The Pathway To Recovery
Tennis is an ideal sport to regain balance, movement, timing, and trust in your body. We think you'll be pleasantly surprised how slowly and carefully we start, progressing to sequential skills with belief and hope for the future. Here are three success stories.
Kate Adamson
Kate Adamson was a Manhattan Beach mom who suffered a stroke at 33 that left her with near full paralysis. Through intensive recovery and physical therapy she gained function of her speech and the use of the right side of her body. Although hemiplegic she became able to drive and perform day-to-day mechanical functions so that she could author a book and obtain her masters degree in social work. She is a motivational speaker telling her journey from locked in syndrome to recovery. She currently works at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Kate Adamson books:
“Kate Adamson Paralyzed but not powerless”
“Kate’s Journey Triumph Over Adversity”
Kate Adamson speaking engagements
“I had invented a stroke tennis chair where a player could sit upright and use the functioning side of the body to play tennis. It was the first of its’ kind because adaptive tennis players were either able body upright players or wheelchair players. Because of our mutual affiliation with USC Kate agreed to play test the stroke tennis chair, and her input helped in furthering the development of adaptive tennis products for stroke and cancer survivors.”
- Lee DeYoung
Kaitlin Tsue
Kaitlin Tsue has intractable epilepsy and has had 1,000’s of grand mal seizures. At the age of 12 her parents made the decision along with her doctors to perform a hemispherectomy, a neurological procedure where a portion of the brain is removed to mitigate the seizures. This caused the growth of her executive skills to stop growing at age 12 so her sociological functioning stayed as a pre-teen. Through her traumatic health and troubling teen years there has always been one constant, and that is her love of tennis. Kaitlin and her parents asked Lee DeYoung how it might be possible for her to stay in tennis throughout her life, and so with the Glass Family a plan was formed so that she could improve her tennis enough to become certified as a member of the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA now the RSPA the governing body of tennis teaching professionals in the U.S.) and possibly be gainfully employed in the tennis industry. For two years Lee DeYoung worked with Kaitlin two hours a day, three days a week and she improved enough to take the USPTA certification test. Kaitlin passed and is now a USPTA/RSPA tennis professional. She is the only fully certified RSPA tennis professional in the world who has had a hemispherectomy. Kaitlin now teaches wheelchair tennis and also plays tennis for Special Olympics. Wilson Sporting Goods sponsored Kaitlin through this process and due to the generosity of Jacky Glass and the Glass family Kaitlin and her parents have never had to pay for any of her tennis lessons.
“I wanted to say thank you to Lee DeYoung and Mrs. Jacky Glass for giving Kaitlin the opportunity for a better life. Tennis has always been her safe place and no matter how difficult life became she could always return to the tennis court. As Kaitlin transitioned from a child to an adult, we didn't know where or how she would fit in and Lee took her under his wing and showed her not only how to belong in the tennis world but also how to cope and function better when she had her seizures. I am forever grateful.”
Leana Tsue (Kaitlin’s mother)
Julian Lee
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In July 2024, Julian was diagnosed with multiple myeloma a blood cancer that changed the course of his life. A year of chemo and extensive therapies took a toll and he suffered a stroke in August of 2025. With excellent care from his doctors and extensive physical therapy, he recovered to a point where he was able to get back on to a tennis court. As a lifetime player tennis has always been his first love and he was slowly able to return to the game. A long-term plan was made with Lee DeYoung to use tennis as a rehabilitative therapy to regain his strength, balance, and motor functions. Julian and Lee worked together twice a week for two years and now Julian is back to 95% of his former tennis skills and working on the remaining 5%. Julian was never charged a fee for any of this rehabilitative tennis project that was donated by Jacky Glass and Lee DeYoung.
“To say that Lee saved my quality of life would be an understatement. A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and within the process of my recovery I suffered a stroke. Lee helped me through my period of recovery and rehabilitation through our work on the tennis court. I am back to 95% and will always be grateful to Lee for his many hours of pro bono work he gave to help me get my life back.”
Julian Lee