Total Tennis, just 100 miles north from New York City is the only year around tennis camp in the Northeast of the United States. The facilities are located at the base of Catskill Mountains in Saugerties New York. At Total Tennis you can find a place where no matter what your level is, from beginner to a high level competitor, you will have fun playing the "white sport" thanks to a high quality staff who focus on create a great experience for any person that come to the courts of Total Tennis. This camp also counts with a program for kids that mostly occurs during the summer but that maintains with clinics and lessons for kids throughout the whole year.
The Director of Total Tennis is Ed Fondiller, who has being running the program for over 20 years. The second in command and also the Director of the junior program is Saif Syed. After them comes a number of Tennis Pros, Counselors, etc, who conform the staff of the whole camp. (pic of Ed and Saif)
In my particular case, I have had Devarshi Mitra (Bubbla) as my Supervisor. Bubbla together with Saif are some of the oldest members of Total Tennis. He is in charge of the Marketing Department of the camp as well as being one of the top Tennis pros that "TT" has.
My schedule at Total Tennis changes a lot due to the fact that there is a certain hierarchy which determines if you will be working or not. Since I am a new member at camp there are other Tennis Pros that will have preference to work if the amount of people at camp does not requires my labor. The system at "TT" works this way: there are a total of 20 courts with a maximum of 4 campers per court, with a total capacity of 80 campers. Each Pro gets assigned a group with a court based on your hierarchy till the numbers of pro satisfy the demand of campers. Myself being one of the last 5 Pros in the hierarchy at Total Tennis would only work when the camp would have over 60 campers, this number is normally reached on the weekends, while during the weekdays a regular number of campers is around 20 or 30. During the months of May and June I am not expected to be on duty other than the weekend, while in July and August I am expected to work the Junior Camp during the weekdays.
SCHEDULE
MAY 5th - JULY 16th (11 WEEKS)
Saturday-Sunday
8:00 AM - 4:30 PM
JULY 17th - AUGUST 27th (6 WEEKS)
Saturday-Sunday
8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
My main duties will be always along creating a great experience for those campers that I will be working with. Some of those responsibilities are:
*Perform a demonstration on the Stadium Court for all the people at camp of all the different strokes, spins, strategies, etc
*Set up ball hoppers for group
*Once having the group selected, introduce myself and start to create a great atmosphere
*Explain the schedule for the weekend to campers along with drills and the plan of work in the court
*Assure a 30 minutes private lesson to each individual to work on specific areas where they might present difficulties
*Manage the Junior camp along with 4 to 5 Counselors
My internship at Total Tennis does not have a monetary compensation so I do not get a Salary or Hourly Pay. The benefits I receive at Total Tennis are a whole coverage of my Room and Meals for all the 4 moths I have to stay for my internship.
My goals and expectations at Total Tennis are mostly base on an increase on my communication skills since I have to lead a different group of people every week and the minimum requirement for me to do a good job is being able to communicate the ideas that I am trying to implement in the tennis sessions. Also, working as a Tennis Pro here you can get so much new drills and way to teach from other Pros that will help me to become a better instructor myself. Furthermore, I want to be able to improve my skills so I can feel comfortable on leading and managing a group of staff with the ultimate goal of teaching and helping the kids to have fun inside the tennis court.