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Making Tennis And Fitness Work - And
Exciting the Neurological System!
Isla Smith is a professional
Tennis Coach and Trainer, and a Coach Education Tutor/Mentor/Assessor.
She is also the founder of Yogi Tennis and has over 17 years
experience in the tennis and fitness industry. Currently, Isla
is specializing in sports specific physical development and training.
Her passion is exercise physiology and coach education.
Upbringing
Isla Smith started playing
at her local club with the help of organized coaching when she
was 6 although her dad had taught her and her brothers to play
way earlier.
Isla is a natural athlete. She
played tennis in school and for the County but she also played
in several other sports at county and above level, like netball,
athletics (100m and Long Jump), badminton and rowing.
Career
- Isla has worked in both tennis
and fitness for over 17 years.
- From 1997 until 2003 she worked
as Tennis Coach in East Staffordshire.
- From 2001 until 2003 sge worked
as a Fitness Instructor at Livingwell Premier Health Clubs.
- From 2003 until 2012 Isla was
Senior Coach and Trainer at Tennis East Devon. In that capacity
she was Head Development Coach for 11-18 year olds and Physical
Development Coach for all academy players/athletes.
- From 2004 until 2014 she was
also Head Tennis Coach at the Cranford Sports Club, a medium
size LTA 'Clubmark' members club.
- Since 2009 Isla works as a freemance
Elite Body Balance Instructor
- Since 2011 she works as a freelance
Cardio Tennis Tutor
- In 2012/2013 she was Chief Representative
for Da-Fu Sport UK, a Smack Fu NYC affiliate.
- Since 2013 Isla works as a freelance
Zumba instructor and in the same year she became a Coach Education
Tutor & Assessor for the LTA.
- In 2014/2015 she worked in Professional
Development for evolve9 (see Girls Tennis Network in this newsletter).
- In 2014 Isla became an Assessor
for Education Providers, Asessor for Les Mills, and later Tribe
Coach for Les Mills.
- Since 2014 she is also a Director
of Sport in Education for Flight Physical Ltd.
Tennis and Fitness
Isla's specialist area is physical
development (children) and yoga inspired implementation in performance
training. She has written several CPDs for the LTA. One called
Yogi Tennis which teaches coaches some postures that can be integrated
into training programmes.
In the fitness world Isla work
for Les Mills as an Elite instructor. A Tribe coach means instructor
mentor. She also assesses instructors. Mid-June she'll be appearing
on stage at the Les Mills UK OneLive event at Alexandra Palace,
London.
Flight Physical, Ltd.
Flight Physical Limited was established
in early 2014, manufacturing Flight Phys, an innovative training
tool suitable for all ages and abilities. FlightPhys is great
for developing general fitness and improving hand eye coordination.
Web site.
FlightPhys has been implemented
at high performance level where it has been integrated into regular
drills to encourage change, speed of reaction and neurological
facilitation. All to keep the mind and body guessing and to excite
the neurological system.
Isla Smith's bio
on the Flight Physical web site states, "Throughout my career
I have travelled across the UK developing all dimensions of my
expertise and thoroughly enjoy all areas; from grass roots to
performance tennis, from studio classes to tennis specific physical
training.
I enjoy all physical activity and love to see how FlightPhys
can so easily and effectively be incorporated into a variety
of training methods and situations with outstanding benefits.
Children and adults alike are hooked within seconds. It's a great
addition to training and I'm very excited to be involved in its
introduction to the UK." |
