Written by Monica Smith

Thank you to Herts Inclusive Sports Initiative for your bursary of £420 towards twelve one-to-one coaching sessions with Andy Ireland at Harlow Tennis Club. I applied for this bursary to support me to hopefully represent GB at the IBSA World Games in Birmingham in August 2023.

As requested, here is a report and photos of my training and tennis journey so far.

About blind tennis

Blind Tennis is a special game played on either a badminton or a standard tennis court using a junior tennis racket and an adapted sponge ball that makes a noise when it bounces. The court layout is smaller than a full tennis court and the lines are tactile, usually lengths of chord stuck down with masking tape. So, my feet know where the lines are by feel. I can move around the court and know my position within it. We are allowed the concession that the ball can bounce up to three times before we have to return it. This gives me time to locate the ball and aim my racket where I believe it to be.

About the IBSA games

Beginning in 1998 in Madrid, Spain, the IBSA World Games are the largest high-level international event for athletes with visual impairments, with more than 1000 competitors from more than 70 nations. The multi-sport competition is held every four years and in 2023 is to be held in Birmingham. Tennis will be introduced for the very first time.

Lessons

My coach Andy and I have had 6 lessons so far and we have worked together on areas where I was weak like:

Listening for the first bounce, moving once I decide whether it is a forehand or backhand and then stopping and hitting – the sequence is move, stop, hit.
Opening up the racket face so the ball goes higher to clear the net.
Taking my left hand off the racket when hitting a forehand which was a bad habit I had got into.
Keeping my feet on the ground when hitting – I tended to spin round like a ballerina which sent the ball in the wrong direction.
Hitting low to high rather than across my body.
Learning to be less rigid and more relaxed when hitting.
Concentrating on the mental side of the game as I was getting very uptight in competitive games and getting very frustrated with myself. Andy taught me to treat each shot as the first one and forget about any bad ones.

Notable dates in my journey

25 March – I received the great news that I had been selected to join the 2023 Visually Impaired GB National Squad. 2 ladies and 2 men in my category, B1, were selected.
21 April – I was invited to play an exhibition match at the Queen’s Club to show their coaches how blind tennis works.

23 April – I attended the first GB camp of the year at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton and the coach, Louise Asioun, said that my serving had much improved and that I was returning better. I was still getting very uptight when playing matches so she told me I needed to concentrate on the mental side of my game and so I asked Andy to help me with this. He suggested I read The Chimp Paradox by Prof Steve Peters. I hope to read this whilst on my holiday in July.
12-14 May – I attended the Newcastle regional tournament but didn’t play very well due to some personal problems which were on my mind.
15 May – I received the email I had been waiting for from the LTA with their selection for the IBSA World Games. Very sadly I wasn’t selected to represent GB and play but was put on the reserve list. The IBSA organisers were only allowing one person per gender per category due to over-subscription. I was absolutely gutted.
3 July – I received a call from the LTA saying that I did have a place to represent GB after all. I am delighted and will be using the next 6 coaching sessions with Andy to get me ready for the games.

“The reason I wanted to coach Monica is because it was a new challenge in my career as a coach which I had never done before. It demonstrates a different side to the game and has made me think outside the box when coaching”. Andy, Tennis Coach.

Attending the IBSA World Blind Games

21 August – I travelled up to Birmingham by train and the GB team all settled into our accommodation at the Athletes Village.
22 August – This was our only training day and we acclimatised to the courts where we would be playing our matches at Billesley Tennis Centre. The draws for play were also announced. In my B1 ladies category, there were two groups of five and we had to play a round robin format.
23-26 August – I won three of the four matches in my round robin, which put me second in my group. I played ladies from Poland, Italy, Ireland and Germany. This meant that I got through to the semi-finals. The second in one group played the first in the other group and vice versa. I also played doubles with my partner Naqi Rizvi and we also got through to the semi-finals.
27 August – My singles semi-final was against a Mexican lady and amazingly I beat her in straight sets, which meant I was through to the final!

The final was a great close match but my Italian opponent sadly pipped me to the post – 54 54.

In doubles, we also got through to the final and this time we won!

Conclusion

The GB visually impaired tennis squad took home two gold, five silver and four bronze. Personally, I am absolutely chuffed to bits, winning a silver for singles and gold for doubles. This was beyond my wildest dreams.

The whole experience has been absolutely fantastic as I have played new international world players, which has been very different to playing at home and against many of the same players tournament after tournament.

I couldn’t have done any of this without the amazing volunteers – Linda and her crew, at our Metro Blind Sports Wednesday evening sessions and Andy Ireland, my coach at Harlow LTC. Enormous thank you to HISI for funding twelve lessons with Andy. This was invaluable.

I hop e my success proves that disabled people can achieve given the right support.