Tennis, Anyone? Program Through Spokane Parks And Recreation Opens Up The Sport To Wheelchair Athletes

Kyle Volkmann drops to his knees. He looks up at Todd Sander and Kelly Ryan and offers a couple of tips.

When he’s teaching tennis to wheelchair athletes, Volkmann makes sure he’s on equal ground with his players.

“I want them to understand the movement,” said Volkmann, who instructed a group each Tuesday night this summer at Mission Park. “I want them to get a visual image. They can see what it looks like and it puts me in a fixed position.”

Volkmann, 45, who lives in the Spokane Valley, says he kneels because it’s the closest he can get without actually bringing a chair onto the court.

About nine men were in Volkmann’s class, which had its final lesson this week. The players also had lessons Thursday nights with teacher John Valencia.

This was the seventh year of the program run by the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department. Players paid $23 for six weeks of lessons.

Alice Busch, the Parks Department’s recreation supervisor for specialized recreation, said tennis is a sport disabled athletes can play with their able-bodied friends.

Sander, 19, who has spinabifida, eventually hopes to hit with an able-bodied opponent.

Volkmann believes it’s possible.

“The hardest thing is pushing off after a ball,” the coach said. “You have to make an adjustment of speed.”

Timing can be a problem, too.

“They have to learn to get up and over and in front of their legs, bending at the waist,” Volkmann said.

Many wheelchair players use longer rackets to add a little extra reach. Longer versions are a hot item in tennis this year.

There aren’t a lot of net rushers in the wheelchair game, Volkmann said.

But boy can they lob. Their accuracy on passing shots is impressive, too.

And most have mastered the high ball. Players get two bounces in wheelchair tennis.

“There’s no difference,” Volkmann said. “Each person has certain things they prefer to do, certain tendencies. I don’t care if you have legs or don’t have legs.”

Volkmann encourages his wheelchair players to stay away from power shots, opting instead for a soft, short slice that forces an opponent to move forward.

“Then lob over his head,” Volkmann says.

He began teaching wheelchair tennis during his college days at Central Washington University in Ellensburg. Then, Volkmann said, the chairs were big and heavy and had to be modified for tennis. The arms were removed, he said.

He taught for the Parks Department in Spokane in 1989 and had trouble getting gates unlocked back then. The gates at Mission Park can be tricky for a wheelchair athlete.

When the athletes are on the tennis courts, they don’t talk about their disabilities, Sander said. It’s just groundstrokes, overheads, serves and volleys. And a little strategy.

“It doesn’t really bother me to talk about my disability, but I try to keep it in the background and be as normal as possible,” said Sander, who attends Spokane Falls Community College.

“We’re just trying to get the basics down. We don’t play a lot of games. We just practice our shots.”

Skiing is Sander’s favorite sport, but tennis is a close second.

Volkmann’s instruction style adds to the appeal of the sport, he said.

“Whenever we’re doing any kind of shot, he actually gets down on his knees to get down to our eye level where we can make the shots,” Sander said.

Volkmann said his athletes have improved at an amazing rate. “I was awed with their progression,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with these guys except their legs don’t move.”