Hello CSL Parents and Friends!
The last two days have been a whirlwind adventure around the tennis courts, and I have been having a great time seeing several bunks during the normal daily periods. Yesterday, two bunks from Onondaga (O3 and O5) stopped by the courts. What we worked on with them is hitting one of the basic shots of tennis: the forehand. We taught the campers an easy grip to hit the shot with, then progressed to finding their contact point, addressing the backswing and the follow-through along the way. At the end of the hour, their strokes were pretty complete, and quite good as well! It was awesome seeing the campers progress so much in just one hour. We finished playing a game that is one of the campers' favorites, as well as mine, jailbreak! Camp Seneca Lake Associate Director Aaron Cantor had an opportunity to win jailbreak, but the girls from O5 were able to put pressure on him, and he gave in, hitting the ball into the net. Today, the boys from C1 got the same lesson early during first period. We were visited by our camp's Assistant Director, Rhonda Korn, and they again progressed very well during the one hour period. All three bunks forehands look good, and hopefully they will come back for round two: the backhand!
Today was also exciting because it was the start of the Hobby Program! We have 9 campers in the tennis hobby group and all are looking to progress their skills during the 22 hours that they have at the courts. The hobby group is broken down into players that have played the game before and those that are giving it a try for the first time. With the group who are trying tennis out, we are going to be taking them through a crash course in the sport and today we started with the forehand. Again, we focused on the basics of the stroke and the campers improved rapidly. For our players that have played the game before, we spent the afternoon hitting all the shots necessary, forehands, backhands, and volleys flew through the air and landed mostly in, which impressed me quite a bit. Towards the end of the day both groups combined and we played a large game of jailbreak with everyone together, as well as doing a little relay race fitness! As we progress throughout the summer, the beginners will be working hard on their skills and will be joining the advanced group by the end of the session. The advanced group will be working on specific shots the next couple of weeks and emphasizing consistency and other important parts of their games!
Catch you around the baseline,
Kevin Snyder
Tennis Specialist
