Tennis Talk: Kari Davies

This month we caught up with 2020’s development coach of the year, Kari Davies to discuss her contribution to tennis in Wales over past year.

Here’s what Kari had to say….

What are your reflections of the past year?

The last 12 months have been tough since starting up my coaching programme in Magor/Undy and surrounding areas. 2020 started off hard as the weather was so wet and just as we thought that was changing, Covid-19 hit us. For me, it was devastating to stop all my coaching with the uncertainty of when we would be able to restart. It was amazing news when a re-start was announced.

I then received the news that the resurfacing at my local courts weren’t going to be finished in time. I wasn’t going to let this stop me from getting the long line of players that wanted to get back to coaching. This was the time to keep players engaged. With determination and a crazy plan of setting a make shift court on my local football pitch with such incredible support from Undy AFC, it meant we could restart!! We spent the summer months on the football pitch, starting off as 1:1’s and later tennis camps with a large uptake throughout. Everyone was so supportive and all sessions were made accessible/adapted for all to play. Players say they will always remember the summer we played tennis on a football pitch and made it work.

Eventually I could get my full programme and new sessions up and running again as restrictions eased and tennis courts were finally back open. It was tough facing another full lockdown at the end of the year but we knew we would come back out of it again. This year has shown me that with determination and pushing your limits you can achieve so much.

How did you feel hearing that you won the award?

It was such an overwhelming feeling and a shock after such a difficult year. I felt a huge sense of pride as this is all me, I haven’t got a committee or team of coaches to support me and bounce ideas off. To win this award and see your hard work be appreciated just top’s everything.

What are your plans for the next 12 months?

For this coming year I’m looking forward to building my programme back up to the strength it was, welcoming all my players back as well as new ones. I have a new session starting for the over 50’s plus plans to expand my programme to more of the local areas, matchplay day’s will be added into the programme to get more youngsters in the area playing competitively and of course working hard as always to get more girls/women playing and involved in tennis.

Congratulations to Kari on her win and good luck for the LTA Tennis Awards later this year.