Deaf Tennis

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Deaf Tennis

junior · Intermediate Club Player

I really find deaf tennis interesting, did some work on it a few years ago on a coaching course, so many questions: technically could they not play standard tennis as hearing is not as fundamental as vision? , but would this then not give them an unfair advantage, if such things like the blue clay were brought back, as tennis gets progressively slower and balls get bigger and more colourful to see anyway?

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

There are a fair few deaf club players around playing standard tennis. As the ones I have come across have been deaf from birth, it is hard for them to gauge what benefits they would get on a tennis court if they were able to hear - apart from score calls, umpiring decisions etc. For myself, I think hearing the noise as your opponent hits the ball feeds into your subconscious and supplements sight in that split second when you decide what ball you are going to get. But deafness doesn't seem to hamper the players that I have met. And wasn't there a young Korean player who did very well on the junior circuit?

junior · Intermediate Club Player

I thought that I remembered hearing that losing one of the senses developed the others to near superhuman level? If so, even though losing sound it would improve vision, reaction and perception to an advanced level? Would this not be a potential "benefit"?

Not sure it's ever a question of deciding what ball one is going to get? Will be whatever ball the opponent gives you and how you decide to handle it no?

-- Edited by junior on Thursday 4th of February 2021 06:46:36 PM

Elegant Point · Satellite level

Fascinating, deaf people, can re-wire their brains, so that the area used for processing sound is used to process touch and vision - modal neuroplasticiity.

How deafness affects your tennis is quite thought provoking and something that would be interesting to test, by wearing ear plugs and head phones and seeing how you play.......

Studies have shown that humans react more quickly to an auditory stimulus than a visual one. According to research compiled by the National Institutes of Health last year, the mean reaction time to visual stimuli is 180-200 milliseconds, and 140-160 milliseconds for auditory stimuli.

Todd Perry, an Australian former doubles player who works as a coach, said that he often listens to his players shots to hear how strokes can be improved. Martina Navratilova has been one of the most vehement proclaimers of the importance of sound in the game. She has called excessive grunting cheating because she thinks it unfairly disguises the sound of the ball off the racket.

Lee Duck-hee a deaf player made ATP history when he won a match. Lee has adapted and anticipation has become a strength. Woo, his cousin and coach, said Lee could read what kind of shot his opponent will make by closely watching his backswing. Christopher Rungkat, a former opponent of Lees, expressed awe at his anticipation.

www.nytimes.com/2016/11/22/sports/tennis/deaf-player-lee-duck-hee-south-korea.html

junior · Intermediate Club Player

This is what the academics should study, but it risks their position too much, 25 years in tennis and I'm not sure I've ever met a single deaf player (partial or full, social or performance), I've seen blind and wheelchair/disabled players. Is there a bias towards it? Or would deaf people shy away from tennis? As too difficult or not wanting to disturb a group or feel like they have to "force" a coach or group to adapt for them? I would imagine coaching would be quite similar to coaching someone who doesn't speak the same language as you, signs and examples.

I once heard that in about 2010 Federer changed his ball toss that now he hits all three serves from the same ball toss, this was due to Novak, Andy etc got so good at reading his ball placement to know which serve he would hit to be ready to return it. It's similar but obviously different than a blind person reading backswings and perhaps seeing angle of contact and direction of racquet head before during and after a shot to better anticipate it

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

junior wrote:
This is what the academics should study, but it risks their position too much, 25 years in tennis and I'm not sure I've ever met a single deaf player (partial or full, social or performance), I've seen blind and wheelchair/disabled players. Is there a bias towards it? Or would deaf people shy away from tennis? As too difficult or not wanting to disturb a group or feel like they have to "force" a coach or group to adapt for them? I would imagine coaching would be quite similar to coaching someone who doesn't speak the same language as you, signs and examples.

