On Saturday, August 15, USTA Florida and Love Serving Autism hosted a free adaptive tennis workshop at the Crandon Park Tennis Center on Key Biscayne, welcoming more than 30 coaches, volunteers, and young athletes for a day built around making tennis accessible to individuals with autism and unique abilities.
The morning opened with a coach training session open to coaches, volunteers, and players of every background, with no prior tennis experience required. Participants learned adaptive coaching methods, lesson modifications, and communication strategies for introducing tennis to individuals with autism and unique abilities. Coaches earned RSPA and PTR educational credits for taking part, and high school students on hand picked up volunteer hours.
“It means everything. Seeing this many coaches and volunteers give up their Saturday just to learn how to better support individuals with autism says so much about who they are,” Lisa Pugliese-LaCroix, LSA Founder said. “This community keeps growing because people genuinely want to show up for these athletes, and that gives me so much hope for the future of therapeutic adaptive sports.”
With their training in hand, coaches moved to the court for a hands-on clinic. The Crandon Park Kids Tennis Clinic gave individuals with autism and unique abilities ages 5 to 25 a free and inclusive session on court, with athletes of all ability levels welcome.
The back-to-back format let the newly trained coaches put their skills to work right away, applying the adaptive methods and communication strategies they had just learned alongside the young athletes and their families. It was exactly what the workshop set out to create, a supportive and encouraging environment where every participant could experience the game, build confidence, and share in the fun.
“It’s watching an athlete really let loose and just be themselves, knowing they aren’t being judged for being unique. The moments of freedom, seeing them laugh, move, and play without holding back,” Pugliese-LaCroix, said.
The workshop reflects USTA Florida’s broader commitment to growing adaptive tennis across the state and ensuring the sport is welcoming to everyone. By training coaches at the community level, USTA Florida and Love Serving Autism are building a foundation of knowledgeable, confident instructors who can carry inclusive tennis programming to facilities and communities throughout Florida.
The Crandon Park Tennis Center, a USTA Florida-operated facility and the former home of the Miami Open, offered a world-class backdrop for the day as it continues to expand its community programming. For USTA Florida and Love Serving Autism, the workshop was one more step in a shared mission to make sure every player, of every ability, has a place on the court.
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