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Wheelchair TENNIS
Adaptive tennis has both a national and international presence. International events this year include the 2013 World Team Cup, Parapan Am Games, Paralympic Games, and the Wheelchair Tennis International Games. Within the U.S., the United States Tennis Association, the national governing body for the sport of tennis, has leagues across the country divided into different age groups.
There are USTA-sanctioned tournaments for wheelchair tennis throughout the U.S. for A,B,C, and Professional divisions. Those in the professional division have had intensive training for tournament competitions and have excellent chair mobility.
The A division is for players with good shot anticipation, developed power and/or consistency, various tennis strategies, dependable shots, and solid chair mobility. The B division is for players that have begun to master the power, spin, pace, and strategy with good chair mobility. The C division is for players with improved stroke dependability, directional control on moderate shots, limited strategic variety, and are learning consistent chair mobility.
At first glance, wheelchair tennis seems competitive, extremely fast-paced, and difficult to master. After playing the sport, it turns out to be exactly that. Not only must a wheelchair tennis player focus on their strokes, they must constantly keep themselves in motion, which is what we found to be the hardest part. We constantly had to keep our arms moving, taking no breaks between hitting the ball and wheeling back into position for the next ball. Wheeling was also difficult because we had to simultaneously hold the tennis racket in our hands.
For two hours on a Sunday morning, we played against two veteran wheelchair tennis players on the Brown tennis courts. We found that wheelchair tennis is an extremely inclusive sports, as both stand-up and sit-down players can seamlessly play with or against each other. We played several games of doubles with all different combinations of stand-up and sit-down positions. Tennis is an ideal way to integrate able-bodied athletes and players in wheelchairs into the same sport and game.
Several hours were spent at the Brown sports facilities trying to get confirmation that wheelchairs were allowed on the indoor courts, due to concerns about scuffing from the wheels. No athletic facilities coordinator knew the answer because nobody had ever played wheelchair tennis at Brown before. We were the first people to play a game of wheelchair tennis at Brown. Yet, many of our friends and classmates expressed great interest in playing wheelchair tennis when asked. It is important to fill this gap at Brown by raising awareness of availability of Brown tennis facilities, hosting clinics to teach wheelchair tennis, and encouraging both able-bodied athletes and athletes in wheelchairs to play the sport together.
DIVISIONS
REFLECTION