Last week I told you about becoming a British Fencing Core Coach but at the same event, Try Inspire Qualify, I also – much to my own surprise – became a tennis coach with She Rallies.
This is Sunday.
So, with the fencing qualification done on Saturday, we still had another day. Part of this event is about trying new things – or maybe trying them without also having to manage your flock of children in yellow t-shirts. I’d been assigned abseiling, traditional skills and SHE Rallies.
I like abseiling but the older I get, the more reluctant I am to step over the edge if I can’t already feel the safety rope pulling at my harness. It was using an Italian hitch. I was a caver. I assure you, you can take it in a bit more. Once I’m dangling, I’m good. I alternated between going slowly to have a good look around and bouncing with partly-fake enthusiasm down the tower. Actually, here was where they weren’t letting the safety rope out enough. No matter how I bounced on my white rope through the descender, I could always feel myself being lowered on the red rope.
Next was traditional skills which turned out to be whittling. I was excited – this was one of the activities I’d ticked as my preferred three when I applied. I was given a nearly four-inch carbon steel Swedish bushcraft knife, a yellow Kevlar glove and a hazel twig and over the next hour, I painstakingly whittled an elf. Well, it was a troll, according to the pattern of a Scandinavian army which uses them to teach their 21st century recruits how to actually use the knife they carry as part of the uniform. It’s not the greatest troll ever but it’ll look more troll-like when I’ve drawn on its face and coloured it’s hat. I enjoyed it so much that on Monday I ordered myself a knife and a pair of Kevlar gloves, which came first thing on Tuesday morning. Now I just gave to figure out where I can legally acquire a couple of fresh green hazel twigs.
And then in the afternoon came the tennis training.
She Rallies is an initiative set up by Judy Murray in an attempt to redress the gender imbalance in tennis. To get more girls and women playing and to get more women “into the workforce”. Technically I have no qualification and am a “She Rallies activator” but I can now run a six week introduction to tennis course and I think that makes me a coach. Even better, if I register my first session, I get a huge kit bag free, full of equipment – 13 rackets, foam balls, fluff balls, cones, balloons, net tape and all sorts for teaching basic tennis skills. The lessons come pre-planned so no knowledge or skills needed at all for myself. It’s worth a good couple of hundred pounds.
My outdoors trousers were not so good for this activity session – fine for walking but anything more active and they try to fall off. Heavy hiking boots probably weren’t ideal but they did the job. I now know that when I teach a session, my girls can come in whatever’s comfortable – school PE kit almost certainly doesn’t help kids enjoy sport at school.
We were taught the first session of a programme called Lil Miss-Hits, which is for girls aged five to eight, in which every tennis hit is a different character, so you teach them a Fiona Forehand and a Betty Backhand etc. We did some games to get used to the racket and the balls and the basic skills and moves and I’ll definitely do that session at Brownies one day – or two days, given that I have kit for twelve at a time.
So all in all, a pretty successful weekend. Yes, it rained a lot. Yes, Kathryn gave me a delightful souvenir in the form of a revolting cold. But I became a fencing coach and an archery coach and I found a potential new hobby. I’ll definitely go again next time – I wonder what exciting qualification I’ll do? Maybe I’ll get my BCA 1 Star next summer and do the 2 Star at the next event.