Tim Chesnutt (Laramie WY) recently attend a USTA Wheelchair Tennis Camp in Salt Lake City, UT. The Utah Tennis Association Wheelchair Tennis Committee was pleased to run their 2nd Annual “All Comers Wheelchair Tennis Camp” February 28 – March 3. Twenty-one players from across the country travelled to Salt Lake City for 4 days of incredible instruction by Dan James (USTA National Wheelchair Tennis Coach and Manger), Rick Draney (2012 USTA Brad Parks National Award Winner), David Wagner (Currently #1 in the world, 3 time Quad Paralympic Gold Medalist), Jason Harnett (USTA Quad Head Coach) and Lindsay Rawstorne (Director of Tennis Ivory Ridge Tennis & Swim Club). WOW!
The participants worked on mobility, strategy, stroke production, doubles movement and injury prevention. Each day, the players spent 5-7 hours on the court training with the pros. The players in the camp also spent an evening out in Salt Lake visiting the “Mummies of the World” exhibit at the Leonardo Museum.
Utah Tennis Association Executive Director Laurie Lambert spoke about the camp, “The camaraderie among the players and their incredibly cheerful attitudes make this camp a complete joy to host. We hope more players and coaches looking to learn how to teach wheelchair tennis come to join us next year.”
What did Tim think? “I can’t thank you enough for the opportunity to attend this tennis clinic in Utah. I had a fantastic time and learned a lot and made some great new contacts. I really learned a lot and was able to get to the ball and hit it for the first time. Met some great folks and was mingling around after lunch and met a guy from Colorado who said he is going to get a sport chair up here for us to use in WY -- Woohoo!!!!!!”
Sounds like Tim had a good time. Now for the rest of the story ……… Tim had a flat tire on the way out to SLC on Friday and then on his return his car overheated. Tim drove ~ 800 miles round trip to attend this training and he had a FANTASTIC time!
The USTA WY District received a $1,500 Wheelchair Grant from the USTA National Office and match some of this funding with our Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) funding to make this trip and training possible for Tim. Now – we need to get more players involved. We will be having a wheelchair tennis clinic this summer at the UWYO Indoor Tennis Complex. Laurie – we will be back in 2014 thanks for an awesome event! This story is to be continued …..