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Counties Tennis Association is set to ramp up its program for special needs athletes after successfully taking an initiative into schools this year.

The program involved taking weekly half-hour programs into Pukekohe Hill School, Valley School in Pukekohe and View Road School in Waiuku and the feedback has been very encouraging.

Teachers provided very supportive feedback and the centre would like to see the program expand into intermediate and high school units too in the coming months.

It follows on from the weekly sessions the centre held with students from Parkside School in Pukekohe last summer, that aims to develop physical and social skills that will help them adjust to adult life.

The transition group – all special needs students in the 18-21 age bracket – are getting ready for life after school and the new initiative is being hailed as a massive success.

The sessions involve the students coming to Counties Tennis Centre and learning the basics of the sport and is something they look forward to each week.

“We have our different groups – one is more advanced than the other,” special needs teacher Patricia Kruger told Counties Sports Hub.

“They look forward to this.  When we have adverse whether you can see how heartbroken they are if we are forced to cancel a session.

“It is building their confidence. Sometimes you need to mould and grow their confidence to go into the adult world and doing things like this is helping so much with that. If they achieve playing tennis or hitting a ball they can go on to other things.

“They are lovely human beings and I absolutely enjoy what I do for a living.”

Counties Tennis provides the equipment – racquets and specially designed tennis balls – as well as the coaching through renowned local coach Lynette Johnston.

“Our students love the physical, outdoor, active kind of exercise,” teacher Georgia Robinson said. “They love competition, they can be very competitive – this can be a real incentive to get to them involved.

“I think one of the wonderful things is it can be differentiated to a level where every single student can be involved.

“We see students that are in wheelchairs and students with various physical limitations right up to high functioning physically capable students and they can all play and compete alongside each other.

“They really get into it.”

While the hand-eye coordination and physical exercise has obvious benefits, there are many additional elements that make the concept work.

“One of the cool things is they really surprise themselves,” Robinson added. “A lot of our students are really challenge adverse and anything that is new an unfamiliar their reflex is to not do it, but you put the racquet in their hand and tell them to just give it a shot. They give it a go and their whole perspective changes and they realise they can do this.

“A lot of our students have had so much done for them their whole lives and this is something they can do for themselves on their own and they get a real satisfaction of achieving something on their own.”

The idea came about through Johnston, who has experience working with special needs kids, and can adapt her coaching to fit the needs of her students.

The pilot program was run in term four 2020 and it was funded by Grassroots Trust while the programs in 2021 were made possible thanks to Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa funding. The program did not happen in terms three and four due to Covid-19 but Counties Tennis is hoping to restart it and expand it in term one 2022.

Johnston and her fellow coaches run basic drills, designed to get the students moving, using hand-eye skills, balance, and communication skills.

She calls each student by their name and gives them instructions on the run, all making their minds and bodies work.

“When the opportunity arose to do some coaching with them, I jumped at the chance,” Johnston said. “I really wanted to get these kids on the court and rackets in their hands to get some exercise, try some sport and have some fun with ball games.

“Tennis is perfect being one on one and also a team sport. I thoroughly believe that sport should be an integral part of their curriculum and life as it teaches so many different practical life skills. It’s great to see these guys encouraging one another, enjoying the experience and challenging themselves with something different whether in the physical, communication or social realm.

 “I really love working with these kids/young adults. Despite facing a myriad of difficult and different challenges in their lives they turn up each week excited and eager to learn. They always give their best effort, and the reward is seeing the smile on their faces and joy lit up in their eyes as they achieve what I’ve asked them to do. We have so much fun. It’s just fabulous to see them out there.

“I am looking forward to the New Year and the exciting next step of expanding the program not just into the primary schools but also into the satellite classes in the local Intermediate and High School as well. We want to be able to continue to offer an adaptive tennis program that’s suitable and fun for students of every age and ability to experience the enjoyment and benefits of sport in their lives.”