The Tennis4women project is funded by the European Union's Erasmus+ Programme and aims to support the sharing and upscaling of good practices across Europe. Three partnes from Slovenia and Croatia collaborate on the project.

The project intends to develop an innovative training methodology for grassroots tennis, skills development, and networking activities while promoting physical activity opportunities for young women. The project targets young women aged 14 - 27, local grassroots sport clubs, trainers, coaches, and volunteers. 

The project seeks to provide equal opportunities and increase physical activity of women by consolidating and extending the network, standardizing activities among the clubs, and developing cross-border partnerships. 

The project aligns with the strategic objectives of the Erasmus+ Programme, such as promoting education through sport, encouraging participation in health-enhancing physical activity, and tackling violence, racism, and discrimination in sport. The project aims to accomplish specific objectives such as desk research, identifying best practices, capacity building, and pilot testing of the developed training methodology during tennis courses for female beginners.

The health benefits of physical activity are well recognised. It includes reduced risks for noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and various types of cancer and has positive effects on mental health, by reducing depression, stress reactions and possibly delaying the effects of Alzheimer disease and other forms of dementia. Additionally, physical activity is a key determinant of energy expenditure, which supports energy balance and a healthy body weight. (Navracsics, 2019)

Years 2020 and 2021 has had huge negative impact on society and significant consequences. Reduced physical activity during the lockdowns due to pandemic has severly declined fitness level of EU citizens. The share of overweight population has also spiked. Experts urge mitigation measures, otherwise detrimental somatic and mental health effects are probable. Therefore, it is crucial to provide interesting, but also quality and equal opportunities for regular physical activity to whole population. For adults the WHO recommends a minimum of 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity; or at least 75–150 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity; or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity throughout the week, for substantial health benefits. Children and adolescents aged 5-17 years should do at least an average of 60 minutes per day of moderateto-vigorous intensity, mostly aerobic, physical activity, across the week. They should incorporate vigorous-intensity aerobic activities, as well as those that strengthen muscle and bone, at least 3 days a week. Additionally, they should limit the amount of time spent being sedentary, particularly the amount of recreational screen time.

The drop in physical activity is partly due to inaction during leisure time and sedentary behaviour at school or on the job and at home. Likewise, an increase in the use of "passive" modes of transportation also contributes to insufficient physical activity. It is most important to start forming good habits and active lifestyle as soon as possible. Experts are aware many sport clubs and sport organisations across Europe are offering efficient and effective programs and events based on sport and physical activity. But that is less known fact to local residents, many citizens are not familiar with PA and sport programmes in local environment offered by sport clubs and sport organisations. People have often a problem to decide which sport is best for them and interesting enough to participate in for a long period of time. Our challenge is to create a network through which it is possible to disseminate and to exchange successful approaches, knowledge and competences with aim to promote and introduce PA and sport programs accessible for the widest range of people, groups and communities. Consequently, we can successfully foster regular participation in sport and physical activity programs, increasing the quality of life for children and families, groups and communities

The goal of this project is to support the sharing and the upscaling of good practices, engaging new partners, new groups or new organisations. The experience developed through this initiative will be the starting point to facilitate the exchange of competences, know-how, skills and attitudes among the project partners and provide physical activity opportunities to young women. The main project activities are development of innovative training methodology for grassroots tennis, skills development and networking activities; knowledge exchange and best practise collection; dissemination of project outcomes. 

The main target groups are young women, the local grassroots sport clubs; trainers, coaches and volunteers.  On long-term basis, we intend to consolidate and to extend the network, to standardize the activities among the clubs and to further develop cross-border partnerships. It is an efficient answer to provide equal opportunities and to increase physical activity of citizens. Tackling inactivity issues of EU population, development of innovative training methodology, supported by capacity building of trainers will have a significant positive impact. 

The project addresses the general objective of the Erasmus+ Programme  - to support, through lifelong learning, the educational, professional and personal development of people in sport, in Europe and beyond. Implementation of the project will contribute to the accomplishment of EU policy and strategies, including the Digital Education Action Plan and the European Green Deal Communication. The overall scope of the project is in line with the specific priorities in sport field: 

• to encourage participation in sport and physical activity, especially by supporting the implementation of the EU Physical Activity Guidelines and the Council Recommendation on health-enhancing physical activity, and promoting of sport and physical activity as a tool for health;

• to promote education in and through sport, especially by supporting skills development in sport, and using mobility as a tool for improving qualifications;

• to combat violence and tackling racism, discrimination and intolerance in sport and tackling violent radicalisation, focusing on promoting equality in sport, including gender equality.

The above mentioned strategic objectives will be accomplished by achieving the following specific objectives and deliverables of the project:

• Desk research and identification of best practices;

• Using mobility as a tool for improving qualifications: Hackathons for trainers and coaches;

• Capacity building: development of innovative training methodology and guidelines for trainers and coaches;

• Encouraging participation in health enhancing physical activity: pilot testing of the developed training methodology during tennis courses for female beginners;

• Dissemination campaign and sustainability of the network.