\n From blind sessions to walking tennis, an award-winning tennis club is breaking down barriers and helping more people get on court.\n<\/p>\n
\n In one week at Highgate Cricket & Lawn Tennis Club, I played tennis but only walked, watched people play without seeing the ball and met a group of juniors, who all had different needs but learned together.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s a proper part of the club,” Linda Almond, Highgate Tennis inclusion co-ordinator, says when I meet her at the club in Shepherds Cot\/Crouch End.\n<\/p>\n
\n She tells me it all started in 2010 when she spotted a notice about a blind tennis tournament at the National Tennis Centre.\n<\/p>\n
\n She offered to help and the year after, they moved the national tournament to the Islington Tennis Centre.\n<\/p>\n
\n From there, the club expanded its inclusive programme and was recently recognised with the John James Disability Award.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Tennis should be everywhere for everybody,” Linda says.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ready? Yes. Play.\n<\/p>\n
\n My first session of the week takes me to Islington Tennis Centre, where Highgate Tennis provides volunteers for Metro Blind Sport’s weekly sessions.\n<\/p>\n
\n When I step on the courts, the volunteers are measuring the court and putting down tactile lines fixed with double tape.\n<\/p>\n
\n I\u2019m told the players use their feet to find their way around the court and sound balls to know where the ball is.\n<\/p>\n
\n Linda tells me: “It used to be just me and a coach, but now we try and get a volunteer for every player.”\n<\/p>\n
\n I keep hearing \u2018Ready? Yes. Play\u2019 \u2013 I realise that\u2019s how the server tells the returner the next point is starting.\n<\/p>\n
\n Linda recalls one woman who started losing her sight and hadn’t left the house.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Her son brought her to tennis, and she burst into tears halfway through, and I thought she was upset.\n<\/p>\n
\n “But it was because she was so happy,” she says.\n<\/p>\n
\n Eros Adamides, who travels over an hour to the sessions, struggles to find a closer venue where he can play.\n<\/p>\n
\n “No one really knows much about how blind tennis works or if they can coach it,” he tells me.\n<\/p>\n
\n No running allowed\n<\/p>\n
\n When I walk up to the courts for my next session, at first glance it looks just like a normal doubles match.\n<\/p>\n
\n Upon closer inspection, however, I notice the ball bounces twice and the players are not running \u2013 in fact, they are not allowed to.\n<\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s called ‘walking tennis’.\n<\/p>\n
\n Linda tells me it was started because they saw members in their 70s leaving the club.\n<\/p>\n
\n She says: “The population is changing, so London is going to be a lot more over 55, 65 coming up, and a lot less youngsters.\n<\/p>\n
\n “So, clubs need to think about their provision.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The sessions attract older adults as well as players returning from injury.\n<\/p>\n
\n I join in and quickly realise it\u2019s harder than it sounds; you need to anticipate whether the second bounce would go out.\n<\/p>\n
\n Afterwards, I speak to Tricia Peel, 79, who tells me: “It\u2019s one of the highlights of my week.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I live on my own now so it\u2019s easy to spend too much time alone.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Another player, Colin Parker, 81, had a hip replacement so he hadn\u2019t played tennis in four years.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I had sort of given up hoping to play tennis again.”\n<\/p>\n
\n He smiles at me: “I have dreams now of playing proper tennis again.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Open to all\n<\/p>\n
\n I arrive at the junior inclusive session and notice the engagement of the two coaches – taking their time with each player, making sure everyone is involved.\n<\/p>\n
\n For U10s, the parents are part of the session.\n<\/p>\n
\n Between high fives and encouraging words, they also guide the kids around the court.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Saturday lessons are open to anyone but are targeted at young people with additional needs and\/or disabilities.\n<\/p>\n
\n Linda tells me: “They come from all over.\n<\/p>\n
\n “And quite a few come from different clubs who don’t provide anything.”\n<\/p>\n
\n James, 18, has been coming to the Saturday sessions since he was seven.\n<\/p>\n
\n His mum, Rachel Aldighieri, says the sessions are about more than the social side \u2013 they help James build confidence.\n<\/p>\n
\n “That’s something that to James doesn’t happen that often – that he has something that he actually feels like he’s good at.”\n<\/p>\n
\n She says: “The challenge is that there\u2019s so little on your doorstep to do that.\n<\/p>\n
\n “So, when you find something like this, it’s like a real gem.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Opportunities remain limited\n<\/p>\n
\n While clubs like Highgate Tennis are expanding their inclusive offering, opportunities remain limited.\n<\/p>\n
\n Disabled people are about 30 per cent less likely to feel that they have the opportunity to be as active as they would like, Activity Alliance found.\n<\/p>\n
\n Martin Etheridge from Middlesex Tennis tells me that only 29 of the 120 tennis clubs across north\/west London they support, deliver any inclusive activity.\n<\/p>\n
\n And of those, only four deliver two or more inclusion strands \u2013 one of them is Highgate Tennis Club.\n<\/p>\n
\n Andrew Lewandowski from Middlesex Tennis says: “Clubs such as Highgate, who’ve been involved in offering inclusive and disability tennis now for many, many years, really are the role models of what can be achieved.”\n<\/p>\n
\n “I think the barriers are really about education and a fear of not putting on something that they think is going to be good enough because they’re not experienced in it,” he adds.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u2018A proper part of the club\u2019\n<\/p>\n
\n Highgate Tennis also offers disability or low-income discounts which for head coach Jaidyn Murry, is important.\n<\/p>\n
\n He grew up playing at Highgate and says he was only able to get this far in his career because of reduced fees.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I think everyone should have the opportunity to come to this club and love the sport the same way that I did,” he tells me.\n<\/p>\n
\n The club is offering its first fully inclusive holiday junior camp this month – open to all.\n<\/p>\n
\n Linda, who has been lobbying for more inclusive sessions since 2011, tells me her vision has now become reality.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I can retire now and just leave them all to it, and, if a coach can’t do a Saturday session, it’s up to Jaidyn to find somebody else, because it’s a proper part of the club.\n<\/p>\n
\n “That was my vision, really.\n<\/p>\n
\n “So that’s been achieved.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From blind sessions to walking tennis, an award-winning tennis club is breaking down barriers and helping more people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-813756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}