Tennis tops
You’ll need
- Coloured pens or pencils
- Printed copies of the tennis shirt template
Competition time!
Scouts are teaming up with the LTA to run a fun competition, and you can win some top tennis kit for your group!
Entries close at midnight on Sunday 28th August 2022.
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- If you can, print enough copies of the ‘Tennis shirt template’ for everyone. It’s best to have a few spares too, just in case. You could also print one or two copies of the shirts onto card and then cut them out for people to draw around them as templates.
- Don’t worry if you don’t have access to a printer – everyone can copy the template by hand, drawing their own shirt outline for their design to go on.
- This activity works well as part of a tennis themed session, for example, alongside Tiny tennis tournaments.
Play the game
- Everyone should decide whether they’ll create a tennis shirt for a real or imaginary tennis player. For example, they could create a shirt for Emma Raducanu, Andy Murray or even themselves.
- Everyone should choose the main colours for their tennis shirt. The colours of the kit could be linked to the Scout group, where they live or even where their family is from.
- Everyone should design a crest and draw it on the front of their shirt. A crest is a coats of arms that can be used to represent a team or group. Historically, they were worn on kits to pay tribute to the history of the place where the team or group came from. The crests could include the area’s industries or landmarks.
- Everyone should finish off their design by colouring in any gaps. What colours will they use for the background? Will it be a plain colour or have a pattern, such as stripes?
Reflection
Everyone developed skills in this activity. They had to think about the reasons for choosing different aspects of their design, such as making sure that fabrics and shapes help the players perform well, making sure the kit is recognisable, and making sure that it represents the club or group. How did people capture the identity of their player in their design?
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
If you’re not sure where to begin with designing a crest, why not try the Changing your coat activity to help?
You could think about how the design of the shirt could be adapted so that it’s inclusive for people with additional needs. For example, some people have sensory sensitives so they might struggle with clothing that has labels or certain textures. Someone who struggles with co-ordination or who finds it difficult to move their arms may find it challenging to put on and take off clothes. How could people adapt their design to make sure it’s accessible for everyone? Adding labels to your design could be a great way to explain your ideas.
People don’t need to label their designs unless they want to. If anyone finds writing tricky and wants someone else to write down what they say, that’s OK too.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
The Lawn Tennis Association are working with Scouts on the Beavers Sports Activity Badge to encourage young people be active and develop physical skills through tennis and related games. Get stuck into the badge requirements, and develop those all-important skills, by planning and running some of the tennis activities. We think they make great additions to any session to burn off some energy.