“When you say ‘tennis for everybody,’ you better include everybody,” said Gabby Hesse, head of wheelchair and adaptive tennis at JTCC. JTCC’s commitment to adaptive tennis began in 2018. It accelerated in 2021, when JTCC began to work even more to build partnerships, bring in recreational therapists, and expand the scope of its adaptive efforts. JTCC adaptive programs are available for wheelchair players, para standing, Special Olympics, and veterans.
Hesse first gained an affinity for wheelchair tennis while lettering at Florida Southern. One of the team’s coaches was Paul Walker, a USTA national coach for wheelchair tennis. “He’s still a wonderful mentor for me,” said Hesse, who last month had Walker run a junior camp at JTCC. “He showed me what was possible for someone in a wheelchair.”
JTCC’s teaching approach is exceptionally personal. “We want to get to know the person, the player outside of the sport, as a human being,” said Hesse. “And that’s especially critical when teaching adaptive tennis, because there is information about their disability that you need to know in order to best serve them. . .
“There’s this idea in adaptive tennis called reciprocal mentorship, where you as the tennis coach are obviously responsible for teaching the player tennis, but the player is responsible for teaching you about themselves and where they’re starting from, what their level of function is and what their goals are, and you can’t really do anything until you have that open conversation.”
