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For her first summer in the United States, Vishakha Sheoran is instilling in young people her love of the game that brought her to SIU.
Sheoran, an incoming sophomore for the women’s tennis team from New Delhi, India, is one of many Division I athletes to devote her summer to teaching a sport rapidly growing in popularity among young people — tennis.
After assisting at an SIU tennis camp with coach Audra Nothwehr, Sheoran will spend the rest of her first U.S. summer in Raquette Lake, N.Y., as a tennis instructor for children ages 7 to 15. She said her goal is to help young people develop a love for the increasingly popular sport.
“I’ll probably focus only on fun,” Sheoran said. “I’ll make sure they’re working on strokes and volleys at the same time, but they should be liking the game.”
Sheoran’s love for the game developed at the age of 11 in India when she first picked up the racquet. No one in her family had ever played the sport, but her father helped foster her fascination with the game.
Fewer than nine years later, nationally ranked doubles player Sheoran helped the Salukis to their best record since 1991.
But by today’s standards, Sheoran got a late start, Nothwehr said.
Children are picking up the racquets at increasingly younger ages, as seen by 7- and 8-year-olds’ participation in the “Little Saluki Academy,” which the team began this year.
To cater to these younger children, special considerations are made. The camp used foam balls that allow small children to hit the ball at a height comfortable for them, she said.
Regular balls tend to bounce over their heads, causing them to learn bad form. Nothwehr said they try to teach the players to hit low to high, and the foam balls allow them to do that.
She said the different equipment makes it much easier to learn tennis than when she began playing at age 9.
“With these new technologies, with the balls for the younger kids, they can start younger and they can have success,” Nothwehr said. “Just having what we had back then, at least at my facility, I think I would have gotten frustrated. So I think it has come a long way.”
For young players, such as Nothwehr’s 2-year-old niece, it is important to keep lessons short and fun, she said. The camps often use adult-sized inflatable targets that help children aim for a specific zone.
As the children get older, they build upon the basics they have learned, such as coordination, aim and execution of backhand and forehand strokes.
Sheoran said the key to instruction at this level is patience. In a two-month long camp atmosphere, she has to constantly look out for the safety and well being of the children.
Being at her first summer camp during her first summer in the United States, she said she knows how many of the children feel.
“I understand that they’re so far away from their home so I kind of act like an older sister, so that they’re comfortable around me and can talk to me,” she said.
