Spaces still available for upcoming Tennis Yukon camp

Yukon tennis enthusiasts, who are looking to improve their game or simply interested in taking up the sport, have the opportunity to participate in an camp this upcoming week.

Yukon tennis enthusiasts, who are looking to improve their game or simply interested in taking up the sport, have the opportunity to participate in an camp this upcoming week.

The camp is being put on by the Tennis Yukon Association and will be held from Monday to Friday at the Mt. McIntyre Recreation Centre courts. Gerry Macken, who is a level 3 coach from Vancouver, will be the main instructor at the camp.

“It’s a huge benefit to them to just sort of access somebody at that level, with that much experience,” said Stacy Lewis, president of the Yukon Tennis Association.

“It’s also just a great benefit to the tennis community here and the coaches here to be with him on the court. It’s all the enrichment of new ideas. Even after he leaves, we will all be better coaches for having spent the time on the court with him.”

Tennis Yukon is attempting to make the most out of Macken’s stay in the territory by holding the camps. His original reason from coming to the Yukon was to run an instructors certification course, which is 20 hours over two weekends.

This week, two separate junior camps were taught, which began on Monday. The camp’s offered lessons to two different age levels, including elementary and high school.

The elementary aged tennis players were between eight and 13 years old, while the high school camp featured tennis players up to 18. A total of 13 tennis players participated in the two camps this week.

Next week’s camp will include some additional flexibility and will feature a beginner and a more advanced time slot for both age categories.

The more advanced high school age group will feature tennis potentials for the 2009 Canada Summer Games, which is being held in P.E.I.

Presently, there are five potential Yukon Canada Summer Games tennis athletes. The players range from 12-15 years old.

The upcoming camp currently has 33 people registered to take part, but there is enough room to accommodate a maximum of 48. The cost to participate is $150, which would guarantee the five lessons that are two hours each.

There are also private lessons available as well, which individuals can register for by calling Lewis at 393-2621.

The camps are taught using a progressive teaching method, placing special emphasizes on games, while attempting to maintain the enjoyment of the game itself.

There are four different kinds of balls, which include larger foamy balls, half compression balls, three quarter compression and full compression balls. With each ball a different size of court is used as well.

At the camps all of the equipment that is needed to play the game will be supplied, including a number of different sized junior racquets.

This week, the beginner group spent a lot of time using half compression balls, which saw them play service line to service line, while still using the real net.

One of the highlights on the week for the beginners was the players becoming comfortable enough with the sport to compete in actual games and develop their rallying abilities.

A lot of attention was also spent on learning how to put top spin on the ball and becoming comfortable striking the ball. Focus was also given to improving the participants overall fitness levels as well.

Lewis said the kids have shown a lot of improvement since the camp began on Monday.

“They have improved quickly,” she said. “I know what the under-14’s and under-16’s look like down south and they are not quite there, but they have improved quickly and we are just at the start of the summer. It’s going to get better and they are going to get better and hopefully they will have some chances to play.”

Tyler Comeau, 15, is one of the top junior athletes in Northwest Territories and has been helping out with the camp this week.

This is Comeau’s first time in Whitehorse and he said his main reason for coming was to take part in the certification course.

“I would really like to get certified because I want to give back to my community in Yellowknife,” Comeau said. “Right now I am just helping out with Gerry, demonstrating, practicing my skills to become a coach further on. He is just giving me little pointers every now and then.”

Comeau said he is pleased with how the kids are doing at the camp.

“I am really impressed,” he said. “All of them have really picked up on the skills Gerry has brought up here and they really seem to be progressing. They will be really good future tennis players for the Yukon.”

He said he is enjoying coaching and his time in Whitehorse.

“It’s quite the experience,” Comeau said. “It’s fun to work with the kids.”

Macken, who also is enjoying his first time in Whitehorse, said he sees a lot of potential in the junior tennis players.

“I find there’s a lot of athletic ability in the north,” he said. “They are involved in so many other sports, they just haven’t had a chance to apply it to tennis so much. So when you give them a chance to do lessons as we do now, which are success-based, progressive learning type of oriented program, they catch on really fast. So I am very happy with that.”

He said he was impressed with the caliber of individuals who participated in the instructor clinic and that training more instructors will help increase the overall popularity of the sport in the community.

“I am very impressed with the quality of coaches in the certification course,” Macken said. “You need people who know the sport, but also have the right personality; to be able to be approachable, to be knowledgeable and have a sense of making tennis fun.”