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Technical Manual
This manual was designed for one sole reason, a place to quickly access information on our
beloved sport of blind and visually impaired tennis.
When Simon McFarland, one of our Executive Committee members, was first approached by an organization in Ireland to
start Blind Tennis, he accepted with open arms the challenge but he could not find any literature easily accessible online.
He had no idea of the ball needed, the court sizes, etc. Many people said to him only the coaches need to know all this
information but he felt that it is important for all the coaches, players, volunteers and even family members should have
access to this starting information and for players who might not have a history in tennis to get to know the basic
techniques.
Hopefully this manual will be a starting point for many new players, coaches and volunteers in their journey into the
sport. Teaching tennis to blind and partially sighted players has substantially changed Simon’s life and his players’ lives.
We hope you find this introductory manual helpful and Simon and the rest of the IBTA Executive Committee are always
free to answer any questions you might have. Do not hesitate to ask! We, as coaches and players, all need to work
together to achieve our goals for the sport and for the individuals involved. Coaches, we ask you to open your minds,
come up with new adaptive techniques and tactics and share your best practice with us all.
The IBTA would like to thank all the previous contributions from international coaches and committees including Ayako Matsui who’s one of IBTA’s special advisers. Ayako is a teacher for special needs education and a short tennis certified coach from Japan.Please feel free to send your feedback about the technical manual to:
technical@