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TENNIS


Quad doubles silver medalists Peter Norfolk (right) and Andy Lapthorne


WHO WILL BE USING SPORTHOUSE?


at least once a week but clearly there is the scope to significantly increase this figure. Tennis currently ranks as the tenth highest sport in the UK in terms of partic- ipation rates for disabled people, which is the same position for non-disabled people playing tennis. Sport England’s chair, Richard Lewis,


would no doubt agree. He said: “Our goal is to get many more disabled people playing sport and we can only achieve this through a changed approach, one where sports bodies integrate the sport on offer to disabled and non-disabled people as far as possible.”


Combined approach The DMTT works closely with the Tennis Foundation and the Lawn Tennis As- sociation (LTA), the national governing body responsible for disability tennis in the UK. One of the latest initiatives will be the provision of 60 specially-adapted wheelchairs for use at 14 UK sites, as part of the Disability Development Pro- gramme that the Tennis Foundation is driving forward. Wheelchair tennis is one of the fast-


est growing wheelchair sports in the world and at an elite level, Britain has achieved and maintained a high level of success. Encouraging access to the sport through regular wheelchair sessions


Disabled people are much less likely to play sport as a club member, to receive sports tuition or coaching or to have taken part in organised competition


and providing the opportunity to use specially-constructed wheelchairs pays dividends as Mike Bishop, sport manager for Kent County Council, can testify. “We now run two monthly wheelchair


sessions in Kent and added a third to this programme from September 2012,” he explains. “Each session runs for two hours on a Sunday and between them they have attracted 24 people to play regularly. One of the players was already known to the GB squad but three others have gone on already to play in the nationals and other tournaments around the country. None of this would have been possible without the support of the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust and its funding stream to provide tennis wheelchairs, of which we are now proud owners of four,” he says. “Throughout this development, we’ve


written a 10-year plan for the sport in Kent and anticipate that the London 2012 Paralympic Games have given the sport an even bigger boost going forward.” Another group the DMTT has sup- ported is The North East Visually


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Impaired Tennis Club which meets at the Sunderland Tennis Centre. Adele Waterfall-Brown, chair of the club, said: “Everyone in our group is either visu- ally impaired or registered blind but we love to play the game. The club offers coaching and competitions and the player feedback has been outstanding,” she says. Club Treasurer, Paul Martin, said: “I got


involved because I am visually impaired and wanted to try out a new, competi- tive sport. I’ve also competed in football, athletics and cricket. Anybody who en- joys sport would understand that you can work around a disability.”


Adapted game Also known as Sound Tennis, both singles and doubles matches are played using shorter tennis rackets and an audible foam ball that is slightly larger than a tennis ball (it has a table tennis ball at its centre containing ball bearings which enables the ball to rattle). The reduced court dimensions required often means the game is played on a badminton court


Issue 4 2012 © cybertrek 2012


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