Hampshire & IOW Tennis (HIOWT) is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and a member organisation of the LTA. HIOWT’s core strategic purpose is to provide public benefit via the following mission: working together to develop tennis in Hampshire & IOW (HIOW), by supporting those who play, organise, govern, coach and officiate. HIOWT does this by promoting community participation, through the development, promotion and support of tennis and padel in HIOW.
HIOWT also supports the LTA’s mission of ‘Tennis opened up’, providing local opportunities to grow tennis by making it relevant, accessible, welcoming and enjoyable.
HIOWT is funded by both the LTA and a number of local partners to deliver its core charitable purpose, providing support to delivery partners such as venues, coaches and officials. Delivery covers a variety of areas, including:
HIOWT also facilitates various competitive opportunities, which are key to inspiring young players to take up the sport, and to retaining adult players in the game. This includes the annual Junior / Adult County Championship, inter-county matches for age groups from 8 & under to 75 & over, County Cup and county training. On a more local level, HIOWT offers inter-club adult and junior leagues and regular county competitions.
HIOWT provides support to local venues, including both virtual and in-person forums that provide opportunities to access insight and gain support on areas such as good governance. HIOWT also provides a grants scheme for LTA-registered venues who are also opted into free membership of the organisation.
HIOWT is committed to supporting the coaching workforce, including providing regular coach network meetings, which give coaches the opportunity to access high-quality local CPD. HIOWT also offers financial support for those looking to gain coaching qualifications. HIOWT offers mentoring and development schemes for aspiring, senior and performance coaches.
HIOWT is keen to recognise the valuable contribution of volunteers to our sport, including running coffee mornings, venue forums, promotion of the LTA Awards, celebrating National Volunteers’ Week and running an annual showcase event.
Finally, HIOWT delivers a strong performance programme for age groups from 8U to 18U, with regular county training, links to regional performance camps, coach CPD, player/parent talks, connections to RPDCs and tournament visits.