Nana – one year later

Nana is a 16 year old autistic with a beautiful soul and family. We met last Summer and started weekly tennis lessons soon thereafter.  We began with forehands and volleys and have progressed to learning all the strokes except serving.  Witnessing someone make such dramatic process is exciting. Participating in it is motivational. Michelangelo, in reference to David, was famously quoted as saying: “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to release it” as well as, “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set it free.”

The issue for special needs kids is that there are extremely limited resources available with the time and knowledge on how to help.  Nana has so much talent but it’s hard for him to access and control it.  You have to chip away making small, incremental gains and then weeks later, eureka, he’ll just start doing what he’s being taught.  In only about 50 hours of instruction over approximately 12 months, Nana went from barely being able to hit the ball to having 20 shot rallies the length of the court.

In terms of lessons learned, a positive and encouraging environment goes without saying. Another thing we have discovered is music.  We bring a portable USB speaker and play it as loud as we can as long as we can still hear each other.  His Mom Esbee recently asked Nana who the artist is for each song and he didn’t miss one (on the Q102 radio station).  Finally, you to need to build trust.  When someone accepts that you care for their safety and their happiness it enables them to more easily grow and learn.

I have learned a lot in terms of strategies for teaching special needs students.  Regular tennis balls work best for feeding a few feet away and decompressed balls work best for full court.  We now use a variety of decompressed balls and all are beneficial. His Dad Kirby came up with a tremendously helpful technique of demonstrating what I want him to do up close. Nana starts by counting 20 practice strokes before we begin certain exercises and that has been a game changer. We are doing this currently for teaching overheads (a completely new stroke).  If you have questions or suggestions please reach out.

One of my most favorite things is Nana talking to me.  He’s mostly non-verbal but when saying hello and goodbye he now speaks full sentences.  Nana watched parts of the French Open with his Dad. He gets excited when he’s doing well in a drill and his energy is marvelous. One of Nana’s special needs classmates has expressed interest in learning tennis but we haven’t crossed that bridge yet.  I’d like to share what we’ve been able to accomplish with others and you can see weekly pictures and reels at the Instagram account his family and I both contribute to at russell.tennis. Lastly, I’d like to thank every person that has ever been on an adjacent court to us. We spray a lot of balls and the response from everyone has been universally supportive and kind. I’m so looking forward to Nana playing tennis.