primarily on workforce development, a fancy way of saying they are taking all the experience and techniques they have evolved over the years and passing these on to teachers, coaches and all those who help children develop better skills. Along with providing them with support materials that even less trained staff can use to educate others
My tennis lesson with Judy Murray was an absolute delight. She is charming, witty and brilliant, still incredibly passionate about teaching and making sport more accessible. Murray has also brought the latest teaching
techniques from other
disciplines and introduced them into the sport. She wants to avoid traditional teaching that relies on repetition of basic moves and disrupt that by making lessons more entertaining and social. Also as she says, by teaching children as a group, they get to interact with their peers rather than playing with an adult coach, which helps learning and brings teaching costs down.
Judy Murray:
“Normal practices depend on one to one coaching
that is expensive and time
consuming. It also means that a child is taught by an adult without the usual social interaction with other children that they enjoy most. Here they can learn tennis with kids of their own age and have fun.”
Murray and Soutar showed off their skills by showing me and a few other middle aged journalists some tennis tips, with some clever and engaging games. They certainly got us jumping around, bouncing
the
ball back and forth over lines and hoops, inculcating the basic tennis movements, whilst we all had a thoroughly good time. Murray knows from years of experience that kids do not respond well to being told how to hold a racket and repeating basic strokes till boredom kills off any love they have of the game. But get them playing new and innovative challenges that develop their skills and they want to keep doing it. Zé Pereira Lopes, the tennis director at The Campus was on hand too helping out, a very talented chap who is skilled at improving your game, whatever your level. Judy Murray is extremely encouraging to all, engaging us with frequent jokes and “bon mots.”
After the tennis I caught up with Mark Rohan at The Bike Shed. Rohan has won six Para-cycling World Cup gold medals, yes it seems a little greedy, but he balances this by being extremely approachable and friendly. I was hoping to catch a cycle ride with this Irish legend, but time did not allow, so I’m going to have to go back for that one. Though he did let me hold one of his gold medals, which is the nearest I’ll get to being a sports champion! He knows a lot of fascinating cycle routes in the Algarve, around The Campus in Quinta Do Lago in the Rio Formosa nature reserve and up in the mountains, where he says you’ll only see a couple of cars on a 30 mile jaunt. The bikes available in the shed are absolutely top notch and kept in
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the best condition I have ever seen, perfect for amateurs and serious cyclists alike. The Campus also offer a 6 days/5 nights West Coast Raid, where you’ll cycle along the south coast of Portugal, exploring the Natural Park of Arrábida, travelling along the Atlantic coast line, finally passing through Alentejo’s coastal villages. The landscapes just around Quinta Do Lago are magnificent with the sea on one side, the golf course and the nature reserve on the other, and plenty of wild fowl such as the superb Glossy Ibis.
The Campus is looking to provide the best sports facilities in Europe in a place that get 300 days of sunshine a year, surrounded by a natural beauty reserve in the Algarve. Additionally offering the biggest talents in football, golf, tennis and cycling to coach and mentor a new generation of sportsmen and women. Creating a hub for professional athletes and amateurs alike who want to benefit from the this vast array of talent on offer. You can take football with Rio Ferdinand, tennis with Judy Murray, golf with Brian Evans (father of rugby players Max and Thom) and cycling with Marc Rohan. Each of these would be an impressive boast at a dinner party, together it makes for a fantasy coaching team that is quite unique. The opportunity to have Judy Murray coach your kids in tennis is terrific and she is passing on her many techniques to Ze and the other tennis coaches who are already formidable teachers in their own right.
For more info on Judy Murray at The Campus, Quinta do Lago, Portugal:
www.quintadolago.com
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