Longtime camp sponsor of USTA New England, adidas Tennis Camps, is once again providing young players the opportunity to improve their game this summer.  With eight locations throughout four New England states, these day and overnight camps are led by top tennis professionals and create fun positive atmospheres for kids to learn tennis.

 

One New England pro, Michael Filipek, has been an adidas Tennis Camps director for 14 years. Filipek runs three camps in Connecticut called Beyond Camps and strives to give his kids the best experience possible.

 

We caught up with Filipek to learn more about his camps:

 

What have you enjoyed most about running these camps in what will be your 14th summer?

What I enjoy most about our camps is, when at the end of a camp week, campers don't want to leave and it is clear that their experience has made a lasting positive impression on their lives. ADVERTISEMENT Every kid that attends, whatever level they are, leaves one or two levels better. It is very satisfying when I send a child home improved, more confident and full of lasting and rich summer memories. 

 

At Beyond Camps, you give campers the option to attend as multi-sport participants. What does that mean and how has that helped enhance the experience? 

We added the multisport option several years back as a way for kids to diversify their experience if they did not want as heavy a dose of tennis each day. In past years, we really focused on basketball and soccer, but soccer became less and less popular mainly because of the heat. We learned over the years that our multi-sport campers really enjoyed being indoors for a couple hours per day, so now we make multi-sport a bit more casual and simply just offer a different indoor sport each day as a way for kids to break up their tennis training and get out of the sun for a couple of hours. Last year, we introduced chess as a daily indoor activity and that was quite popular as well.  

 

What type of players are you looking for at your camp? 

Ideally, I'm looking for players who are eager to get better and who enjoy the process involved. They can be ranked tournament players, high school team players, or younger kids who are in the developing stages of their games. 

 

What are some of the benefits of attending an adidas Tennis Camp?

Associating with a top brand name certainly raises the stature of our camp. I think this spills over into our campers' attitudes because they feel like they are part of something really high quality and "legit." I've been working with adidas Tennis Camps for 13 years now and they really are professional camp people. Campers get cool shirts and lots of goodies from adidas, and I get a lot of great support as a director. Every year, the people at adidas Tennis Camps and I discuss ways in which we can enhance the experience of our campers. 

 

There are eight adidas Tennis Camp opportunities in New England. To see a full list, click here.