Local and National Provision Assignment Title: research and write about the local and National provision for your preferred sport.

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Sally Yates 23rd January 2003

Local and National Provision Assignment

Title: research and write about the local and National provision for your preferred sport.

In this essay I am going to study tennis as my preferred sport and look at the facilities provided for it in, Suffolk and on a larger scale, the UK. I will try to explain how tennis is managed by including:

How our local facilities are funded.

The agencies involved in providing funding and organising grass-root

developments and elite sporting opportunities.

The structures and pathways involved in becoming a talented performer.

Issues that face participants of all individual differences.

The provision for participants with disabilities.

There are many tennis courts around the area where I live, although the very closest are privately owned. The nearest public courts, are in Bury, the Abbey Gardens has 2 courts, but a £5 fee must be paid for each hour of using them. These courts are run and maintained by the local authorities. The Victory Ground and Risbygate are both clubs and require a joining fee to be paid initially, however both also have strict rules, which players must stick to. They run low level coaching sessions for all ages with a weekly amount to be paid. The cost to join these clubs wouldn’t be too much for a working adult to pay, however a person of my age may not be able to afford them. In order to join Risbygate Club you must pay £25 a year plus £2 per guest. To use tennis courts in villages, sometimes you must be a resident, e.g. the courts in Bardwell with one court and Tostock with one court. Though not all village clubs require this, for example Woolpit and Barrow, that both have more than two courts.

Bury Leisure Centre runs inexpensive tennis schemes, such as Champion Coaching where children from the age of 8-13 have the opportunity to learn new skills and practice their sport. However the actual Leisure Centre does not have tennis facilities itself. The only indoor tennis courts in the county are situated in Ipswich and are funded by Suffolk LTA.

From doing a lot of research on tennis I know that there are very few recently published tennis books in the Bury and Thurston libraries, which cannot be doing a lot to promote the sport in this area. ...