The great progress of Accessible Tennis at Lanark Tennis Club
This is our third year running sessions with Lanark Tennis Club which has been very successful. At the start we have been developing skills and with our sessions focusing on tennis ability . Many of our players have a number of disabilities, hearing impairment, visual impairment, physical disabilities, learning disability or mental health problems. Many would not be meeting physical exercise guidelines .
Due to progress made we were able to enter 3 players in the Orange and Red Learning Disability Tournament at Prestwick in May 2022. This is a huge step forward as they made their way from Lanarkshire to Prestwick by public transport on a Sunday with reduced post Covid services. Luckily
through funding from Communities and Mental Health Fund we were able to arrange transport back.
Club Championships 2022
With support from Lanark Tennis Club we will be running a Club Championship for the second year. Everyone is practising at present and last years Red tournament winner was Colin.
Colin and Laura’s Pathway to Accessible Tennis
Both of them started in April 2021 . Colin in his 70s, had never played tennis before , is now playing weekly and has entered tournaments.
As he attended all of the sessions last year we were able to present him with a new Babolat racquet which we had received from Tennis Scotland as part of Team Challenge. He played with that and won the first Club Championship Red Trophy in August 2021!
Laura is Colin’s carer and attends with him. She was one of the people who passed her Level 1 course when attending the Tennis Scotland underrepresented groups training held at Lanark last year. As a Carer having passed the course she can put these skills to good use. Working with vulnerable adults means that additional helpers are needed on court and this gives us additional capacity.
Laura was keen to add that “ everyone spoke to Colin and immediately he was included in the group”.
After winning the trophy a very surprised Colin added “I did not expect that!"
He wore his medal proudly and took the trophy to his Church clubs.
Thanks for all the support.
Marie Burns
What a fabulous achievement! Well done to Marie, Colin and the team!!