DAVID Munt is a new member of the full-time coaching team at Totally Tennis.

The coaching assistant passed the dev-elopment coach award, which is the first rung on the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) ladder, at the end of March.

Munt, who has been a player at Totally Tennis since he was seven, has joined the coaching team on a part-time basis until he completes exams at Queen Mary's College later this year.

He has already gained the LTA's tennis assistant and stringing qualifications, and will start his full-time coaching career in the summer, when he will join head coach Jason Jokhoo at Totally Tennis, Greenacre, in Newbury.

Munt will be involved with day-to-day sessions at Greenacre, assisting Jokhoo to develop the new programme for both adults and juniors.

The aim is to encourage children to try tennis in schools and provide tennis opportunities right up to national level.

Jokhoo and Munt are hoping to bring the same success to Newbury that they have shared in Basingstoke.

Tennis has played a large part in Munt's life since he first began playing when his mother enrolled him and his younger brother, Chris, in Totally Tennis squads.

Even the annual family holiday has been centred around the sport. Every summer the Munt family decamp to the prestigious La Manga resort in Spain for two weeks of sun, coaching and competition.

Munt played tennis six days at week while at school, both at the indoor centre and as a member of the highly-successful elite squad programme run by Totally Tennis at Brighton Hill School (now Brighton Hill Community College).

He was a member of the triumphant school under-16 boys' team who won the county final of the HSBC schools tournament. He now regularly plays for his college tennis team.

Munt said of his appointment: "I am really excited to have passed my DCA and been offered this job involved in the new Totally Tennis venture in Newbury with Jason.

"It is a fantastic opportunity for me to develop as a coach - now all I have to do is pass my college exams."