Nana – 18 months later

Nana is a special needs tennis student that I have been teaching for 18 months now.  His progress continues to amaze.  Last Sunday, in our weekly lesson Nana started pronating his wrist on his overheads and serve. The result was immediate power and consistency.  This combined with his ground strokes, short game and volleys and suddenly he’s much closer to actually competing in tennis.  To compete, he’ll need to make line calls on this side of the net and we haven’t addressed that yet. He’s a mostly non-verbal autistic but he always says “hi” and “bye” to me and he tells me to “have a good week Russell.”  My approach is to play simple games where we keep score to get us closer to our goal.

For Christmas, Nana with the help of his younger brother Quarby, wrote me a letter expressing his gratitude. It’s a precious letter that I have framed and hung in my office. It was the best present ever and it’s a source of inspiration to me as well as a reminder to focus on the important things in life.

Nana and I hit at Downingtown East High School weather permitting and November through April we are at Tennis Addiction in Exton.  Thank you so much to the owners and pros at Tennis Addiction for letting us use their teaching aids and facilities.  A few of the pros there have been exceptionally kind and helpful with Nana.  Nana’s enthusiasm and effort are the keys to his progress. This applies to so much more than tennis and it demonstrates that tnnis is replete with “life lessons.”  We still have a way to go but I am as confident he’ll eventually play tennis or at least we’ll come up with a solution that enables him to play. Please reach out to me with questions or comments. Check out our Instagram at russell.tennis. Here’s a link to a clip from one of our lessons.

Nana’s progress in spectacular.  From his inability to hit the ball to having 50 shot groundstroke baseline rallies is impressive.  I want to spread the word and share with the best practices we have developed.  I have heard so many comments like, “is that the same student you were working with last year?”  and “I can’t believe his progress!”  Also, his father has shared that his confidence is growing in areas outside of tennis.  Nana’s progress and skills at tennis are proof that he’s capable of anything if given the opportunity. Nana has demonstrated a consistently positive attitude and he’s always willing to learn and try new things.  It has been a wonderful journey for his family and me. I am certain that we can unlock vast hidden abilities in others too.