The sport I play is Tennis, which is played on court divided in two by a net. Tennis involves hitting a tennis ball with a racquet over the net into your opponent's half of the court. In tennis doubles there are two players each side and it is a wider court. I have been playing tennis at three different clubs since I was eleven. I have coaching on a Saturday morning in a group for an hour and a half. I am in the top group for the coaching which unfortunately means starting at 8.45 in the morning and then usually after that I go for some more coaching. I also play in some tournaments and arrange matches myself. The highest I finished in a tournament is third. I also have an LTA rating (LTA stand for Lawn Tennis Association). The lowest rating is 7.3 and the highest is 1.1. You can improve your rating by winning matches. Each time you get re-rated you have to win more matches. I only got a rating very recently which was 7.2 and I have just progressed to a 7.1.
To play Tennis you need to be quite strong, have a good eye for the ball and a good degree of accuracy. You also have to be fit and able to get around the tennis court. When playing tennis there are lots of different kinds of shots. There are volleys, forehands, backhands, smashes, serves etc. For these shots you can also put spin on the ball by hitting the ball in different places and also changing the angle of the tennis racquet.
Ben Banks
