Jude can make bad bit better
STUCK inside with the kids going stir crazy? Well, Judy Murray may hold the answer to your isolation blues.
The legendary tennis mum has long hailed the indoor games she devised for Andy and Jamie Murray to play when nippers in Dunblane.
Indeed, she reckons the hours her boys spent playing balloon and cerealpacket tennis laid the foundations for their respective climbs to the top of the sport.
And if it’s good enough for three-time Grand Slam singles champ Sir Andy and seven-time doubles winner Jamie, then it must be worth a crack for you and yours.
Certainly, Judy is urging everyone to give it a go during these troubled times – to ease the boredom and enhance children’s sporting prowess in the process.
The former British Fed Cup captain, 60, said: “Jamie and Andy’s first game of tennis was a balloon across a sofa.
“Once they’d mastered that, which wasn’t too difficult, you add a second balloon – or make them play with one hand behind the back. Or, maybe, try kicking it.
“And it’s safe to play indoors. If it gets competitive, as it tended to do with my boys, especially Andy, nothing gets broken!
“Then there’s cereal-box tennis, with two biscuit-tin lids and a ping-pong ball. The hand needs to be in front of you for it to work – a key component of tennis.
“These things are exactly what parents are looking for right now because everybody’s in the same boat – we can’t go out and play.”
The coronavirus crisis can also bring families closer, according to Judy, awarded an OBE in 2017.
She added: “I think it’s making families socialise, bond and play together a lot more – and also become more creative with things lying around the house.”