I mentioned over the festive break, Amy and I had teamed up with David Lloyd Clubs. I don’t think I fully appreciated at the time, just how good David Lloyd Clubs are!

We had the tour of our club and the facilities are literally endless. You have access to the gym, pool (indoor, outdoor and spa), café, badminton, squash and tennis courts. I also noticed plenty of studios tucked away near the gym area, which hold various classes such as spinning, JumpGa and circuit training.

Squash

Since Christmas, Amy and I have been going over at least once a week to play squash. Pre-kids, we played loads of squash. Literally, loads. It was great to find a sport that we both enjoyed and were fairly good at. Squash is great for cardiovascular health making you run, leap and sometimes dive for the ball. It’s great for hand-eye coordination and to help you maintain a healthy weight. Squash can involve frequent stopping and starting, so it’s important to be safe and sensible when playing. As we’re both a few years older than the last time we played, we’re taking it nice and easy to get back into a good routine.

We recently invested in a GoPro and as the footage above shows, you really do move around lots within half an hour. With the constant bending over and the range of angles you hit the ball at, my buttocks certainly felt it the next day!

Tennis

Over February half-term we decided to take the kids to play tennis. That’s a lie actually. The kids kept banging on about it until we gave in, haha! They were so excited to play. They had their tennis rackets and balls ready at the door the night before, it was lovely to see. We arrived sharp and got setup. The beauty about using a GoPro is that it’s so small, you can literally set it up, press record and forget about it.

We decided to get the kids to stand on one side of the net and Amy and I would throw the ball over for them to hit. It wasn’t long before my eldest got whacked in the face! What a great start. It also wasn’t long before the excitement drained and the realisation of just how hard tennis is, set in. The frustration for both the kids and parents was there for all to see.

Social media can be at times, all hearts and flowers. I mean, who wants to be caught on camera from the wrong angle or doing something embarrassing? The problem is, it sometimes loses its authenticity. I decided to use the footage of the kids to get a message across. Even as an adult, we often don’t reach our goals because we set our expectations too high and put ourselves under too much pressure. It can be frustrating, disheartening and upsetting. Sometimes, we just need to take a step back, re-group and go at it again.

The footage is quite close to home for me because I hated not being able to do anything as a kid. I’m still the same now. I was a junior County level tennis player and eventually gave up because I didn’t like losing. The footage of my lad throwing his tennis racket down was like going back 30 years! My friends certainly saw the funny side when I uploaded the video to Facebook.

Thankfully, as you can see, it didn’t take long for them to start hitting the ball. There’s a great moment around 42 seconds where Adam starts dancing. This sums up their tennis experience and I must admit, we were both relieved.

We actually went back another couple of times to play tennis and the kids have really come along. The great thing about David Lloyd is that those days normally consisted of playing tennis, going swimming and then we went to the café for drinks and snacks. They also have a soft play area tucked away and the kids really liked that too. The menu is strong, reasonably priced and they’ve labeled the calories on everything.

Throughout that week we visited various people and places. When we asked the kids on Sunday night what was their favourite part. They both said “tennis at David Lloyd.”

*Disclosure: This was a collaborative post with David Lloyd Clubs. All words and opinions are my own.