THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: They might have played cricket with tennis balls. But, hitting tennis balls with a racquet was something new to them.
Thanks to the concept of the Quickstart Tennis programme, the students of Peyad LP School on the outskirts of the city were given the first lessons in tennis the other day.
On Tuesday, Terumo Penpol Limited (TPL), as part of their corporate social responsibility activities and based on an Expresso report, launched this new tennis format for kids at the school. As a first step, officials of TPL and coach and Quickstart Tennis expert M.R. Ramesh visited the school and gave the initial lessons of tennis to the students.
Ramesh erected a portable net on the ground. With foam balls having low compression, first standard students were taught how to hit a forehand, backhand and volley. “Kids were really thrilled as they could hit ground strokes and volley within 10 minutes,’’ Ramesh said.
“This was a terrific beginning. We have been helping the school to improve infrastructure facilities. Based on the report which appeared in Expresso, we decided to launch this initiative at the school. We are also planning to extend this scheme of mini-tennis to all Government LP Schools in Vilappil panchayat,’’ TPL managing director C. Balagopal told Expresso.
Ramesh is planning to implement the Quickstart Tennis in full swing within 10 days. “I plan to test the skills of all the children in the school and select those showing aptitude and learning skills and make them play Quickstart Tennis in the correct format,’’ he said.
“TPL has agreed to implement the scheme in other panchayats and, later on, we plan to have tennis tournaments among schools in the special scoring format,’’ he added.
Besides students, teachers and parents are equally excited about the programme.
“The school does not have a sports teacher. So, the students do not have an opportunity to learn games. During the physical education periods, other teachers would try their best to train the students in some games. Hence, this initiative would be a great support for the kids to learn a new sport, which is considered a rich man’s sport,’’ school headmistress Nirmala Rani said.
The school PTA and the school development committee have offered full support to the programme. “Soon after the officials left, parents who were present at that time started requesting me to include their children too in the programme. Meanwhile, kids surrounded teachers with the same plea,’’ Nirmala Rani said.
The school has agreed to prepare a 40-feet-by-20-feet mini tennis court and TPL to sponsor equipment.
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