IMAGINE the scene, it's a few years ago now, and the youngster who would grow up to become Scotland's greatest tennis export is throwing a ping pong ball over a wall of cereal boxes.
He may well have been craving the chance to slump in front of the PlayStation or fire up the Nintendo. Mum Judy, however, had other plans. Out from the cupboard would come the boxes to create a makeshift obstacle for a ball, or a balloon filled with a little rice to be patted up and over a rope strewn across the hall of the family home.
On occasions, there'd be a jumping game with imaginary sharks, a "river" created from two pieces of rope and the challenge to get across without falling in.
It must have done some good. For next week Andy Murray will head on to the centre court at Wimbledon in peak sporting condition, while his mum Judy watches anxiously from the sidelines.
Of course for the rest of us harassed parents, getting to grips with raising our children's activity levels into "move mode" often involves driving them to a sports club, swimming or football session to be trained by someone else while we wait in the car checking our Facebook status updates on the phone.
Or worse, we'll settle for just supplying them with a new set of batteries for the Wii, hoping they might be tempted to dust down the Wii Fit but knowing they'll probably just end up playing Donkey Kong instead.
Now as the long summer holidays loom ahead, there's the horrifying prospect of trying to keep youngsters on their toes, activity levels up and actually doing something for week after week after horrendous week that doesn't involve a television set.
According to the tennis ace's mum Judy Murray, it's time for parents to pitch in and discover how to play the game themselves - for the good of everyone's health.
"I'd often see parents come along to tennis clubs, enrol their kids and then go, leaving other people to do the active sporting stuff with them," she explains.
"Many parents don't have a sporting background and they don't have a raft of ideas of how to actually play actively with their children."
Various programmes like the NHS Lothian Get Going initiative - which offers free courses to help families reach a healthy weight and increase activity levels - along with the Health 4 U scheme which targets teenage girls are said to have helped improve the statistics.
But according to the tennis ace's mum, improving our children's health - particularly during the long summer break when it's tempting to slump in front of the box for hour after hour - is a family affair. "It's great to see parents having fun with their kids. You don't have to be very sporty or very athletic, you just need a small space and some games and a bit of imagination.
"We've become very TV and computer orientated, children end up sitting on their backsides watching DVDs or playing with iPads. It's about getting back to basics, helping kids develop these physical skills which will not just help them play sport, but develop their confidence and social interaction.
"There's so much sport can do. It can't be a case of 'drop your kids off and let someone else play with them'."
Appeared Edinburgh Evening News July 2013
(c) 2013 Johnston Publishing Limited
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