10,000 girls pick up a racket through Prime Video LTA Youth Girls
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Over 10,000 girls in the UK have picked up a racket and taken part in the Prime Video LTA Youth Girls programme since it launched in 2023.
The two-year programme has also trained over 500 tennis coaches to better understand the complex and unique barriers faced by girls when playing sport, often influenced by societal pressures and gender stereotypes.
Prime Video LTA Youth Girls was funded by Prime Video’s decision to share the broadcast of the 2021 US Open final, creating additional revenue that could be reinvested into this programme following Emma Raducanu’s historic Grand Slam title victory.
The objective of the programme was to inspire girls in Britain to play and stay in tennis, using our extensive experience in understanding the barriers to participation for young girls.
By tackling the root causes of low participation amongst girls – including a lack of female coaches and an overly competitive playing environment – the programme aimed to build a lasting love of tennis.
Two years on, 80% of coaches working in the programme say that girls who took part in their sessions are still playing regularly, and 52% of girls have signed up for further courses with the LTA, with a high number getting involved in Team Challenge or other competition formats.
Girls are signing up for our Tennis Leaders programme and a number of coaches and assistants who have been involved in the delivery have been inspired to progress their coaching qualifications.
What next?
We have developed an online coaching module that provides all accredited coaches with the opportunity to build their knowledge and understanding of effective coaching for girls. Coaching Females: Princess or Athlete provides the insight and research that underpinned the Prime Video LTA Youth Girls programme as part of the existing coaching CPD programme.
Coaches and venues will be able to create bespoke courses for girls in a way that best fits within their wider coaching programme and we will continue to advocate the benefits of girls-only offerings to drive female participation.
As well as working in partnership with Women in Sport to further develop insight and research into female participation, we will launch a new online resource enhancing support to venues in creating safe, welcoming, and inclusive environments for females.
The female-only approach is also being developed throughout our work, read more about a recent initiative to grow female participation in Padel here.
