As Wimbledon will get underway, we meet up with tennis coach Arum Akom, who’s pushing for change in his beloved sport
Arum Akom will cease to take a breath when he’s sitting within the gamers’ field at Wimbledon watching one among his gamers on Centre Courtroom. Till that day, you’ll discover the 25-year-old tennis coach on courtroom at The Butterfly Tennis Membership in Camberwell, south London, the place he runs a free bursary programme for native kids, coaches juniors who dream of going professional and is elevating the subsequent technology of leaders through his new variety initiative, Black Tennis Mentors.
Tennis is having fun with a post-pandemic world increase, and the game – as soon as perceived as white and middle-class – is altering. The variety of folks enjoying it are rising: up 33% within the US between 2019 and 2022, with a 46% improve in black gamers.
Within the UK, figures from a current report by the Garden Tennis Affiliation (LTA) level to tennis as being one of many extra gender-balanced sports activities with 40% of gamers feminine. That mentioned, solely 24% of accredited coaches are ladies. Equally, 16% of gamers are from a various ethnic background, however solely 4% of coaches, 3% of officers.
Akom desires to deal with the imbalance. He himself is aware of the boundaries black gamers and gamers from decrease socio-economic backgrounds face. However, in telling his story, focuses on his success to develop up – sports-mad – two minutes from Burgess Park tennis courts, house to one of many nation’s greatest and most bold neighborhood tennis programmes. “I used to be a kind of kids who wished to play repeatedly,” he tells Optimistic Information. “I used to be lucky to be at Burgess Park the place they provided us free or discounted tennis for many of my profession.”
In 2020, when the Butterfly Tennis Membership was trying to mirror the range of its on-court neighborhood, they sought out Akom, not just for his stellar CV – a sport scholarship to the College of Roehampton, an MSc in sports activities administration from the College of East London, and LTA teaching {qualifications}, Ranges 1, 2 and three (achieved whereas doing his A-levels) – however for his lived expertise.
Arum Akom with a cohort of younger tennis hopefuls
His first transfer was to determine a bursary programme to offer free tennis after faculty and through faculty holidays for youngsters from decrease socio-economic backgrounds. Tennis is pricey: classes, rackets, restrings, balls, footwear, courtroom charges and journey prices quickly mount up. Monetary assist comes from membership, fundraising, and our bodies corresponding to Sport England and the LTA, with tools sponsorship from the sportswear model Head. Akom has turned down big-name attire offers, partnering as a substitute with footballer Reece Placid’s model Imagine & Obtain, whose message aligns with Akom’s private platform Undertaking AA (‘Accomplish Something’). In 2023, his work gained him the title of Recreation Changer within the Group on the inaugural Tennis Black Checklist awards.
Did Akom ever wish to flip professional? “By no means. I feel that’s as a result of I realised from a younger age the boundaries I confronted. Tennis was simply social for me, I knew that, and I used to be proud of that.”
That mentioned, he’s bold for his personal gamers, devoting two hours a day, 5 days per week, of his personal time to educate eight-year-old protege Nazrah. Working with Nazrah, he places into follow his personal studying from his mentor, excessive efficiency coach Barry Bartley, who began with Akom at 16. They name this passing on of information a “conveyor belt”. Collectively, they’re getting nearer to their finish purpose.
“It’s time for champions from ethnically numerous backgrounds to be produced within the UK,” says Akom. “It hasn’t been carried out and it must be carried out. That’s the rationale I’m working with gamers like Nazrah. We wish to assist our personal and present that we are able to produce, as a result of it’s doable.”
The US is additional on, because of the ‘Venus and Serena impact’, and a brand new technology of expertise together with Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe and US primary Coco Gauff.
Akom cites The Black Ladies Tennis Membership and the Washington Tennis Training Basis as trailblazers. Illustration actually is vital, he believes. So, when he takes on a modelling job – he’s labored with Fila and Lacoste – he’s fairly actually altering the face of tennis.
It’s time for champions from ethnically numerous backgrounds to be produced within the UK. It hasn’t been carried out and it must be carried out
Nazrah and her mom have change into like household, he says. They share east African roots: Akom’s household is Ugandan, Nazrah’s Ethiopian. “We’ve got a connection that goes past the tennis courtroom. We eat comparable meals, have comparable tradition.” Final yr, Akom took them to Wimbledon, getting up at 5am to affix the well-known queue. “Think about that: the mum coming from Ethiopia, solely listening to Wimbledon on the radio when she was a child, all the time dreaming about going.”
Whether or not at grassroots or high-performance stage, it helps to see others such as you, he insists. Akom just lately delivered the brand new Prime Video LTA Youth Ladies periods on the membership and noticed an prompt uptake in ladies enjoying. In the meantime, Black Tennis Mentors, co-founded with Jabilayh Asante, has acquired off to begin, engaged on a brand new Black and Afro-Caribbean tennis society in north London and with Asante on her cellular membership Again It.
“I don’t know the place I would like Black Tennis Mentors to go but. The explanation I don’t know is as a result of there’s a lot it may well do and it entails different folks,” he says. “It’s not what Arum desires out of it; it’s what everyone desires out of it.” All of it begins in the neighborhood.
Principal picture: Arun Akom
Help options in 2024
Optimistic Information helps extra folks than ever to get a balanced and uplifting view of the world. Whereas doom and gloom dominates different information shops, our options journalism exists to assist your wellbeing and empower you to make a distinction in the direction of a greater future.
However our reporting has a price and, as an unbiased, not-for-profit media organisation, we depend on the monetary backing of our readers. In case you worth what we do and might afford to, please get behind our crew with an everyday or one-off contribution.
Give as soon as from simply £1, or be a part of 1,400+ others who contribute a median of £3 or extra monthly. You’ll be straight funding the manufacturing and sharing of our tales – serving to our options journalism to profit many extra folks.
Be part of our neighborhood at the moment, and collectively, we’ll change the information for good.
