TennisintheHood

As we celebrate Black History Month, I want to heap praise on a brother who has spent a lifetime working to bring tennis to underprivileged youths across America. And he is not done, even as he approaches 80 years of age. 

His name is Robert (Bob) Davis, one of the most committed persons to the growth of Black tennis and preservation of Black tennis history with whom I have engaged since I began writing this blog eight years ago. 

Whether collaborating with tennis legends Arthur Ashe and Nick Bollettieri, running his own academy in his home state of New York or through The Panda Foundation he created in 2000, Bob has brought tennis and its inherent life skills to thousands of children over the past four decades. 

Now, Bob is sharing the knowledge he has gained from summers spent in the junior development program of Dr. Robert “Whirlwind” Johnson, playing in the National Championships at Forest Hills, winning American Tennis Association national championships in singles and doubles and coaching the 2013 Jamaica Davis Cup team – not to mention the mentoring he received from his brother, Wilbert Davis and Sydney Llewellyn, who coached the great Althea Gibson. 

Bob has launched a series of video lessons under the name Urban Aces Tennis Academy that can be found on YouTube. The project began around mid-December. While the goal of the venture is to raise funds to support Bob’s junior development efforts, the instruction could be particularly useful to club players who have developed bad habits. 

The academy’s introduction video notes there are more than 14 million club players in America alone, most of whom “make the same mistakes day after day, month after month, year after year.” 

I’m probably in that class. As someone who has become obsessed with getting depth on my groundstrokes, I found the first of Bob’s 1-minute tips to be on point. “Shorter backswing, longer follow through,” he advises. Simple as that. 

Since developing a passion for tennis in my mid-40s, I likely have spent a few thousand dollars on private lessons, group clinics and tennis camps. But the advice I got from The Urban Aces Tennis Academy was free. 

So, I was more than obliged to click on the “subscribe” button to help Bob build an audience that will attract advertisers that will generate revenues to allow Bob to expand his junior development outreach. And I encourage all of you who read this post to do the same. All it costs is about a minute of your time. 

Mike Sancho, a 40-year protege of Bob’s, is among several coaches who have endorsed the academy.

“These are one-minute videos that get right to the point,” he said in one of the Urban Aces testimonials. 

Sancho lauded Bob’s ability to quickly evaluate a player’s strokes and recommend a simple fix for any flaws. 

“He taught me how to play; he taught me how to teach,” he said. “Within a minute he can look at your tennis game and find the critical error so you can quickly be on a path to fixing the problem.” 

I recently spoke with Bob, who is founder of the Black Tennis History Museum and president of the Black Tennis Hall of Fame, and a 2014 BTHF inductee as a player and contributor. He told me the idea for Urban Aces was planted “thirty-five years ago, when Arthur (Ashe) encouraged me to see if I could develop a program to help people without ever seeing them play.” 

Bob said his unique talent caught Ashe’s attention when the two were at a meeting together and one of Bob’s students called seeking advice on how to improve his backhand in preparation for a match against Stefan Edberg the next day.  

“I asked a few questions and told him how to repair the problem,” Bob recalled. “Arthur was impressed.” 

They developed a tennis hotline, but it failed to catch fire, Bob said. Bob recently revived the idea, deciding to use video instruction to help fix 30 of the most common errors players make.  

“When a former world champion tells people I can solve their problem in 10 minutes,” Bob says he began to believe he had a calling. 

Whether it’s how to handle lobs on a windy day, how to overcome hitting serves into the net or dropping them short in the box or how to strengthen weak volleys, Bob’s Urban Aces Tennis Academy has an answer. 

In endorsing Bob’s latest venture, Kennis Collins, former coach of the Cote D’Ivoire Davis Cup team, called Davis “one of the best developmental coaches in the world. He can teach the average pro what he needs to do to get his players to the top levels of the game.” 

Bob said he has several other ideas, one being creating tennis cartoons “to more readily appeal to children.” 

When I asked what has motivated him to devote so much of his life to promoting tennis in urban communities, Bob reflected on what the sport has given to him. 

“Every success I’ve had in my life has been due to tennis,” he said, “and my affiliation with people like Arthur Ashe and Nick Bollettieri. I’m just trying to do something to give back.”  
  

You better believe Bob practices what he preaches. He still competes at the ATA national championships and has already booked a berth in this year’s senior competition. 

“I’m about 80,” he said, “and I’m still playing and still competing. And I love it!”  

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In Memoriam: Lendward (Lenny) Simpson, a trailblazing Black tennis player, coach and mentor who was the subject of my previous blogpost, recently passed. He was 75. May he rest in peace.