squad players aged 15 or older are required to assist with the weekend coaching for two hours per week.   This offer the players an opportunity to learn coaching skills, to be in a position of responsibility and to put back into the scheme.

Above this level is the Performance strand who play in the squads and also receive additional training. Three girls Under 10 have attended National Training Camps, five players have attended regional training camps and over twenty players have attended Surrey training camps.   One of our older players, Josh Whiteman is hoping to play full time upon the completion of his A Levels. WJTI has won every girls under 10 event in Surrey this year.   60% of the Surrey Under 10 Girls County Cup team was from WJTI.   Elizabeth Nyenwe won the Under 16 County Closed and was runner up in the Under 18's too.   Eight performance players train before school and follow an annual plan for their tennis and fitness.   Fitness sessions run weekly .  

All these players were found in a school playground on a WJTI School Visit and none had played tennis before meeting Dan.

The Initiative hopes to offer more children the chance to experience tennis, to promote a healthy lifestyle and to equip teachers with the knowledge and skills to deliver an exciting and productive school sports lesson. Through his work with the WJTI Dan Bloxham has been invited to speak at Westminster on Community Sport and at The House of Commons Select Committee for Sport on the experiences he has had delivering sport in schools and the improvements to be made.   Dan has also presented at the LTA's Winning Session on the Initiative and has supported several other schemes similar to the WJTI across the country .   Dan and the Squad players "perform" each year on Court 14 on the Middle Saturday and on Men's Finals Day at Wimbledon for the crowds and have also appeared in a book entitled Tennis School. The Initiative is taking on each level of tennis and succeeding from playground to performance as a result of the quality and hard work put in by all involved with the WJTI. It is a model of how sport can benefit a community and improve the lifestyles of everyone involved.

Wimbledon.org