Tennis for the blind

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Blind tennis is a sport for blind and visually impaired athletes.

history

In 1984, the blind Japanese student Miyoshi Takei (1968-2011), who attended a school for the blind in Kawagoe , began to develop a form of tennis for the blind. In 1990, the first blind tennis tournament was organized in Japan. Takei himself has been the Japanese champion in this discipline 17 times in 21 years.

From 2005 the sport spread increasingly globally, and in 2014 the International Blind Tennis Association (IBTA) was founded. In September 2015, the second IBTA congress took place in Italy , at which an executive committee was formed, which is responsible for the organization, coordination and further dissemination of the sport. The aim is also to have blind tennis included in the program of the Paralympic Games . The first international tournament was held in 2017. In 2019, blind tennis was played in more than 30 countries on five continents.

In Germany, a first workshop was offered in 2016 on the initiative of sports scientist Niklas Höfken, speaker for inclusion and parasport in the German Tennis Federation (DTB), in cooperation with the German Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (DBSV) and with the support of the Gold Kraemer Foundation . Two blind tennis players from England were guests at this workshop to pass on their experiences. It has taken place annually since then. Blind tennis has been an official discipline in the German Tennis Federation since the beginning of 2018 . In the same year the first German championships were held in Löhne . There is now a German ranking list that players can use to qualify for international tournaments. In April 2019 there were eight locations for blind tennis nationwide, including in Löhne, Hamburg , Rostock , Berlin , Cologne and Frankfurt am Main .

Rules and material

In blind tennis, blind, visually impaired and sighted players can compete against each other. The space is shortened, the markings have been taped off and felt. The game is played with shortened clubs and soft balls. Inside the foam balls is a hollowed golf ball filled with rattling metal pins; this ball was developed by Takei in many experiments. With blind players, the ball may bounce three times in their own field before it has to be returned, with highly visually impaired players twice and with visually impaired and sighted players it must be hit over the net again after the first contact with the ground, as in regular tennis. It is important for the players to communicate in words before the rally begins.

The athletes are classified at championships. The players in class B1 are completely blind and play with dark glasses. There is a range between two and ten percent residual vision between classes B 2 and B 4. All players are classified by an ophthalmologist before starting a championship and assigned to a starting class.

Certificates for tournaments or championships are underlaid with characters in Braille .

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Blind tennis - history. In: German Tennis Association. Retrieved June 8, 2019 .
  2. ^ Miyoshi Takei - Blind Tennis History. In: matsui-tennis.wixsite.com. January 2, 2015, accessed June 9, 2019 (Japanese).
  3. ↑ Takei died in 2011 when he fell off the platform at a train station on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo and was run over by a train. See [1]
  4. ↑ Blind Tennis Is Going From Strength to Strength Despite the Death of its Creator. In: vice.com. April 10, 2015, accessed June 9, 2019 .
  5. ↑ In Memoriam: Miyoshi Takei, 1968-2011 - 社会 を 変 え よ う - 社会 起 業 家 入門. In: socialenterprise.jp. January 16, 2011, accessed June 9, 2019 .
  6. ^ International Blind Tennis Association. In: ibta-takei.com. March 11, 2017, accessed June 7, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b Volker Düster: Blind to success: Katharina and Michael want to become German champions in blind tennis. In: rheinische-verbindungenblaetter.de. April 12, 2019, accessed June 7, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b c 1. Open North German Championships in Blind Tennis. In: tnb-tennis.de. February 25, 2019, accessed June 8, 2019 .