Gaining more responsibility

As I am coming towards the end of my mentorship I am being given more and more responsibility. After the morning practice with Will and Jeadan, I was given the job to take Will to his tournament. This was about an hour and a half away. Will, who is 14, was entered in a qualifier tournament and his parents were unable to take him. For me this was exciting as this is something I wish to do taking players to tournaments, coaching them through it etc. Before we left I ensured that he had the right amount of food, drink and sunscreen. Other factors which would not have been thought of initially was checking the oil in the car, ensuring I had enough gas and the car was in good shape generally. The last thing you want is to be stuck on the highway, late for tournament...the parents would not be happy. His match was scheduled for 3pm so we left at 1 allowing two hours to get there and time to settle in and warm up before the match. This was Will's first tournament back for a year and he was in the quarter finals, therefore, a lot of pressure was riding on him. Before his match I made sure he was confident and he had no nerves. I also had to match chart him, these results are in the project section. Thankfully he won this match and was due to play the top seed in the next match. During the wait for his next match I went over what he needed to remember, kept him calm, ensured he ate and tried to not talk about tennis to much keep his mind off the match. Unfortunately, he lost in the semi-final to a very strong player. After the match, I said well done and didn't try to put a downer on the fact that he lost. Something else as a traveling coach which needs to be remembered is that you must feed your players, After the match we had a Panera and talked about what he could have done.

I really enjoyed today and is definitely something which I would enjoy doing. Taking players all around the world to play tennis or organizing players tournaments and schedules is something I would defiantly enjoy. Taking players to tournaments or traveling with them has to be one of my favorite parts of the internship so far.