Article is written by Sagar Sridhar
A few key words to describe the experience that I had as a coach with the Tenicity Fall Tennis Program would be creative, engaging, and eye-opening. This program improved my leadership abilities, gave me a voice, encouraged me to collaborate, improved my on the spot creative abilities, and most of all provided me with an everlasting experience that I will never forget. Whether it be through volunteering, helping friends with school, or music, I have always had a passion to help others and felt rewarded through it. Therefore, I was delighted to have the opportunity this year to support Tenicity’s program and to make an impact.
Learning & Teamwork
Before the fall program started, I was given training videos from the “How To Coach Kids” coursework. The videos provided valuable insight and preparation into age appropriate activities, instruction, and motivation techniques for our group lessons. Prior to and after lessons, our coaching team would collaborate to develop lesson plans to create an appropriate level of challenge to progress each player’s skills.
I was given the opportunity to voice my opinions as well as implement my own ideas. This opportunity to be heard was so different from any other program I have experienced. At other camps, it’s mostly one adult’s decision on the implementation of skills, drills, and activities. However, with Tenicity’s team, there was a true collaborative spirit in which I could really have a say in the lesson plan and the camp itself. Regardless of my age and experience, my thoughts and opinions were made to be important takeaways along with the other coaches. This gave me the chance to really make my thoughts, opinions, and ideas heard in a way that I’ve never had before.
Each lesson gave me something to learn every day. How can I adapt a tennis skill that we start with to a higher or lower level for each individual? What’s the next step? How can we progressively make each drill fit nicely as a transition to the next level? Our team enabled me to answer these questions on my own as well as through collaborating with them. This led to well-developed lesson plans and amazing experiences watching our players progress. It is such a cool sight to see an athlete just start from tapping the ball or working on their coordination all the way to rallying back and forth with a higher level of skill and competency!
Getting To Know Each Player
On the court itself, I became very comfortable around our players as I made it a mission to provide more than just a formal lesson. A goal of each coach was to know each player’s name and truly make a personalized connection with each individual. I am very proud of our team because we really achieved this goal and made our program an exciting space for each and every individual to feel part of the group and form new connections with us and the other players.
Driving Critical Thinking & Perseverance
Over the course of the program, the coaches including Jesse, Brady, Coach Harsh, and I were able to teach our players valuable lifelong skills. Perseverance, respect, social skills, positivity, teamwork, and critical thinking are just some of the takeaways I feel that our team hit home along with the tennis skills. For example, with critical thinking our athletes started to develop strategy with point play. With perseverance, every athlete had challenges that they encountered and needed to overcome. They learned how to stay focused and control their emotions. There are going to be so many difficult problems, events, and surprises that come into the lives of our athletes and perseverance is truly how they will overcome those challenges. We were able to give not only a sport that will last a lifetime, but also skills for life as well as school.
Confidence & Social Skills
This program gave me such a valuable experience of improving my own confidence and social skills. I learned how to start conversations and overcome my insecurities and fears of meeting new people. Before every lesson, I would start with talking to each player, finding out how their day was, what they did in school, and it really started translating to my school social life as well. I understood that by waiting for someone to come to me I was missing out on a lot. This is such a valuable skill and lesson I will take with me for the rest of my life. I also gained a lot more confidence presenting projects and speeches. By getting the opportunity to learn these social skills and how to clearly give instructions and directions, I learned how to be more confident and prepared not only in school projects and presentations but in life as well.
Time Management
Time management was another skill that I improved upon. With college applications getting to be very stressful, I had to find a way to manage my time with tennis coaching and practice, applications, as well as school and my other activities. I started to plan out my days accordingly for how I would spend my time each day to get my work done. This is a skill that I really improved upon and will take with me to college and throughout my life as well. The Tenicity Program gave me very valuable lessons and skills that I use on a consistent basis.
Excited To Keep Growing
This program is so very valuable to me and I can’t wait to see it grow. I’d really like to thank Coach Harsh for giving me this amazing opportunity to be part of the program and to learn and grow. In future sessions, I’m excited to see all the returning players as well as all the new faces who are ready to step in, take risks, meet new people, practice, persevere, and most importantly have a really fun and engaging experience!
Sagar Sridhar
High School Senior at Wayzata Schools, Minnesota
Player & Coach in Tenicity’s Program
