A HOLYWOOD woman who is completely blind has spoken of finding new meaning in her life thanks to the game of tennis.
Lisa McLaughlin took up visually impaired (VI) tennis six years ago and is already 11th in the world for the sport.
She has just returned from the Visually Impaired (VI) Tennis World Championships in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy, where she reached the quarter finals.
She and her opponent now also hold the world record for the longest tie-break.
Encouraging other partially-sighted and blind people to take up the sport, Lisa admits she was ‘pretty down and bored sitting in the house’ following her diagnosis of retinopathy of prematurity.
However, with a friend’s encouragement she gave VI tennis a tentative go six years ago.
Said Lisa: “It sounded ridiculous in my head, ‘how does a blind or visually impaired person play blind tennis’? So, I decided to come along to the taster sessions, and from then on I fell in love with the sport.”
Vl tennis has a number of differences to normal tennis to make it easier for visually impaired of blind players to succeed.
These include a larger, softer ball with ball bearings inside that makes a noise when it bounces’ a smaller court and lower net; shorter rackets and tactile lines to help players navigate.
Lisa’s love of tennis has led to her to representing her country and the achievement of getting to the World VI tennis Championship’s is not lost on her.
She said: “To go out and represent my country and to have the Team Ireland jersey on my back was a feeling that I honestly can’t put into words; and the fact that I actually made it through to the quarter finals was a big achievement for me.”
Lisa has found that sport has a way of reducing barriers through the common language of competition and shared experience, and for her, the championships were as much about the people she met, as they were about the competition.
She continued: “It was great just to meet other team players from all around the world, to hear their story and find out how they’d come to visually impaired and blind tennis and to know that I’m not alone here.
“I’ve got other team players who have come from the same background, and are in love with the sport as much as I am.”
Lisa says her involvement in sport has been great for her mental health and would encourage other visually impaired people to get involved.
“Not only will it build your confidence”, she explained, “but it will get you out of the house. It will get you socialising with other people who are like yourself, and it will build your fitness levels.
“But I would definitely encourage, if you’re afraid and you’ve never played tennis before, don’t worry, we’re a very welcoming and friendly bunch here.”.
Lisa’s coach Simon McFarland, who is also the head coach for Ireland Blind and VI Tennis, is convinced of the benefits of the sport.
He said: “There are massive benefits of blind and visually impaired tennis. A lot of the players, especially the completely blind ones, haven’t had much chance to play sports if they’ve been blind from birth or develop blindness.
“But also, for the visually impaired guys who’ve gradually lost their sight, it gets them back in this sport if they’ve had to quit sport because of their loss of sight.”
For more information, or to get involved in VI tennis, or any other sport or activity for blind and partially sighted people, contact olive.rodgers@rnib.org.uk from the RNIB NI Community Connection team.
