Wheelchair Tennis - Amazing!

This past weekend the Hilton Head Island RV Resort played host to the Wheelchair Tennis Tournament.  And we saw some pretty amazing tennis!  Some of these folks have played this circuit before and some are pretty new at it (i.e. young).  I have no idea why any of them are in wheelchairs; that wasn't the important part, they were here to play tennis!  If I had been paying close enough attention, these folks could have taught me how to do a killer serve.  There was a lot of power behind these stokes, and yet they know how to put the ball where they want it - just over the net and inside the lines.

As far as I could tell, the main difference between wheelchair tennis and other tennis is that in wheelchair tennis the ball can bounce twice before you have to hit it.  That is helpful but it’s not that much of an advantage when you consider that the player has to position a chair, not feet.  Imagine moving a wheelchair around the court while holding on to a tennis racquet, then positioning the racquet correctly for your shot, all the while never taking your eyes off a ball that is headed to somewhere on your side of the net. 

 All of that, and then you still have to hit the ball.

Then there is the chair itself, which is different from a standard wheelchair.  Its wheels are canted inwards at the top so a player can whip the chair around to do a quick one-handed turn.  But moving forward or backwards requires both hands so they have to hang on the racket in the same hand that turns a wheel, scoot forward, then make the shot.  Most of them have 2 little wheels set inside the regular wheels, plus a third one in the back, for extra stability.  If they didn't have those, the chair would flip over too easy because of those quick turns.

Hard enough to play tennis when you can run; not running means you have to double up everything else.  No mistake about it, these are real athletes.

 

Two years ago: Kentucky

Three years ago: Northern Lights

Four years ago: Coors and the mountains