Tennis is for everyone!

Tennis truly is a sport for everyone and recent weeks has proved that.  Wendy Glasper and Rosie Pybus from the North East Visually Impaired Tennis Club ran a couple of events to inspire adults to pick up a racket and experience the game. 

The two volunteers from Darlington and Durham respectively offered two one hour slots and they did an outstanding coaching session with some adults from Daybreak supporting adults with learning disabilities).  The session took place at the Walker Activity Dome in Newcastle and Neil Curry who is the Inclusion Leisure Assistant (Newcastle City Council) was buzzing;

‘The group loved the session. I could see that even before asking them. The adults were clearly enthused by the coaching and were sidestepping, running around, hitting tennis balls and rallying by the end, which was inspiring to see.  We would like Wendy and Rosie to come back as soon as possible and already have some potential dates in mind!'

The link for further information about the charity can be found http://daybreakcentres.co.uk/centres/Newcastle/.

Following on from the first session the ladies then ran another hour with some visually impaired adults who had just finished playing footy in the searing heat outside!  No warm up needed so Wendy and Rosie set them to their paces straight away with a court awareness drill followed by floor tennis.  They picked it up so quickly that within 5 minutes they were all hitting over the nets and as fast as you could say ‘tennis’ were rallying!  Here's a great video as proof!     

Two days later Wendy and Rosie were then involved in a fundraiser for the North East Visually Impaired Tennis Club, which took place at Sunderland Tennis Centre, Silksworth. 

Wendy who is the Club Secretary worked her magic and there were ten people from across the region who played throughout the afternoon.  These participants were mixed between people who suffered from severe sighting impairment to sighted individuals. The participants took part in a mini tournament; those players who were sighted wore Vine Sim Specs (donated by the Tennis Foundation) that creates the sight of a person with partial vision. Sound balls were also used as well which allow the players to hear the travel of the ball.  There were two round robin groups that saw some amazingly close matches and sizzling points!  Group ‘Wimbledon’ even saw a three way tie and once organiser’s Jo Cunliffe and Christine Klee had worked out the percentages there was only 3% difference between the top three finishers.  This meant that Christine and Peter played out the Grand Final on Sunderland Tennis Centre’s very own Centre Court.  With spectators watching and listening on the side lines the excitement was nearly too much for everyone, including Kane and Wizard (the guide dogs)!  Following a tense battle Peter closed the match out by winning both tiebreaks 7 points to 6! 

The event helped to raise money which will be used to help promote future events and fund equipment.  This also compliments the support that the Lawn Tennis Association and Tennis Foundation provide to the Club, which has seen regular weekly sessions take place at Sunderland Tennis Centre.

For further information about the North East Visually Impaired Tennis Club please contact Wendy Glasper at wglasper2000@yahoo.co.uk or 07837847270.

Further information about the Tennis Foundation’s Disability Tennis Strategy and the opportunities to play tennis can be found here http://www.lta.org.uk/Tennis-Foundation/Tennis-for-Disabled-People/.