RuentoRafa

RuentoRafa : My challenge to run, cycle & walk the 830 miles [straight line distance] from home to the Rafa Nadal Tennis Academy

On the 19th November 2023 I hope to go to the Rafa Nadal Academy with my tennis club Wimborne Tennis for a week. Tennis is a brilliant but expensive sport and because I am 12 I cannot work to raise the money to go - instead I have set myself an 830-mile challenge called RuentoRafa which I hope will inspire you to support me while also supporting a great charity called Bright Ideas for Tennis that aims to make tennis more accessible to everyone. Please read my story below & if you can support me I would be very grateful!

Who am I?

Hello! Thanks for reading! My name is Ruen, I live in Dorset UK and I have been playing tennis since the age of 6 years old initially to help me combat my shyness before developing into a sport I LOVE!

My tennis journey so far

I started my tennis journey on a small village court in Shillingstone, Dorset playing about 1 hour every two weeks before progressing to local competitions. Before lockdown I had realised that many children my age were doing many more hours at academies or private schools so when we were out of school I took the chance to use a tennis court belonging to someone in our village and work hard to improve my game independently. Following lockdown my tennis was good enough to see me invited to the weekly development squad in Bath and I went on to represent the county - at both 11U & 12U. Looking to increase my hours and work with a team who will help me reach my potential I have moved to Wimborne Tennis academy where the coaches are very positive and a good number of really strong players offer high level competitive weekly tennis.

Where I find myself now

I now find myself in the 14U tennis game which requires me to get stronger [both mentally and physically] and develop a positive competitive game. I now have a new coach who I trust to coach me on my tournament tennis & I would like to move my game to the next level. One of the ways I hope to do this is by attending the RAFA NADAL Academy in November 2023 an opportunity that would see me compete in a high-performance environment with real time feedback. My objective is to work on making my game more powerful, consistent and diverse and strengthen my mental game. This will help me improve my intensity in sessions, match play, results & and ultimately my ranking.

Why am I raising money?

Tennis is a very expensive sport and I realise that accessing these opportunities is very expensive. I know that I must show that I am serious about my commitment by trying to raise some of the money myself. Therefore with the help of my parents I have designed a fundraising challenge called RuentoRafa to try and fund some of the costs for the trip to the RAFA Academy in November while also supporting a worthwhile UK tennis charity - Bright Ideas for Tennis .

What is RuentoRafa?

RuentoRafa and is a challenge to travel the 830 miles [as calculated in straight line distance] from my home to the Rafa Nadal Academy by a mixture of RUNNING, WALKING & CYCLING [I am doing a mix of activities so that my body is not put under too much strain as I am growing]. From the 1st March until the day that I hope to go to the academy I need to travel 830 miles. There are 264 days from 1st March to the 19th November so I need to travel on average 3.145 miles a day. I will track this on my Instagram page AND also using Garmin & Strava and 20% of anything I raise will go to the charity Bright Ideas for Tennis who do work in the UK to help more people to access and play more tennis ; 'aiming to help everyone feel empowered, accepted and to improve their overall well-being '

Why I feel it is important to support a tennis charity

While I am asking for support to improve myself in a sport I love I hope that through my RuentoRafa initiative that I am also showing you that I want to help others who may face the same financial burdens by supporting the charity Bright Ideas for Tennis. Tennis has been very important in building my confidence and giving me an identity. I have met lots of great people through tennis and it gets me outside and keeps me fit and positive. I realise that I am very privileged to have had the support to get to the level I am currently at in Tennis so I want to build on that and inspire others to show them that if you face a barrier to your goal you can find ways to overcome it by seeking the support of others. I know this is a lot of money to invest in one person in one sport but if I achieve my goal to get to a good level in tennis I hope to be able to give back to people who cannot access this great sport due to the expense.