I once heard that in about 2010 Federer changed his ball toss that now he hits all three serves from the same ball toss, this was due to Novak, Andy etc got so good at reading his ball placement to know which serve he would hit to be ready to return it. It's similar but obviously different than a blind person reading backswings and perhaps seeing angle of contact and direction of racquet head before during and after a shot to better anticipate it

Its off the point but I had no thought a blind person could play tennis? Is that true? Kudos to them if so as Id never imagined it could be possible. Is it like blind football, presumably a bell in the ball. Although the balls dont last long so presumably costly to play and logistically as well as technically challenging?

junior · Intermediate Club Player

We tried it once, it was a lot of fun but also the single most difficult thing I've done on a tennis court in my life. Makes returning 160mph serves seem like a dawdle. Bear in mind we we're the coaching team from the best tennis academy in the world, all of us ranging from international level players to top ATP, using blindfolds we could partially see through and it was the most simple of the tasks, we successfully made a correct shot about 1 in 100 times. Makes you think

indiana · Tennis legend

The Optimist wrote:
There are a fair few deaf club players around playing standard tennis. As the ones I have come across have been deaf from birth, it is hard for them to gauge what benefits they would get on a tennis court if they were able to hear - apart from score calls, umpiring decisions etc. For myself, I think hearing the noise as your opponent hits the ball feeds into your subconscious and supplements sight in that split second when you decide what ball you are going to get. But deafness doesn't seem to hamper the players that I have met. And wasn't there a young Korean player who did very well on the junior circuit?

Lee Duck-hee, junior CH 3, ATP CH 282, as further referenced by Elegant Point.

Elegant Point · Satellite level

junior wrote:
This is what the academics should study, but it risks their position too much, 25 years in tennis and I'm not sure I've ever met a single deaf player (partial or full, social or performance), I've seen blind and wheelchair/disabled players. Is there a bias towards it? Or would deaf people shy away from tennis? As too difficult or not wanting to disturb a group or feel like they have to "force" a coach or group to adapt for them? I would imagine coaching would be quite similar to coaching someone who doesn't speak the same language as you, signs and examples.

I once heard that in about 2010 Federer changed his ball toss that now he hits all three serves from the same ball toss, this was due to Novak, Andy etc got so good at reading his ball placement to know which serve he would hit to be ready to return it. It's similar but obviously different than a blind person reading backswings and perhaps seeing angle of contact and direction of racquet head before during and after a shot to better anticipate it

How deafness affects ones ability to play tennis would make for an interesting a PhD thesis - maybe funded by the LTA??

How does a blind person see the angle of contact? I can understand that could be a strength in a deaf persons game...

junior · Intermediate Club Player

Spidey sense obviously

Elegant Point · Satellite level

junior wrote:
Spidey sense obviously

I personally study a PhD in sport, I read many journals.....

-

Is that the basis of your thesis?

Although there is an article in SA on Superpowers for the blind and deaf, there is no mention of Spidey sense - your work will be truely novel; perhaps you will share the comments from the peer review?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/superpowers-for-the-blind-and-deaf/

junior · Intermediate Club Player

Alas, unfortunately not Elegant point.

My thesis is on variables in motor learning, when serving for example. My poor phone sometimes becomes confused what language it is typing in and that with the predictive text and my general laziness when typing seems to have mistaken blind for deaf in the original comment, welk spotted. Obviously slice groundstrokes are easy to spot but perhaps angle and trajectory of the racquet on flat vs spin shots? however to differentiate on the serve if it is well hidden like Federer for example it's unclear to say if a deaf person with heightened visual abilities would be able to read the serve any better and be on the return quicker, like you say, very interesting topic, should definitely be studied more

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

On a practical note, apart from the LTA link I posted which is old, are there any tournaments in deaf (or blind) tennis and (putting aside Mr Lee from Korea) are there any British players in either that anyone should be aware of?

When I was growing up and playing juniors, in Yorkshire, I recall playing a guy called Harrison (Mark, Matthew?) who was deaf and played county juniors. Spanked me. He would be around mid 50's now I would guess, no idea where his tennis got to after learning very little from playing me!

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Prior to the pandemic there was an annual World Deaf Tennis Championship in which we have always entered a team but I am not sure what sort of results we have had