{"id":9948,"date":"2026-10-29T13:04:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T13:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/?p=9948"},"modified":"2026-10-29T14:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:44:13","slug":"wheelchair-tennis-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wheelchair-tennis-sessions\/","title":{"rendered":"Wheelchair tennis sessions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wheelchair Tennis is challenging, fun, and addictive whatever your level. At the University of Kent, we proudly offer weekly Wheelchair Tennis sessions for all members of the community. Whether you\u2019ve not used a sports wheelchair before, have played some wheelchair tennis and want to level up your game, or any level of experience in between, these sessions are perfect for you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Session schedule and format<\/h3>\n<p>Wheelchair Tennis sessions will run on the following schedule within the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/maps\/canterbury\/canterbury-campus\/building\/sports-pavilion\/\">Indoor Tennis and Events Arena at the University of Kent Sports Pavilion<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mondays 12pm to 1pm, and 1pm to 2pm<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We will have two courts running in each session; one for developing skills and gameplay, and one for those who are ready for more of a challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Our sessions will follow a similar format split into four sections:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Chair skills<\/li>\n<li>Chair and ball skills<\/li>\n<li>Chair and racquet skills<\/li>\n<li>Scoring\/playing the game<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Throughout the session, we check on your progress and see if we need to change the difficulty level as your confidence increases or indeed if we need to make activities more achievable at any time.<\/p>\n<h3>Pricing and booking<\/h3>\n<p>You will need a minimum of Kent Sport Pay to Play membership to join the Wheelchair Tennis sessions. This is a free membership and is provided automatically when you create an online account.<\/p>\n<p>Sessions are just \u00a35 per hour (thanks to some very generous support from Kent LTA) and you can book for up to two hours each day. You can<strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/clubspark.lta.org.uk\/UniversityofKent\/WheelchairCoaching\">book Wheelchair Tennis sessions through our LTA ClubSpark booking portal<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>You can call the reception staff on 01227 823 623 or email Lead Coach Nick Skelton with any questions <strong><a href=\"mailto:N.Skelton@kent.ac.uk\">N.Skelton@kent.ac.uk<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Session support<\/h3>\n<p>We hope to have our local role models Ruben Harris and\/or Ellen Tribley attend most sessions to inspire you to see what is possible if you stick with tennis. Ruben and Ellen play international tournaments and whilst we would love to help you achieve this level, we are starting out with the hope that you will firstly enjoy being in the sports chair (we have plenty you can use), then find the real love of tennis that is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Becoming more physically active<\/li>\n<li>Stimulating mental health from problem solving, confidence, dealing with disappointments, perseverance, respect, and too many more to list!<\/li>\n<li>Joining an inclusive community<\/li>\n<li>Making new friends<\/li>\n<li>Learning new skills<\/li>\n<li>Competing at your level<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3>Access<\/h3>\n<p>There are accessible parking spaces close to the Sports Pavilion and Kent Indoor Tennis and Events Arena, accessible entrance doors and turnstiles, and accessible changing and shower facilities within the Sports Pavilion and Indoor Tennis and Events Arena.<\/p>\n<p>Please visit our <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/sports\/accessible-inclusive\">Accessible and Inclusive webpage<\/a><\/strong> for more information about sport and fitness opportunities for everyone at the University of Kent.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;As one of the tennis coaches at the University, I can relate my experience of being totally new to the chair but quite experienced at tennis. To be honest at first I felt a bit silly and self conscious because I was really struggling to even move the chair and master basic movements like turning and reacting to an incoming ball &#8211; never mind learning to hold a racquet at the same time! Now I have been practicing quite a lot and I feel a lot more confident and I can play the game &#8211; even if it\u2019s still quite basic and inconsistent, I\u2019ll keep practicing to improve! To get to my current level of confidence, I started with simply chair movements: setting off, turning, stopping, and changing direction. As I gained confidence, I added a ball and did some throwing and catching against a wall or with a partner and spent a lot of time missing the ball in truth! I kept at it and started to catch the ball more often and felt confident enough to add the racquet. Again, initially my confidence went backwards a bit and I focused again on just moving the chair while holding a racquet then moving on to hitting the ball against a wall or with a partner. Now, each time I get into the chair I follow that same process: get used to moving it whilst warming up, start throwing and catching whilst moving, then add the racquet, then to play some games\/practices.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nick Skelton, Kent Sport Tennis Lead Coach<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wheelchair Tennis is challenging, fun, and addictive whatever your level. At the University of Kent, we proudly offer weekly Wheelchair Tennis sessions for all members &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wheelchair-tennis-sessions\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64307,"featured_media":9960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[240683],"class_list":["post-9948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-wheelchair-tennis"],"sub_title":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9948"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9963,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9948\/revisions\/9963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}