LTA Tennis Foundation Charity Partner grows inclusive tennis offer
• 3 MINUTE READ
To mark the International Day of Disabled People, the LTA Tennis Foundation celebrates its continuing partnership with Access Sport, delivering disability-inclusive activities across Britain.
Launched in 2023, Acez tennis empowers local tennis clubs, parks and venues to deliver new disability-inclusive activities. The programme focuses on supporting disabled young people aged five to 25.
Having received ‘Innovate’ grant funding in 2023 from the LTA Tennis Foundation to pilot the programme, Access Sport, were recently awarded a “Scale” grant which has supercharged their efforts to support more disabled young people to participate in inclusive tennis through Acez.
With the support of the grant, Access Sport has built a network of over 27 tennis clubs running Acez sessions across the country, including sessions in David Lloyd, Long Ashton Bristol. Launched with Access Sport’s support these weekly sessions in Long Ashton have gone from strength to strength and now offer a group of disabled young people access to regular inclusive tennis.
One parent of a regular participant said:“My son has tried community tennis lessons before and quite simply faltered. His previous tennis class experiences impacted his confidence. Now, with a completely different, kind and inclusive approach at these sessions, he is enjoying playing and beginning to progress in his tennis. This has had such a positive impact on his general self-confidence and well-being.”
As part of the Acez programme, Access Sport provides hands-on training to ensure the coaches and volunteers leading these sessions have the confidence, skills, knowledge and equipment to deliver inclusive tennis.
Dave, a Community Coach said, “Access Sport has allowed us to deliver what we can deliver. The support in setting up the initial contact with the community, the communication links and administrative help has been spot on so that’s been great.”
To make sure the sessions serve the community for the foreseeable future, Access Sport has recruited volunteers who are passionate about inclusive tennis. Recruiting from the club’s previous participants, Access Sport has engaged Rhys and Holly. Rhys has Down's Syndrome and is a Level 1 qualified coach and Holly is also a Level 1 coach with a Developmental Language Disorder.
Supported by Access Sport, Rhys completed his Level 1 tennis coaching qualification in 2019 and now predominantly works at Cotham Park Tennis Club where he helps coach a variety of sessions. However, Rhys jumped at the opportunity to support these new sessions in Long Ashton.
Rhys said: "I would say I love coaching because it means teaching kids mini tennis, matches, games and forehands rallies! So, that is so fun!”
Coach Dave added, "It’s been really invigorating to challenge myself to create success with different people with different needs. It’s been a fantastic opportunity to bring Holly and Rhys in to complete the chain from people playing to qualifying to coaching.”
With the grant from the LTA Tennis Foundation, Access Sport’s aim is to reach over 50 community clubs, supporting them to start new inclusive sessions for local disabled young people.
These sessions have had such a positive impact on his general self-confidence and well-being.
Jonny Fenner, Access Sport Tennis Development Manager, said: “This partnership with the LTA Tennis Foundation has opened up so many opportunities for Access Sport! With their support, we have started to build a national network of tennis clubs committed to inclusion. It’s amazing to see the appetite for Acez, I look forward to growing the programme and reaching more and more disabled young people.”
Tom Gibbins, Head of Development for the LTA Tennis Foundation said, “We were so pleased when Access Sport decided to apply for a Scale grant, after seeing the success of the Acez Tennis in its pilot year. We can already see the positive impact the funding is having, and we look forward to continuing to watch the programme grow and open up the sport of tennis to more disabled people.”
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