THE INCLUSIVENESS OF WHEELCHAIR TENNIS: A PILOT STUDY

Wheelchair tennis is a Paralympic discipline very similar, from a regulatory and technical-tactical point of view, to the game of tennis, but the ball can bounce twice on the court before being hit with the racket. The regulation provides for the possibility of competing in singles and doubles competitions and tournaments with the Open categories, divided between male and female tournaments, and the Quad in which men and women can participate together. The pilot study, aimed at inclusiveness, was carried out by monitoring the performance of wheelchair tennis athletes between the ages of 14 and 16. The champion consisted of four male wheelchair tennis athletes and four partners, three males and one female. The study lasted about four months from the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year and the goal of inclusion through sport was pursued, monitoring the level of collaboration and peer tutoring within the school community. The sample carried out athletic and technical tests with shots without and with the racket, the results of which showed that, at the end of the research path, the improvements related to the coordination and conditional skills were related to the increase in accuracy in the score of about 4% for wheelchair tennis athletes and about 9% for partners with a total average of about 6-7%.