Thanks for the comment ( it was almost longer than my post!!)
The trouble with being taught at school is that most PE teachers are ok at football, rugby and probably cricket. I think the only coaching I had at school involved being asked to hit backhands against the wall of a sports hall and then the teacher bringing all the other kids to watch me as a demo of how to hit the ball. Our tennis courts weren’t full of pot holes but we didnt have nets as the courts were used as the playground! Pathetic really.

But the problem also lies at the feet of the LTA. They are not doing enough to get this sport out of the dark ages. It still isn’t easily accessible to enough kids at grass root level. I remember at school, we used to have one or two weeks PER YEAR of tennis lessons, where all you got taught was how to grip the raquet! I used to play with friends around Wimbledon time, as many kids did, but we used to have to sneak onto school grounds and play on crappy, pot-holed concrete courts, hoping we weren’t going to get kicked off by the groundsman. For the average kid like me, from working class backgrounds, we had no-one to teach us, nowhere to play, no British role models to look up to – it’s no wonder no-one wants to become a tennis player!

The few that do tend to be from wealthier backgrounds with little or no motivation to really push hard to be the best. That’s not me saying that, it’s ex-players and those involved in the game. When countries like Russia, Czech Republic and Serbia can continually produce top players, you know it’s not just down to money, it’s about having the motivation and drive to succeed. But you look at France and Germany and Spain, nations we should be on a par with, and they have far better club systems, far better infrastructure and as a consequence, far more top players. We should be looking at what these nations are doing and implementing it NOW, before another generation of potential players disappears.