Tennis Everyone!

By Sheila Robertson

Fierce determination took Darlene Jackman to the Everest and Jennings Wheelchair Tennis Classic in Ottawa in July.

Darlene Jackman is a fighter. Injured in a car accident when only 18 years old, Jackman knew from the first day that she had been left paralyzed from the waist down. She also knew, for reasons she can’t explain, that she could handle what had happened to her.

“I skipped all the usual anger and denial stages,” Jackman explains. “I just went right to dealing with it.” And deal with it she did, taking up wheelchair basketball while still in a body cast. Now 26, she is one of Canada’s top wheelchair tennis players, good enough to take on male and able-bodied opponents alike.

Little more than a decade ago, the idea that people in wheelchairs could play tennis was greeted with disbelief. Today, as opportunities for the disabled open up in all areas of life, wheelchair tennis is played throughout North America in steadily growing number.

It began in 1978, largely through the efforts of Californian Brad Parks, an active player and skier before being injured. In his determined search for a meaningful life using a chair, Parks started wheelchair tennis virtually single-handedly. By 1981, the sport had reached British Columbia. Now it is played in every province.

Dean Mellway, one of Canada’s top players and Executive Director of the Canadian Wheelchair Sport Association(CWSA), agrees that ten years ago, when he was first getting involved in wheelchair sport, wheelchair tennis “just wasn’t an option”. But, he says, the impact of the Decade of the Disabled and the awareness that event generated has led disabled men and women to challenge the limits of everything. “People who are confined to chairs don’t wish to be excluded from any activity, especially one as popular and as widespread as tennis.”

Before Brad Parks turned things around, it had been generally assumed that tennis was not open to people in wheelchairs because of mobility required to play the sport. Once that myth was dispelled, wheelchair tennis grew quickly, not least because it offers so much in terms of getting involved with the community at large.

“Every sport you think about,” Mellway says, “you can imagine doing sitting down, if you’re a little bit creative. In most sports, the rule of thumb is that the best adaptation is the least adaptation. You don’t want to change the sport; you just want to be able to do it from the seated position.

In wheelchair tennis, only one simple adjustment has been made: the seated player is allowed two bounces instead of one. This makes it easier to retrieve drop shots and short balls and to stay behind the baseline to rally the ball back and forth across the net.

Whatever the level of the disabled player, wheelchair tennis offers an enjoyable work out. “It’s the chance to really put in some honest work that can benefit you in fitness terms, and it’s fun, “says Mellway. “At the same time, it provides the opportunity to be with able bodied players.”

Mellway is quick to add that while the top competitive players in the world are tennis players who became injured, people who have spent their lives in chairs or who never played before their injury, can also enjoy the game.

“Learning to play wheelchair tennis is more ‘do-able’ than people think it is. The hard part is taking the first step of talking to community tennis clubs.” Wheelchair tennis is a good activity because so many facilities are available across the country and a lot of new indoor courts are accessible. “The attitude of the tennis community is so positive that when a community has an inaccessible court you usually find a willingness to make adaptations, to help with stairs, and things like that,” says Mellway

Brigitte Patenaude, CWSA’s recently appointed national wheelchair tennis coach, says that teaching tennis is terrific experience. “It’s wonderful getting a racquet into the hand of someone who has never held one before, or who doesn’t think they can do it. And then seeing them do it. They get so excited and that’s enough for me.

Aside from making adjustments based on the extent of each player’s disability, Patenaude’s approach to seated players doesn’t differ from the one she uses with able-bodied players. “There are no short cuts in tennis,” she says. “Laziness is laziness whether you are in a chair or not.”

She concentrates on developing a baseline game and teaching good technique aimed at allowing each player to do as much as possible on the court.

At the competitive level, wheelchair tennis has developed to such an extent that there is now a Canadian Grand Prix Wheelchair Tennis Circuit. It involves every province and in 1989 offered six regional clinics, three regional Grand Prix Tournaments, and the Everest and Jennings Classic.

Feisty Darlene Jackman was the only woman in the Classic. “It was great fun being there, “she says. “It’s a chance to play against better players and that’s what you should always try to do.”

Jackman often takes on able-bodied players. “I like playing with them because they can hit the ball low and hard.” She likes hitting the ball well even more than winning. “Oh, when you hit the sweet spot on your racquet, there is a sound and a feel to it that you just can’t describe. And when you hit a hard, clean shot that stays just inside the line, that is just a wonderful feeling. You can’t beat it!”

Mike Brady, a 26-year old tennis player from Regina, has benefited from the excellent organization in Saskatchewan, his home province.

Wheelchair tennis is completely integrated into the tournaments organized by the Saskatchewan Tennis Association. “They show us a list of their competitions for the coming season and ask which ones we would like to play in. And they take it from there”, says Brady.

Before his accident, Brady was active in both hockey and curling. “Those sports were eliminated. That left wheelchair basketball, which I enjoyed very much. But tennis has a couple of advantages. You don’t have to round up four other guys in chairs and you can play with Abs (able-bodied players). And I can play with my wife.”

Brady now plays in several major tournaments in Saskatchewan each summer season and travels out of the province to national and international events. Within a year of his accident, he was competing at Irvine, California, the Mecca of wheelchair tennis. “I won four or five matches that year. I was only in the D Division for novices, but the experience left me shaking. I was so thrilled. I couldn’t believe it.”

The U.S Open is set up with four levels of competition: A, B, C and D. The best Canadians are now competitive in the B Divisions, with eight players in the top 30 and approaching the top 20.

“We’re getting closer all the time,” says Mellway. “Two years ago, we couldn’t have claimed anyone in the top 50. Our level of play is improving dramatically because of the opportunities we’ve been able to generate.”

Wheelchair tennis is here to stay, which is great news for a lot of men and women in wheelchairs. It’s a sport that seated people can play, and play well. Try it!