LUSU honoured in LTA National Awards for the second time in three years.

Monday 27th June Wimbledon started; a 2 week frenzy of tennis, with tennis on the BBC and the park courts filled by the Rafa Nadal, Simona Halep, Alfie Hewitt and Lucy Shucker wannabees. It also started a great week for Lou and Sue who, on Monday had the pleasure of attending Wimbledon’s centre court, hosted by the LTA in recognition of winning the LTA Disability Award 2020 (a delayed event due to Covid).

The following day we were invited to receive the National LTA Disability Award at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton. The day started with an early breakfast, followed by an award ceremony hosted by Leon Smith (GB Davis Cup Captain) and David Rawlinson (LTA President). Scott Lloyd (LTA CEO) addressed the award winners and spoke of the LTA’s strategy ‘Tennis Opened Up’. We met and joined 16 other award winners recognised for their work in a variety of areas of tennis.

“We are especially delighted to have won the award from a strong pool of nominations…it’s very rare anyone ever wins a national award twice (and never twice in three years). We are over the moon; it’s a huge endorsement of the work we do’

It was especially lovely to share this day with Grace, who had received the LTA’s President Highly Commended Award.

Following the presentation we had a tour of the National Tennis Centre, a chance to watch Gordon Reid (Wheelchair No 4 player) train and then we travelled down the road to SW19, to watch the tennis at Wimbledon. Again, to our delight, we were treated to centre court tickets and a fabulous day of tennis

We are extremely pleased and honoured to have won the LTA County, Regional and National Disability Award 2022.

A huge thank you goes to everybody who has joined us along the way to help make us who we are and to the LTA for their continued support.

We are so proud and excited to finally be able to SHOUT about SENSORY TENNIS. Launching in partnership with the LTA and Sense, Sensory Tennis creates more meaningful activities for people with complex disabilities.

Sense Active have launched a new programme aiming to improve the quality of tennis provision for people with complex disabilities, in partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association and LUSU Sports. The programme reimagines the way activities are delivered to help ensure the benefits and outcomes gained from playing tennis can be achieved by people with complex disabilities.

The Sensory Tennis programme includes a best practice toolkit, on-demand videos and local mentoring to help provide an understanding on why and when Sensory Tennis is needed and how to deliver, plan and evaluate Sensory Tennis activities with a person-centred approach.

It is aimed at those supporting people with complex disabilities to be active including tennis coaches, care workers, teachers or family members and is designed to be used as part of tennis clubs’ provision, in educational settings, disability support services or at home.

Alice Miller, Sport & Physical Activity Coordinator at Sense, said:

“At Sense we believe that people with complex disabilities find it challenging to participate in many sports such as tennis due to the complexity of rules, tactics and skills involved. Therefore, we wanted to create a fully accessible version of the sport that really breaks down activities and allows people to work on developing their skills and achieving particular outcomes through a more sensory and person-centred approach.”

Matthew Elkington, Disability Development Partner – Lawn Tennis Association, said:

“The LTA are truly committed to opening up our sport and in 2021 we felt that our current impairment specific programmes saw various people miss out on the opportunity to play tennis. Working with Sense to develop Sensory Tennis will allow more people to enjoy our sport and we will endeavour to make more of our venues accessible and educate more of our workforce to deliver to people with multiple and complex disabilities.”

Sue Morrison, LUSU Sports said:

“We are so pleased to be able to work with Sense and the LTA on this project. For years we have been delivering tennis within SEN schools, colleges and holiday clubs and have been delivering tennis with a sensory focus, ensuring that everyone can enjoy our sport. “

LUSU Sports have created a 6 week programme, divided into 3 levels (Standing, Seated and Moving) for Sensory Tennis focusing on skill development and sensory stimulation, making it accessible and enjoyable for everyone.

To compliment and deliver the Sensory programme, LUSU have also developed the LUSU Sensory Tennis Kit. This has been developed for coaches, leaders and activators to deliver small group activity. For individual work, we recommend our LUSU Individual Kit.