Creating great athletes and all-round good people

Bolton Arena Sports Village serves as the Lawn Tennis Association’s Regional Player Development Centre (RPDC) for the North West.   

Our goal is to produce internationally relevant tennis players by the age of 14 who could also have the potential to be selected for the LTA’s National Academy.

The players in our programme are challenged in an intensive, professional environment with like-minded players and coaches driving the day-to-day standards. 

We take a ‘person first’ approach to produce players with the resilience, leadership and accountability they will need not only in tennis but in everyday life.

The RPDC programme

Bolton Arena Tennis Academy guarantees to offer a service that will give your child a chance to optimise their tennis potential between the ages of 10-14 years. The players in our programme are challenged in an intensive, professional environment with like-minded players and coaches driving the day-to-day standards. 

Within the RPDC structure, all players will be offered a bespoke weekly training programme comprising of daily squad sessions, strength & conditioning sessions, and individual lessons.

A game of tennis being played at Bolton Arena

Our Philosophy

The coaching team are fully invested in developing young individuals into successful tennis players. Alongside our philosophy of OWNIT, we take a ‘Person First’ approach to equip our players with the resilience, leadership, and accountability they will need not only in tennis but in everyday life. Our RPDC creates great athletes and all-round good people.  

Previous players selected from Bolton Arena Sports Village for National Academies are Ella McDonald, Hannah Rylatt, Millie Skelton, and Viktor Frydrych. 

 

LTA player development pathway

LTA selected players

Bolton Arena Regional player development centre selection

Development at Bolton Arena Regional player development centre for Children aged 10-14 years.

LTA National Academy or Performance Squads for children aged 14+

Full Time Academy for children aged 15+.

“I’ve known Steve for many years now and have seen him help many youngsters become fantastic players. For me, being a player who is more towards the end of their career, he’s found such a great balance between giving advice and coaching me but also understanding that my needs are different from that of a junior player.

That adaptability is what makes a good coach, great. We communicate a lot about my game and discuss both of our opinions on it, making it much easier to highlight and work on areas to improve.  I’ve really enjoyed my time with him so far, the energy and positivity he brings to each practice, and I can’t wait for more work together in the future!”

Heather Watson – Mixed Doubles Wimbledon Champion

Mixed Doubles Wimbledon Champion

“Steve coached me when I first started out playing tennis aged 8 or 9 up until I was 11 or 12, winning the U12 Nationals under his guidance!

He always brought great energy and enthusiasm to my lessons and taught me how to use my ‘lefty crafts’ at an early age, which has been a great staple for my career. Ten years later I’m still very much in touch with Steve. He has always been incredibly supportive throughout my journey in tennis and offered guidance in recent years. A fantastic coach for all ages!

I genuinely believe that my early years working with Steve at Bolton Arena set me on a great path for my career. He taught me great foundations and player identity early on, which has given me so much clarity in my game to date.”

Beth Grey (WTA Player) 

WTA Player

“I trained at Bolton with Steve as my individual coach between the ages of 10-13. In that time, I made some big strides as a player.  Working with Steve, I learnt a lot about being disciplined and he taught me the values of becoming a top player. Steve expected extremely ambitious standards from myself and it’s all for the right reasons.

He had a good balance of being ‘tough’ while, at the same time, making the game enjoyable. He created a fantastic team environment at Bolton, which made everyone want to compete 100% all the time and get the best out of themselves. I’ve been coached by some of the world’s top coaches and Steve played a huge role in my career.”

George Morgan – Tennis

Orange Bowl Champion U14, U18 and Wimbledon Junior Doubles Champion

Education

Our RPDC has several links with local, national and global educators, to develop our Tennis Academy players with off- and on-court support.  

See the educational institutions for more information.

 

Explore options
bolton arena team

FAQs

We offer a range of tennis memberships for peak and off peak use with a 12 month contract, which give you maximum court allowance of 2 off-peak courts per day, 1 peak court per day.

We also offer a range of tennis and fitness memberships to help you get the most out of  our facilities at Bolton Arena Sports Village.

Explore our membership options.

To speak a member of staff, please call 01204 488 104 or email memberships@boltonarena.com.

For first time bookings, call our reception team on 01204 488100.

All further bookings can be made call on our Bolton Arena Sports Village app or website portal.

You can request a login for our website portal and app through our reception team. This allows customers to make bookings and payments of Bolton Arena Sports Village’s facilities without the need to contact reception.

If you already have a portal login, you can book a tennis court here.

Monday: 06:00 – 22:00

Tuesday: 06:00 – 22:00

Wednesday: 06:00 – 22:00

Thursday: 06:00 – 22:00

Friday: 06:00 – 22:00

Saturday: 07:30 – 19:00

Sunday: 07:30 – 19:00

Bank Holidays: 08:00 – 16:00

Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day: Closed

Tennis court hire is available from just:

  • £11 per hour for under 18s during off-peak hours
  • £13 per hour for adults during off-peak hours
  • £20 per hour during peak. hours

If you are an existing customer, you can book your tennis court online via our web portal.

The tennis courts at Bolton Arena Sports Village are high performance indoor hard courts, to give you the best game year round.

Off Peak Times

Monday to Friday 07:00-16:00 & 21:00-22:00

Saturday to Sunday  16:00-19:00

 

Peak Tennis

Monday to Friday 16:00-22:00

Saturday to Sunday  08:00-16:00

Meet the team

Contact us

Please fill in the form to enquire about joining our LTA Regional Player Development programme.

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