Wheelchair tennis is kind of like traditional tennis, but with wheelchairs. That sounds obvious, but the two sports are remarkably similar. The only adaptation is wheelchair players get two bounces instead of one.
“Maneuvering your chair around and taking the figure eights and stuff on the court is really what I’ve learned, how to hit the ball and don’t watch where the ball’s going,” said Joel Fini, a 46-year-old Des Moines native.
Fini is one of many utilizing the services of Adaptive Sports Iowa (ASI), an Ames-based nonprofit that organizes sports and other recreational activities for Iowans with physical and visual disabilities. Fini is paraplegic, the result of an accident in 1993 that injured his T7 spinal nerve and paralyzed his hips and legs.
He joined the ASI crew back in 2012 — a year after the organization began — when the former director of ASI introduced him to wheelchair basketball during his daughter’s basketball game. Additionally, he’s participated in other sports from pool to cycling to kayak fishing to bow hunting to skiing, and in 2022, he was named the Adaptive Sports athlete of the year.
ASI offers wheelchair basketball, sled hockey and a RAGBRAI cycling team, among others. The tennis program is only three years old, but it’s become one of the nonprofit’s most successful sports, according to Hannah Bowman.
“Tennis seemed like a really natural next step for us,” said Bowman, the director at ASI for the past five years. “You can have two participants and still have it be successful because they can play each other.”
Wheelchair tennis can still be played with standing players, and people who might not use a wheelchair everyday can use one to play.
“We have one participant who can walk just fine,” Bowman explained. “But, with her disability, has some balance issues and can’t necessarily run, [so] sitting down works better for her.”
The tennis program runs three times a year in six week increments. There are lessons June through July, September through October and January through February — in the case of the latter, the game is played indoors. Though fewer people are needed to play tennis, participation has been comparable to sports that demand more players.
“Wheelchair basketball or our sled hockey program, they’re in the six to 12 participant range, so I would say that tennis is pretty on par with those,” Bowman said. “But I would say [tennis] is more successful, just because of the fact you don’t need as many people to play.”
On the notably higher end, ASI’s RAGBRAI team has amassed roughly 85 cyclists as of March 2023 for the 50th anniversary ride.
Bowman also attributes the tennis program’s success to financial support provided by the United States Tennis Association and to the professional coach who leads the program.
Fini hadn’t tried out tennis before ASI introduced the program, but now he’s a fairly consistent player. He attends almost every practice, and his daughter often tags along.
He hopes that ASI will be able to organize tennis competitions and tournaments in the future. Fini has a strong competitive side and likes testing his skills against others. For example, he recently joined a cornhole league.
“Me and my buddy thought we were pretty good, and then we [went to] play in a bags league and we got our butt kicked,” he said.
ASI has held a few tournaments over the years, but it’s had difficulty filling out teams for consistent play, Fini said.
It’s unclear how much ASI can collaborate with similar organizations, according to Nicole Berger, the main tennis instructor at the nonprofit. But because of how accessible and adaptable tennis is, she’s optimistic for more cross pollination.
“Our number one [goal] is connecting with Davenport more, they’ve had a program much longer than we have,” Berger said.
They could potentially compete with programs in places like Sioux Falls, South Dakota or Lincoln, Nebraska, but it would be more casual and fluid.
“It would probably be a situation where we’d have their people down here and then we’d go down there,” she said.
Whether or not people are looking for a competitive angle, Fini hopes other people give Adaptive Sports a try.
“One thing I always like to say is, ‘Don’t be afraid to try,’” Fini said. “Just come out and do it, and surprisingly, it’ll be a lot of fun regardless of your ability or disability.”
ASI’s RAGBRAI Team
Months before RAGBRAI’s 50th anniversary ride, the Adaptive Sports Iowa riding team was already full.
“Our team kinda caps out at 80 people and right now we’re kinda passed that cap, so it’s gonna be a huge year,” said Hannah Bowman, the director of Adaptive Sports Iowa, an Ames-based nonprofit launched in 2011, dedicated to the education and organization of recreational opportunities for Iowans with physical disabilities.
RAGBRAI, for those unfamiliar, is short for the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. The subject of the recent documentary Shift, RAGBRAI started half a century ago when a pair of Des Moines Register reporters decided to bike across the state in search of stories. Their casual odyssey has since grown into an annual tradition drawing tens of thousands of cyclists from around the world.
“We have a really close partnership with the RAGBRAI staff,” Bowman said. “Essentially any person with a physical disability that wants to ride RAGBRAI, regardless of whether they’re from Iowa or not, they’re welcome to join our team, as long as we have the space for them.”
Adaptive Sports sponsors the riders on its team, meaning participants generally don’t have to worry about bringing equipment and being sure they’re prepared for the ride itself. Once they get rolling, Adaptive Sports has a dedicated bike mechanic, team nurse and sag vehicle. The team also makes sure participants are able to sleep indoors at accessible hotels.
According to Bowman, not only is the RAGBRAI team the most attended program Adaptive Sports offers, it also builds comradery between individuals with different disabilities. For example, Bowman noted, it’s a rare opportunity for those with visual impairments to join a team with folks of other disability demographics.
“We have one other program, baseball for visual impairment, and other than that we don’t have a ton going on,” she said. “It’s really cool being able to see them being able to interact with our other participants, which they don’t usually get to do throughout the year.”
This article was originally published in Little Village’s June 2023 issue, Rec’d.
