I am also eagerly waiting for the same, since I too have wanted to play tenis for a long time.
On 7/21/15, Surya Prakash <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > How long will it take to have this kind of game in India? Thanks for > posting. > > On July 21, 2015 1:55:08 AM GMT+05:30, avinash shahi > <[email protected]> wrote: >>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/science/a-game-of-tennis-tests-notions-of-blindness.html >>WATERTOWN, Mass. — Dan Guilbeault was 3 when doctors discovered a >>tumor called an optic glioma pressed against his optic nerves. He >>continued to play the sports he loved — basketball, baseball and >>football — until he lost most of his sight at 11. >> >>Now he is 19 and almost completely blind, and his favorite sport is >>tennis. >> >>When he first heard about tennis for the visually impaired, his >>reaction was “No way!” he said. “I was skeptical.” >> >>So were faculty members at the Perkins School for the Blind here, when >>a sighted student from nearby Newton proposed it nearly two years ago. >>But Perkins, known for athletic innovations like adapted fencing, >>decided to offer what are believed to be the first blind tennis >>classes in the country. >> >>Like tennis for sighted people, the game requires speedy court >>coverage and precise shot-making. Blind players rely on their ears to >>follow a foam ball filled with ball bearings that rattles when it >>bounces or is struck. >> >>“Your ears have become your eyes,” said Dr. Robert Gotlin, director of >>orthopedic and sports rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical Center in >>New York City. >> >>Photo >> >> >> >>CLASS Getting a feel of the net at Lighthouse International in a >>program by Tennis Serves, a group started by a high school student. >>Credit Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times >> >>Sejal Vallabh, a 17-year-old high school junior in Newton, encountered >>the sport during a summer internship in Tokyo and then proposed the >>program at Perkins. She set up a volunteer organization, Tennis >>Serves, which introduced the sport last year at Lighthouse >>International in New York and the California School for the Blind in >>Fremont. >> >>As blind tennis grows in the United States, where the Census Bureau >>estimates that 1.8 million people over 15 have “severe difficulty >>seeing,” it is testing popular notions of the limitations of >>blindness. >> >>“I want to show that it is possible for blind athletes to play >>tennis,” Ms. Vallabh said. No one believes it, she said, “until they >>see it for themselves.” >> >>The most important adaptation is the ball, which is larger and made of >>foam, wrapped around a plastic shell that holds the ball bearings. >> >>“It sounds like bells ringing,” said Emmanuel Ford, 10, who has >>cerebral palsy and is learning to hit tennis balls at Lighthouse. >> >> >> >> >> >>Photo >> >> >> >>FOCUS Michael Harris practices with Kiran Prasad, a Columbia student >>and coordinator for Tennis Serves. The ball is larger and made of >>foam, with ball bearings inside. Credit Béatrice de Géa for The New >>York Times >> >> >>Other adaptations include a smaller court with a badminton net lowered >>to the ground, string taped along the lines and junior rackets with >>oversize heads. Players with some sight get two bounces, the >>completely blind three. Only one set is played, and an umpire calls >>the lines. >> >>The first sound-adapted tennis ball was designed in 1984 by Miyoshi >>Takei, a blind high school student in Japan. Now, about 300 players >>compete in tournaments there; blind tennis is also played in China, >>South Korea, Taiwan, Britain and Russia. >> >>During matches, Mr. Takei, a 16-time national champion who worked as a >>massage therapist for older people, mostly hit flat, aggressive >>strokes, but lobbed the ball on defense to regain court position. >>Sometimes he lunged or dived for shots. (He died last year, at 42, >>after falling in front of a train.) >> >>His widow, Etsuko, who is also blind, said he saw the “court in his >>mind and he knew where he was standing, where the ball was flying and >>bouncing.” By listening, she said, “he could control the ball very >>well.” >> >> >> >>Advertisement >>Continue reading the main story >> >> >>Advertisement >>Continue reading the main story >>An expert on orientation and mobility for the blind, William R. >>Wiener, dean of graduate studies at the University of North Carolina, >>Greensboro, said that sound localization “is so important when blind >>people navigate the world,” and added, “Listening to the ball, >>locating where it is and swinging at it probably helps you with the >>sport and also with your mobility.” >> >>Photo >> >> >> >>PLAY "I was glad when I hit my first ball against someone," said Dan >>Guilbeault, a student at the Perkins School for the Blind in >>Watertown, Mass. Credit Thomas Lin/The New York Times >> >>Blind tennis is made possible, scientists say, by the adaptability of >>the human brain — which appears to repurpose its visual area, the >>occipital cortex, to process sound and touch in response to blindness. >> >> >>A series of studies discovered activity in the visual cortex when >>blind test subjects read Braille, and found that a blind woman could >>no longer make sense of the raised dots after suffering an occipital >>stroke. Another study, of sighted subjects who were blindfolded, >>showed that the occipital cortex began processing tactile and auditory >>information within five days. >> >> >>“How it works is not a mystery,” said Melvyn A. Goodale, director of >>the Brain and Mind Institute at the University of Western Ontario. “We >>know that it is possible to localize sounds, and it is likely that the >>blind get better at this than sighted people.” >> >>Dr. Goodale and his colleagues are studying how echo processing works >>in the occipital cortex of blind echolocation experts like Daniel >>Kish, who as a baby lost his sight to retinoblastoma. Human >>echolocators use palatal clicks or hand claps to “see” objects around >>them, like sonar in bats, only bats use ultrasonic frequencies that >>can resolve flying insects. This skill allows Mr. Kish to hike along >>cliff edges and ride a mountain bike. >> >>While humans don’t have the auditory resolution to echolocate a moving >>tennis ball, blind tennis “promotes freedom of movement,” said Mr. >>Kish, president of World Access for the Blind, a nonprofit group that >>has taught echolocation and other mobility skills to hundreds around >>the world. “Most blind kids just don’t get early experience >>interacting with flying projectiles. >> >> >>-- >>Avinash Shahi >>Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU >> >> >> >>Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility >>of mobile phones / Tabs on: >>http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in >> >> >>Search for old postings at: >>http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> >>To unsubscribe send a message to >>[email protected] >>with the subject unsubscribe. >> >>To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, >>please visit the list home page at >>http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in >> >> >>Disclaimer: >>1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking >>of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its >>veracity; >> >>2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the >>mails sent through this mailing list.. > > -- > Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. > > > Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of > mobile phones / Tabs on: > http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > To unsubscribe send a message to > [email protected] > with the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the > person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails > sent through this mailing list.. > -- Avichal bhatnagar Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
