18 December 2018 | Tennis West

The 2018 ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Interschool Red Ball Championships concluded earlier this month with an exciting finals series played out at the State Tennis Centre in Burswood.

The Tennis West schools team hosted 11 events throughout 2018, involving 70 partner schools and 1,863 ANZ Tennis Hot Shots School participants.

The interschool competition provides opportunities for primary school students in years 3-6 to play representative match play format tennis, encouraging participation for all abilities. The competition focuses on skill acquisition and sportsmanship, and aims to establish the foundations for continued participation.

Additionally, the competition serves to promote the local Tennis West affiliated club coach in transitioning players along the tennis pathway, eventuating in long term engagement with local clubs.

The ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Interschool Red Ball competitions are coordinated by the Tennis West Schools Development team who work closely with schools and teachers in promoting tennis within the school curriculum.

The ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Partnership Program supports schools in the delivery of tennis with professional learning and resources to assist in the delivery and implementation of programs.

Schools Development Coordinator Jason Marrable says it’s been a very successful year for tennis in schools.

“This year’s Interschool Championships has been our biggest and best yet – we’ve run more events, visited more schools and almost doubled our participant numbers” Mr Marrable said.

All schools involved in the Red Ball Gala competition run tennis within their school curriculum as part of the ANZ Tennis Hot Shots Partnership Program, an initiative of Tennis Australia introduced in 2008.

There are currently 300 partner schools in Western Australia after unprecedented growth throughout the state in the past 12 months.

Nationally, more than 3,133 schools include ANZ Tennis Hot Shots as part of their health and physical education curriculum with tennis now recognised as the number one delivered Australian Sports Commission Sporting Schools Program in Australia.

Grassroots engagement is the key long term involvement said Tennis West CEO, Michael Roberts who is pleased to see school and student participation numbers experiencing positive growth.

“Fostering a great tennis culture within schools aims to provide students with a positive tennis experience which we hope they carry with them through life” Mr. Roberts said.

National Tennis Participation Facts

ANZ Tennis Hot Shots hit a record level of participation with 543,850 children aged between three and 12 taking part in Tennis Australia’s official development program in 2017/18
This is a 41 percent increase year-on-year
The program has a gender split of 44% girls and 56% boys
All States and territories saw an increase in ANZ Tennis Hot Shots participants since 2016/17
Tennis Australia’s School Partnership Program aim to encourage more children to pick up a racquet and learn tennis as part of their health and physical education curriculum
More than 110,000 tennis racquets have been delivered to first year primary school students since January 2015, thanks to ANZ
In 2017/18, there were a total of 932,586 tennis participants, a 34 percent increase year-on-year:
o 372,590 club members
o 10,689 casual players
o 59,156 competition players
o 10,844 Secondary School participants