 At the Service Box we have developed our boxes to cater to a mixture of tennis needs, from the essential box through to the Ultra box, including a few stops along the way. This is to try to provide to the different types of people who participate in tennis. However, there is no hiding from the fact that numbers of participation continue to drop across the country in both Junior numbers all the way through to adult club players.
There are a number of reasons as to why this can be, however we like to put the reasoning down to the change in lifestyle of the average family. Concentrating on the juniors percentage drop, they now have so many other options of sports they can try, whether it be after school clubs or other sporting groups. However, for us personally it seems to be more the difference in family life. Due to the happy received movement towards equality and more females now in the workplace, there are less stay at home parents. Therefore the family life becomes a more hectic one, less time is available for clubs even at the weekend. Many parents would rather calm and slow the weekend down, spending time together as a family rather than moving from club to club and the hustle and bustle multiple sports can create. The dynamics of everyday life have changed for the average family. When you compare the costs of tennis to other junior sports, tennis can be streets ahead of the others financially and when a club or two needs to be stopped to free up some time, or stop calendar clashes, tennis can often be one to bite the dust due to the financial requirements. Tennis often presents itself as an ‘all or nothing’ sport and juniors need to be fully committed to gain any reward from training. Success can be gained easier and quicker in other sports, again when choices are needed to be made, this can also be a factor in dropping an activity. The Service Box has created its boxes to try and help combat numbers from falling, including some of the best and unique products that are on the market, all in one box, for all those tennis needs and some mystery items along the way. The Service Box is happy to promote those items in the boxes by including leaflets of the companies included to help increase the enjoyment involved around tennis and hopefully step towards numbers increasing TSB
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 You may notice, every single one of our products, involves a ‘real’ tin of tennis balls, a tin of full compression, adult standard tennis balls. Why is this? I can assure you it isn’t a stocking filler, to take up space. It is to compliment our tennis coaching philosophy. Despite your age, the importance of getting used to a real tennis ball is simple immeasurable. The touch, the feel, the timing, the rhythm, a relationship between ball and player that takes years to perfect. In the UK, competitively the compression balls are used through the different ages, with the size and amount of compression changing every couple of years or so. Whilst we understand the reason for using these compression balls, many coaches neglect the relationship of the full court ball until players reach eleven years of age. To use a ball which changes every couple of years continuously it must feel like a new sport starting over again, when not only the ball changes, but the court dimensions too. To help combat this we include our tube of balls in every pack so players can work both relationships with the competitive ball in their age category and the full tennis ball ready for that final step up to the full court. We therefore question whether the young competitive framework by which we are governed, the restrictions in place actually limit our juniors and their progress, holding them back and slowing them down on their tennis journey.
In Spain, there is no junior framework, although they use compression balls, as they have their place as a tool to develop rallying ability, slowing things down. There are no court restrictions, and no differences in competition. A coach can start a child in Spain competing at eight years old if deemed ready. Or they can wait until they are ten, eleven, so on and so fourth. The key is, they start when they are ready to step onto the full court. As opposed to ever changing rules, dimensions, always moving the lines. As we live in the UK, it is hard to step away from these methods, but never lose the importance of the yellow tennis ball and building the feeling for the player from a young age.  As we launch our new Development Service Box for children new to the game, we look at the need to develop core skills used in every day life, the differences in children now to a century ago, and the challenges they now face.
The days of five children bikes outside one childs house, is a thing of the past, along with shoes and bags dumped at the park. These were two garuenteed sites if you went for a walk in your neighbourhood and past your local park ten years ago. These would be a sign of children playing, learning, developing, in a fun social environment without the child or even the parent, noticing. The tree they couldn’t climb two weeks ago, is now achievable, the ability to stick a football past your friend had improved along with the ability to balance hanging off the end of the local bench. These have now all been replaced, with an ability to play online consoles, gaming pads and play on phones in the warmth of your own home. Communicating at best has moved to headsets, snapchat, texting or ‘DM’s”. Children must now turn to sport to get this exposure and develop these core skills as even Physical education at school is completely different to ten years ago. Now we live in a world of equality and inclusion, which absolutely has its needs, but also brings occasions where everybody is classed as a winner and children no longer get the exposure to new sports, laws and competitive action. We now believe its more important than ever for children to develop through sport to ensure they are picking up the simple skills required throughout life as both a child and an adult, simple acts like throwing, catching and tracking of tennis balls is now more challenging than ever. However, if you asked a child to build something on ‘fortnite’ (a popular childs online game), it would be completed with the upmost ability. It is true to say we live now in a different world and generation, however those basic core abilities cannot be ignored, a fine balance between keeping up with the society and peers to feel socially included, but also develop as a person, is no easy ask.  The Servicebox is born. What made us create such an idea?
We often sell new cans of balls and grips on selling platform sites and started to see the same names and repeated orders coming through. With this, we created the service box. A play on words for part of the court, a box to service your tennis needs, and a service that we can offer the customer. The box can be purchased as a present as a one off or as a subscription. The beauty of the subscription is the tennis balls and grips arrive to your door each month. Along with these, come mystery items, the items are random and can change. We have a partnership with Skylark Apparel who will even provide us items of clothing which will be some mystery items, such as snoods and hats. Our product boxes range in cost and target audience. Including anything from a performance player or coach, through to a young child stepping on the court for the first ever time. Something we are overly proud of is how we can cater for every single type of tennis player at every level. Try our box yourself, a box with no boundaries and no limitations. |