Tennis Wheelchairs – A Look at Tennis Chair Design

Tennis wheelchairs have evolved through the years and as you can see when you visit the courts for a Wheelchair Tennis tournament, many of the athletes sport the 3-wheel model. So, what is this evolution to 3 wheels and is it a right choice for you?

Invacare first introduced their 3-wheel Tennis Wheelchair in 1992 and since then it has become one of the top used tennis wheelchairs in the industry. Why choose the 3-wheel model? The answer is fairly simple when you start to look at friction from the wheels on the court. A 3-wheeled tennis wheelchair can be far more responsive then its 4 wheeled brother. When turning, there is only 1 front caster that needs to be rotated to initiate the turn. This reduction of friction gives the player a more responsive turn.

So what's the bad of the 3-wheel tennis wheelchair? What you gain in responsiveness, you lose in stability. The 4-wheel tennis wheelchair will provide a greater about of stability when leaning to the front right and left corners to stroke the ball.

Both chairs use a canted wheel approach which also assists in stability, but the main difference and the advancement of the chair falls in the removal of the forth wheel.

What's the best choice for you? Well, you'll just need to test them both out to see. If you are a highly aggressive player that likes to throw their body around, you may want to try playing wheelchair basketball or wheelchair rugby... just kidding, you may want to first try the 4-wheel tennis wheelchair. If you are more graceful in your stoke and you need quick turns to get to the ball, then the 3-wheel tennis wheelchair is probably the chair for you.

Now don't get me wrong, you can still fall over in the 4-wheel version, but at least you have a small amount of more stability in those wheels.

Another thing to note on many of the tennis wheelchairs on the market is the rear middle back wheel, also called the anti-tip wheel. This is the fall over backward support wheel, so when I say a 3-wheel chair, I am not including this wheel.

When shopping for a tennis wheelchair, some things to take into account would be weight of chair, number of wheels, is the anti-tip wheel removable, warranty of wheelchair, material of wheelchair, quality of components (wheels, seat, etc), and seat height depending on if you like to sit low in the chair. A great idea before purchase is to go to a local wheelchair tennis tournament to see the chairs used by the athletes. Remember though, many athletes are sponsored to use the specific chair. Often times companies, like Invacare, will have demos to try out. If there is no demo available, it never hurts ask a friend or fellow athlete to try their tennis wheelchair out.