Facilitating access to sports participation opportunities at the highest level is one of the three pillars of the Jumping Kids philosophy – the other two being facilitating access to mobility equipment and access to quality education.

These three pillars compliment each other since it is the Jumping Kids belief that providing children living with limb mobility challenges with the equipment they need; be it prosthetic devices, assistive devices, or wheelchairs; should translate into opportunities to attend quality schools and to participate in a variety of sports.

In 2025, Jumping Kids took its sports development goals to the next level by partnering with Tennis South Africa and Kopano Disability Sports to boost participation in wheelchair tennis at various schools across the country to help develop the next generation of wheelchair tennis stars.

Jumping Kids’ work at schools’ level offers regular coaching to any learner at the school who may be interested in participating in tennis. Facilitating participation in local tournaments offer a way for the next generation of wheelchair tennis players to gain more experience and develop against the best in their province, then nationally, and then, ultimately, they may have a chance to represent the country at international tournaments.

Supported by Patrick Selepe; a South African wheelchair tennis player, coach, mentor, sports administrator and umpire; Jumping Kids was able to successfully implement coaching programmes at selected schools for physically disabled children and get involved in a series of high-level events.

Selepe is well known for his remarkable contributions to wheelchair tennis in South Africa and is regarded as one of the pioneers of wheelchair tennis in the country since it was introduced in 2003. He is one of the founding members of Wheelchair Tennis South Africa (WTSA) which was established in 2005.

In the second quarter of 2025, Jumping Kids added its support to the development of wheelchair tennis by co-sponsoring four tournaments aimed at showcasing the future young stars in the sport. These included:

• Limpopo One-Day Tournament at the Polokwane Tennis Stadium on May 24^th.
• Gauteng One-Day Tournament at the Arthur Ashe Tennis Centre in Soweto on June 7^th.
• International Wheelchair Tennis Series Amex ITF Futures 1 at Gauteng East Tennis Courts in Benoni from June 27^th to June 30^th.
• International Wheelchair Tennis Series Amex ITF Futures 2 at Gauteng East Tennis Courts in Benoni from July 1^st to July 4^th.

“Our sincerest thanks go to all our wheelchair tennis players for participating in the International Wheelchair Tennis two-series tournament, which marks our return after many years. We are thankful for everyone’s support. We also appreciate the role played by our schools’ coaches and teachers in preparing the players. A further thanks goes to Michael Stevens and Jumping Kids for their partnership. We are excited about the next tournament,” Patrick Selepe shared on social media.

In addition to co-sponsoring the one-day and two-series wheelchair tennis tournaments that took place in May, June, and July; Jumping Kids added its support to get one coach and two promising young players to the Japan Juniors Camp in partnership with Japan Wheelchair Tennis Association later this year by facilitating the purchase of flight tickets and helping with logistics to make sure the team has the opportunity to participate.

An important part of Jumping Kids’ wheelchair tennis sports development work is actively recruiting girls who want to emulate South African wheelchair tennis star, Kgothatso “KG” Montjane, and take on the world’s best. To find out how to get involved, interested parties are encouraged to contact Jumping Kids for more information.

“It is exciting to partner with Patrick to make wheelchair tennis accessible to more children interested in the sport at schools’ level. With support from a sports development grant from Nike and donors invested in the project such as wheelchair tennis great, Diede de Groot, we hope to continue to grow the sport in several provinces in South Africa and help develop our country’s future wheelchair tennis stars,” says Jumping Kids Director, Michael Stevens.