Great to be back in Ireland

Inclusive training with a focus on Learning Disability Tennis and coaching some of Ireland’s Performance Visually Impaired players was the menu of the day.

An early flight from Leeds, took Lou to the welcoming indoor tennis courts of Shankill Tennis club. Lou met and coached some of Ireland’s Performance Visually Impaired tennis players. The morning session was all about sharing ideas and discussions with the players and coaches, developing some new ideas around tactics and technique.

Sue arrived for lunch and in the afternoon, 16 coaches and club committee members, joined us for an interactive training session focusing on Learning Disability tennis. The session started off in the club house, developing understanding around inclusive models/practice and how this can create positive learning environments for all.

We quickly moved onto the courts to get active, using a variety of fun, colourful equipment and shared lots of creative ideas for the coaches to use in their sessions.

Lots of group work explored how warm ups and tracking skills can be adapted to ensure all players can join in. As all it takes is a little creativity and a passionate coach.

We then finished the session exploring competition and what next…… how can we provide future opportunities for the players we already work with, whilst finding more players to enjoy tennis.

A fabulous day, with one regret, that is was over far too soon.

Thank you to Enjoy Tennis and Shankill Tennis Club for their hospitality, and all the coaches, players, and volunteers who joined us on a great day of collaborative learning.