First inclusive tennis camp at TSG 78

From September 4 to 8, 2023, the first inclusive tennis camp took place at TSG 78 Heidelberg (https://www.tsg78-hd.de).

One tennis court was made available by the TSG 78 tennis department for the entire week from Monday, September 4 to Friday, September 8 from 9 am to 4 pm.

Five young people with disabilities aged between 14 and 18 took part. Together with Dr. Frank Kischkel as coach and his daughter Evi Kischkel as co-coach, as well as alternating helping hands from parents, the youngsters spent the whole week working intensively on their tennis skills in glorious sunshine. Of course, there was also plenty of fun to be had and the motivated participants were allowed to go to the nearby Tiergarten swimming pool after training to cool off.

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The aim was to get the youngsters interested in tennis as a sport. 

In order to reduce the complexity of the sport and enable as many experiences of success as possible, we worked exclusively in the area of the service courts. This allowed the participants to concentrate better on the movement sequences. The movements were also minimized to the point of impact, so that forehand, backhand, volley, overhead ball and a serve from below were successfully learned throughout the week.

On Friday, the last day, there were final tasks in which the youngsters had to successfully apply what they had learned. If they were successful, they could collect stars, which they were allowed to stick on their certificates at the end. And a lot of stars were collected... :-)

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To sum up, it was a great week and the best compliment came from the parents, who noted that the children were keen to continue and had also matured as individuals during the week.

Many thanks again to the board of the tennis department for providing the fantastic facilities. Thanks also to the participants: Cormac, Georg, Jule, Julia and Leni. Our tennis court no. 4 became our home for the week.

(Created by Dr. Frank Kischkel)