Five members of the Maidstone Tennis Academy

by Luke Cawdell

Adrian Moll is hoping to unearth the next big thing in tennis and is thinking outside the box to achieve his goal.

Moll is director of tennis at the Maidstone Tennis Academy where they are taking children from as young as five to learn the game.

An exciting initiative developed by the academy, which is based at the LA Fitness Health Club, is to enrol youngsters into an intensive programme which takes them out of the classroom for one day a week and onto the tennis court.

With the backing of the schools and parents, Moll is guiding a group of children aged 10 and under, of national and county standard, through the course.

Moll said: "The children all train at the club for about 10-15 hours a week and the reason we take them out of school is so that they can do three or four hours of tennis and be home by four o’clock rather than getting here at four and then not being home until seven.

"The kids are a lot fresher early in the morning and that helps us a lot. They get more court time and with tennis the technical side of the game is important and we can work on that in the early years.

"This lot of kids have shown a great deal of eagerness and as a group they have worked extremely hard. Dedication and commitment are important and it’s just as important for that to come from the parents so that the child doesn’t miss training sessions."

See Friday's Kent Messenger for the full story