As part of our series of reports from our sponsored young people during the COVID-19 lockdown period, Sunali – mother of our trio of budding tennis, karate & cricket-playing siblings – lets us know how the pandemic has altered their plans for the year and how they have adjusted to the restrictions:
It sure has been a couple of very strange months as the car was collecting cobwebs which is extremely unusual for my household. But saying that, all of them have been very busy having made their own timetables for studies and extra activities that they love so much. And in between all that, making time to annoy me!!!!
Tanysha and Tanaya followed a daily fitness program and did whatever training they could in the garden and on the road till lockdown was eased. Tanysha hit some balls lightly on the road but managed to avoid damaging any cars. And Tanaya did the same with her bowling but a softer ball. Tamash managed to go to the local park which has a cricket net and he got to practise about 4 days a week. He was lucky, as it was always free and the park was very quiet. Thankfully we also have some very tolerant and easy going neighbours who are very supportive of the kids.
As soon as lockdown was eased – Tanysha organised hits with some of her tennis friends who lives in Surrey, which took us to Guildford very often. There’s a competition organised by Jamie Delgado, Andy Murray’s coach, for women and men consisting of the top 16 women in England, and Tanysha is in the draw, together with Jo Konta and Heather Watson. The tournament will be held end July/August.
As soon as the cricket club could open, Tanaya joined a team mate to train in the nets in hope of playing some Surrey matches in August. She has been invited to train with the Surrey Women’s Squad for 2020 winter.
Well, during lockdown, Tamash has decided that he in fact misses doing karate competitions and specially the tours, has spoken to Sensei about starting competitions again. But a very selected few competitions in the U.K., in the hope of continuing to compete mainly in the world stage. Sensei very kindly agreed to Tamash’s demands!!!
He has been extremely busy during lockdown with normal school timetable online and his passion for music. But with all that he still made time for 4-5 sessions a week of Zoom karate, in the evenings. He is now training to go for the Europeans in October, if it will still go ahead. His cricket is coming along very well and thanks to the DHF funding, we managed to organise a 1:1 batting coach to work on his game and mental work. Thanks to this coach too, Tamash is batting amazingly well and it would have been interesting to see how the preparation work would have been put to use. Hopefully, he will still get a few matches this summer.
