Wheelchair Tennis at University of Kent
Mondays 12-1pm and 1-2pm and Thursdays 6-7pm and 7-8pm, just £5 per hour starting from September 15th.
Whether you’ve not used a sports wheelchair before, or have played some wheelchair tennis and want to level up your game- or any level of experience in between!
Wheelchair Tennis is challenging and very fun and addictive whatever your level!!
As one of the tennis coaches at the University, i can relate my experience of being totally new to the chair but quite experienced at tennis:
To be honest at first i felt a bit silly and self conscious because i was really struggling to even move the chair and master basic movements like turning and reacting to an incoming ball - never mind learning to hold a racquet at the same time!!
Now i have been practicing quite a lot and i feel a lot more confident and i can play the game - even if it’s still quite basic and inconsistent, i’ll keep practicing to improve!
To get to my current level of confidence, i started with simply chair movements: setting off, turning, stopping, changing direction.
As i gained in confidence, i added a ball and did some throwing and catching against a wall or with a partner and spent a lot of time missing the ball in truth! I kept at it and started to catch the ball more often and felt confident enough to add the racquet.
Again, initially, i my confidence went backwards a bit and i focused again on just moving the chair while holding a racquet then moving on to hitting the ball - against a wall or with a partner.
Now, each time i get into the chair i follow that same process: get used to moving it whilst warming up, start throwing and catching whilst moving, then add the racquet, then to play some games/practices.
Our sessions will follow a similar format split into the 4 sections:
Chair skills
Chair and ball skills
Chair and racquet skills
Scoring/playing the game
We will have 2 courts running in each session to allow us to make the sessions more challenging for people who are ready for that on 1 court, whilst the other court can be made more achievable. We will constantly check on your progress and see if we need to change the difficulty level as your confidence increases or indeed if we need to make activities more achievable at any time.
We hope to have our local role models Ruben Harris and/or Ellen Tribley attend most sessions to inspire you to see what is possible if you stick with tennis.
Ruben and Ellen play international tournaments and whilst we would love to help you achieve this level, we are starting out with the hope that you will firstly enjoy being in the sports chair (we have plenty you can use), then find the real love of tennis that is:
becoming more physically active
stimulating mental health from problem solving, confidence, dealing with disappointments, perseverance, respect, and too many more to list!
joining an inclusive community
making new friends
learning new skills
competing at your level
Sessions are just £5 per hour (thanks to some very generous support from Kent LTA) - you can book for 2 hours or 1 each day!
Click here to book or more information
You can book through our website: kent.ac.uk/tennis
Email me (Nick) with any questions n.skelton@kent.ac.uk