Tennis for the blind: the art of making possible what seems impossible and a project that never stops growing

The AVEFA Open 2022 is a tennis tournament suitable for people with acute visual impairment which takes place in the neighborhood association of the same name. this Wednesday morning José Viera he was crowned champion of the contest after beating Roberto Massotta 7-9, 6-4 and 7-5 It was a thrilling final, lasting more than two hours, broadcast on the Instagram of the school that has been organizing the tournament since 2018: Argentina tennis kit.

José and Roberto are two of the country’s leading exponents. They excel in a business that is still thriving. Already in 2013 they took their first steps under the guidance of the Professor Gaston Labaronie, one of the pioneers of the activity in Argentina. Almost a decade later, the tournament found them finalists.

Labaronie is responsible for Argentina tennis kit, a school that operates in the Florentino Ameghino District Civil Association (AVEFA), founded in 1985 by residents of Boedo. He has been teaching there for four years and seems to have found his place in the world.

In dialogue with Clarione, Gastón did not withhold praise for one of his former students. “Roberto Masotta is number one in Argentina. Every time a tournament is held he wins it or reaches the final,” he says proudly.

The fundamental seed of all this was planted in 2012, when he moved from Trenque Lauquen, where he taught in his private court, to the Federal Capital in search of new horizons. “It was very green, there was a lot of trial and error,” she confesses about that stage. But over time he has found a way in which “a blind man can play tennis well and quickly”. He had to convert. Learn to teach.

The road wasn’t easy, but the setbacks at the start helped him train. “The first thing I tried to do was paint a panorama from the oral. But I went beyond the text. Then I learned to simplify. For me, mistakes were necessary. Trials and errors. And based on the results,” he says. .

It also had to adapt to people and types of blindness. “Because someone who is blind from birth is not the same as someone who has acquired blindness. This opened up another world for me,” he adds.

In 2012 this adventure began, that of teaching tennis to people who cannot see. His first steps were in Caballito and then, in 2018, he joined AVEFA. “It is an exemplary community“Gastón talks about this place. Starting from scratch is not easy, especially in an activity where the path is made by walking.

AVEFA, an exemplary community

“If you’ve seen the first pictures,” he remembers with a smile. “We had a volleyball net suspended with two fallen chairs, the worst hours possible, chaos. We started settling there and slowly we grew up,” she adds.

Time has put things in order and they have managed to generate a team of teachers and students that stays with the years. “We are a big enough team now. We are a family, a community“, says Gastón. The pride he feels in being part of this project is immense. A second home.

At the AVEFA, in addition to the tennis courses for people with acute visual disabilities held by Labaronnie, you can practice football, boxing, gymnastics, yoga, Zumba and other activities. A meeting point where the community gives its best.

“If we have a tournament, old friends come. If I send ‘there is a tournament on that date’, everyone raises their hand to participate. There is a mother of a family who at first took the children so they could live the experiments and collaborates And now the morning comes, goes out with us, takes the bills. Something very nice has been put together. It’s great. I can hardly believe it, he is so crazy. He fills me with pride, “says Gastón.

Full Tennis Argentina is the meeting point. Although the first AVEFA Open was in 2018, the founding seed was planted by Gastón in 2012, when he left his hometown to go to the concrete jungle where he left the healthy habit of taking a siesta.

“I’ve put the” Open “behind every tournament I do,” he confesses with a laugh. She also comments that the Argentine Tennis Association accompanies, but little. Without state funding and without charging their students a fee, they look for it as best they can. A pulmonary project that bears fruit.

Some differences that can be observed in adapted tennis: the court measures 12.80 by 6.10 meters. The lines are marked with a string attached to the floor with masking tape. In addition, junior tennis rackets and sound foam balls with a diameter of 9 centimeters are used.

The project: growing in the country

“There are two Argentine players who went to the World Cup and were in the top 10. Here they trained with balls that did not bite, blocked, there was a lot of difference. But the level is very high”, confesses Labaronnie, who has the mind turned to the future.

“Without this project, teaching tennis wouldn’t give me much pleasure,” Gastón reflects. And he adds: «We maintain the school with a parallel idea: to mark the times of what we want it to be for the whole country. We are somehow making the first examples so that then there are many more“.

The project is clear: to keep the flame of tennis for the blind alight in the countryside and to illuminate this sport. His dream is to see more schools open all year round. “Ours is a fire that never goes out“, he confesses to this reporter. At this point it seems that nothing and no one will be able to turn it off. Viera and Masotta are witnesses.