Beachside Tennis Academy joins virtual tuition trend

Crawford and his wife Helen Papaevagelou, also a club professional coach, run Beachside Tennis Academy (BTA) at Warrnambool Lawn Tennis Club.

They usually offer year-round coaching for all ages and abilities.

But due to the coronavirus pandemic they've had to make some adjustments.

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Crawford has started virtual classes for their clients.

"We work on agility, mobility and injury prevention," he said.

Participants come away from the lessons with a program to work on during the week.

Rather than hitting balls, it's about players preparing their body to play the game.

"It's more off the court," Crawford said.

"It's the perfect time to get them used to this if they want to get serious about tennis."

The virtual lessons, on Monday afternoons and Wednesday mornings, have had good uptake.

Crawford said 14 youngsters were already making use of the live videos.

"It's more the people who are really into tennis and miss it so much," he said.

"They want to keep involved somewhere."

The club professional said he planned to use virtual classes in the long-term.

"It's not just doing it for a couple of weeks," he said.

"It'll be stuff we add into our (regular) program."

The virtual tuition has been open to clients from term one but Crawford is keen for more young players to get involved.

He can be contacted via the BTA website or its Facebook page.

BTA is just the latest group to join the virtual realm.

Warrnambool Junior Basketball has free virtual lessons on its Facebook page.

Funakoshi Karate International Australia - with four south-west dojos - has free virtual tuition on its Facebook page.

The global trick-shot phenomenon has also swept the south-west with people from numerous sports filming themselves executing a difficult shot.

Warrnambool Athletics Club and Warrnambool Tri Club are both running virtual series with members required to log their efforts on a fitness application.

Some triathletes are even participating in virtual Ironman events.

Warrnambool Lawn Tennis Club has been out of action since March 25 due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

WLTC had its final Junior Tournament Series event just before the restrictions kicked in.

There were tournaments held each month from September through to March.

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