YOUNG sports leaders in the Wee County are not letting the lockdown get in the way of their personal development by gaining qualifications online.

While schools are closed in Clackmannanshire due to the coronavirus, the council's sport development team is snatching up a range of online learning opportunities.

Something for both teaching staff and aspiring young sports leaders from the Wee County's three academies, these included a fun starter tennis programme developed by Judy Murray.

The famous Dunblane tennis coach, and former player herself, created the Miss-Hits course to help coaches introduce girls between the ages of four and eight to the sport.

The four-hour programme was made available online for free earlier this month with a series of instructional videos and quizzes.

It aims to equip coaches and sports leaders with the right skills to work with the next generation of female tennis players.

Clackmannanshire Council's Active Schools team were delighted that many secondary school pupils completed the course.

They will be able to help deliver activities in local primary schools once business is back to usual and planning is already ongoing to put their new skills to good use.

Alison Mackie, Active Schools manager, also completed the course herself.

She said: "We are delighted with the response from our sports leaders, teachers, coaches and wider Sports Development [staff] in taking up this coach education award offered by Miss-Hits.

"The uptake has been excellent and the opportunity to develop tennis moving forward in Clackmannanshire is very exciting.

"We have plans in place to deliver tennis during the summer programme and within the extra curricular schools programme when the schools go back and these newly trained coaches are key to this delivery plan.

"We are excited to capitalise on the success of British tennis and in particular of the Murray family and we cannot wait to get more girls involved."

Completing the course meant young sports leaders gained a formal qualification for free along with some 30 staff from Sports Development, primary school PE departments and class teachers, support service staff, coaches and volunteers.

They were among 1,433 people from across the globe to take part.

And the freshly gained skills are already being put to good use when delivering extra curricular activities at local childcare hubs.

Here, children of NHS staff and key workers already enjoyed beginners' tennis sessions.