A Killaloe tennis coach has served up an ace by setting up Blind Tennis in Finland for the first time before managing a team that won two bronze medals at the World Blind Tennis Championships. Tennis is the fastest growing sport for visually impaired people in Ireland, which has up to 160 active competitive and social participants from zero a few years ago.
Coaching sighted tennis for 15 years, Wesley O’Brien has been involved in teaching blind tennis for the last seven years. The Killaloe coach decided to impart his skills in a country where blind tennis was never played previously. In January 2022, he contacted the Chief Executive Officer of Tennis Finland, Teemu Purho and asked if the association would be interested in a new blind tennis programme he could bring to the country.
A zoom meeting was set up between Mr O’Brien, the CEO of Tennis Finland and a representative from the International Blind Tennis Association. Having received the backing of Tennis Finland, Mr O’Brien contacted a visually impaired sports organisation in Helsinki and a club.
The initiative was put on the back burner for about 18 months until last April when Mr O’Brien contacted all the interested parties who committed to starting it last month.
On September 20 last, he travelled to Finland to set up Blind Tennis in the country during a three-day trip. The following day he took ten or 12 coaches and volunteers and showed them how to coach Blind Tennis.
This included setting up a proper structured programme with drills and excercises because Blind and Visually Impaired Tennis is very different to sighted tennis.
“Later that evening, I welcomed 14 Finish tennis players who were completely blind and were trying tennis for the first time. The coaches implemented everything I had shown them for another 90-minute coaching session. It was a very successful coaching session,” he said.
“On Sunday, I took 27 visually impaired players who loved tennis after trying it out with their coaches. We had about 41 people who tried out tennis. Blind Tennis was never played in Finland before. I tried a few other countries but they were not as open as Finland.
“I was very pleased with how open they were about embracing this new sport in Finland. The players that came really enjoyed it. I will stay in continuous contact and help them as much as I can.
“The goal is that Finland joins the Interational Blind Tennis Association through Tennis Finland or a visually impaired sports club. There were two very enthusiastic coaches that will implement Blind Tennis in their own club. Hopefully, it will grown all over Finland because I think the interest is there.
“I told the tennis players they were making history because no one has played blind tennis previously in Finland. I said at some stage in their lives they were told they couldn’t do various things but they had now achieved something they never thought they could achieve by playing tennis.
“I have seen how Blind Tennis can change a blind person’s perspective and their mental health.”
One of the Finish tennis coaches has pledged to apply for an EU grant to help fund the cost of coaching blind tennis throughout the country. Mr O’Brien is prepared to return to Finland and provide more intensive coaching for the coaches as part of his support for this EU grant application.
He has suggested Tennis Finland should use the logo “Blind Tennis Finland making the impossible possible”.
In addition to Tennis Finland, this project is being supported by ASD Sport, a visually impaired sports club and the biggest club in the country.
Two weeks ago, Mr O’Brien flew from Helsinki to Venice to fulfill his role as team manager for the Ireland Blind Tennis team at the World Blind championships, which were held from September 23 to 29.
Eight players represented Ireland in this series including three who are blind.
These players include Stuart Haxell from Sligo, Paul O’ Rahilly from Naas, Lisa Mclaughlin from Belfast, Vincent Keane from Waterford, Babs Weiberg from Dundalk, Marguerite Quinn from Limerick, John Barry Connolly from Cork and Riya Devereux from Dublin.
Riya Devereux (18) won two bronze medals one in the singles and one in the doubles in the B4 highest sighted category. Babs Weiberg was awarded the most valuable female player of the world championships.
Mr O’Brien was delighted with the success, notwithstanding the primary aim of Blind Tennis is to give blind people a social outlet and a sport they can enjoy.
Over the last two years, the Irish team has enjoyed great media exposure featuring on Ireland AM and national radio.
On September 13, Mr O’Brien travelled to Government Buildings where he presented An Taoiseach Simon Harris with a signed Ireland shirt from the Blind Tennis team.
Stuart Haxell brought a tennis ball from his club, Sligo Tennis Club, and explained how athletes at B1 level play and some of the rules around the game.
Marguerite Quinn shared a story with An Taoiseach about how grateful she was to find tennis after an illness left her visually impaired.
“Not many teams at the world championships got a chance to meet their own Prime Minister,” he said.
“We were honoured to meet and be wished good luck from Simon Harris who spent 30 minutes chatting with the Irish team players.
“It was a great boost for the Irish players who have put in a huge amount of work. They have all experienced their own mental health issues because becoming visually impaired late in life is not easy.”
In 2023, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar sent a video message to the Irish team.
A lot of coaching for visually impaired tennis can be taught like sighted tennis with some adaptations.
However, for B1 players who are totally blind, Mr O’Brien stressed he has to adopt a completely different coaching method. The ball can bounce three times for blind tennis players.
“First you have to build up their listening skills. They have to learn how to listen to and focus on the ball. It is much harder for a blind person to focus on the sound of a bouncing ball if there are other noises in the background,” he said.
“At the start, I toss a tennis ball to the player and tell me that was to my right, left or to my centre.
“Then you throw two balls and ask them was the second ball closer or further away from the first ball. I would toss the ball in the air, and after the third bounce ask them to stand where the first ball hit the ground. I would do the same for the second and third bounce.
“After that, it is a case of getting them to track the ball, move and find it. If they have limited mobility, they can use their foot or hand to touch the ball. A B1 player is not going to play a match any time soon. It is all about listening and tracking. It could take up to a year for a person who was blind from birth to play a match.”
While Mr O’Brien never received any formal training to coach blind tennis he learned how to teach it during observation, which started out at the Shanakill Club in Dublin in 2017.
“Every coach will do things a bit differently. The ultimate goal is to get a blind player to move to the ball and catch or hit the ball. I like to build up the listening skills first and then teach them to move to the ball,” he said.
“I tell blind players the first bounce is to help them locate where it is, the second bounce is to move in that direction, and the third one is where you need to hit the ball.
East Clare correspondent, Dan Danaher is a journalism graduate of Rathmines and UL. He has won numerous awards for special investigations on health, justice, environment, and reports on news, agriculture, disability, mental health and community.