For FuturePros Tennis Academy coaches Kiel Lindner and AJ Thompson, the smiles on the faces of wheelchair tennis players Katherine Russell and Kyle Haslam as they smash a forehand over the net is the ultimate reward.
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For Thompson the joy on the face of 11-year-old charge Katherine is what makes her so passionate about the new addition to her coaching resume.
“Katherine has been playing for over 12 months now, she loves it, her first lesson she cried, she didn’t realise that this was ever an option for her, last week she cried again when she got 10 forehands over in a row, we got it on video and she was amazed, so the satisfaction is giving her that confidence,” she said.
“They’re are as important as any other player that steps on to our court right now, even more.”
Fellow FuturePros coach Lindner said coaching Kyle has given him a new enthusiasm for the sport he loves.
“I think it’s tennis on a whole new level, it’s so much more rewarding not only just seeing the kids faces when they get out there and actually get an opportunity to do something, but the parents faces as well,” he said.
“For us it was working with autistic children first and with down syndrome also, and then just realising that, we had Katherine for a while, and realised there’s got to be more out there, and now just trying to get people out there to know that if you’re in a chair and you're not able to run around a tennis court there are other ways.”
“Something I really love also at the moment about our tennis academy is we really try to make sure all our juniors are coming through and getting as much time on court with coaching, so now they’ve seen us going in this direction with this and they’re happy enough to step on board and run with it.”
The coaches recently had a visit from Tennis Australia’s National Pathways Manager for Wheelchair Tennis Alex Jago to both reinforce and add to the training the coaches had already received in wheelchair tennis.
Jago said wheelchair tennis is highly adaptable to people of different levels of ability with the only difference from regular tennis being the ball is allowed to bounce twice.
“Across the board you look at a tennis player and you look at what are their abilities and that's both for able body and wheelchair and then coach the abilities,” he said.
“There is always going to be strengths and weaknesses in anyone’s game and if we coach the strengths and coach their abilities then they are going to have a great time, they are going to get better, and they're going to stay in the sport for a long time.
“For us (Tennis Australia) one of the most important parts is connecting with the coaches like Kiel and AJ out here and providing resources and information and any other type of information we can provide them to create a great environment for the young kids in chairs.”