From the 1 to the 21 October, the Down’s Syndrome Association have been running the #Challenge21 campaign. The DSActive team set the clubs they work with a multitude of challenges all with a theme of 21 because Down’s syndrome is caused by the presence of an extra copy of chromosome 21.

Alan Elbourn coaches the DSActive tennis sessions in Swindon at Delta Tennis Club and has kindly written a guest blog for us. They all took on some of the DSActive challenges at a recent session. A special mention goes to Lane who took part in the Tennis Foundation’s Learning Disability Regional Tournament. Over to you Alan…

Challenge No 1 – 21 passes on the floor

All the players were more than capable of doing this and they were encouraged to count aloud so that the coach adjudicator (me) could check that they were no cheating! Everyone did a
splendid job of this, so it was onto the next challenge.

Challenge No 2 – 21 bounces on your racket

The first one to try was Milo and once he found the rhythm there was no stopping him. He did them unaided and without any restarts. Next up was Sam who after a few dummy runs found his stride and qualified easily. Charlie was the next to try and again after few false starts was soon in the swing and did it unaided. Robert followed and being our most recent member he did this with no problem at all. Lastly, Andrew stepped up to the plate and with a little help from the coach got to 21.

Challenge No 3 – 21 shot rally over the net

This was supposed to be the hardest but a surprised coach looked on in awe as they all got to 21 and in some cases much more. Andrew was a revelation in this task and gets a special mention for doing so well.

Lane’s tournament success

Lane is not a player to be trifled with; when it comes to tennis tournaments you play him at your peril. Again for the umpteenth time, he came back with medals, a gold in the singles and a silver in the doubles. Like his idol Roger Federer he continues to play at a higher level and more consistently than his adversaries. His court movement and anticipation skills have improved enormously and he has always given 100% in his work and always strives to do better.

A huge well done to Lane and all his friends at the tennis session for getting involved in #Challenge21. Want to find out what members of the DSActive team got up to for Challenge 21, check out last week’s blog.

To find a DSActive tennis session near you click here or email the DSActive team.