National academy hosts tennis programming in St. Louis for athletes with Down syndrome

The Jensen-Schmidt Tennis Academy (JSTA) offers inclusive tennis instruction to meet the needs of children and adults with Down syndrome. The academy is organized by two tennis-loving brothers, Luke and Murphy Jensen, and tennis fanatic Dr. Vince Schmidt. The trio has a shared passion for tennis and is motivated to make the sport accessible for players with special needs.

The JSTA travels all around the United States, from California to New Jersey. The academy recently visited St. Louis, where Schmidt made his name as a St. Louis tennis pro and respected coach.

“Originally, we thought the JSTA would have a permanent home in St. Louis and athletes with Down syndrome would come from all over,” Schmidt said. “We realized that would not be possible, so we took our program on the road. Now we serve athletes all over the country and are ever expanding into new markets to establish programming. In addition, we have expanded to way more athletes than just those with Down syndrome. We are actually more like the JSTA for Exceptional Athletes.”

The Jensen-Schmidt Tennis Academy hosted programming on July 13-14 at Creve Coeur Racquet Club. Each day of activities was three hours long, and the academy welcomed many athletes. 

“The 2024 academy in St. Louis was a blast,” Schmidt said. “We had huge numbers of athletes, great buddy volunteers thanks to USTA St. Louis and, of course, world-class instructors that have been with us for 20-plus years. In addition, we had athletes that traveled to St. Louis for the academy from many states/miles away, which is humbling knowing folks value us enough to take vacation days just to come see us.”

The JSTA staff worked hard to provide an inviting and positive learning environment for their participants. Their dedication to coaching and building relationships made the days jam-packed with tennis instruction and good fun.

“All of our drills and courts are highly scalable,” Schmidt said. “Even within a grouping we may have athletes with differing skills as it pertains to an individual or specific drill. Therefore, all our exercises are completely scalable based on speed, type of activity, type/extent of buddy involvement, etcetera.”