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TCB: When did you start teaching
tennis?
KW: I
started teaching tennis in 1987 when I was 18 years old at my
home club SV Senat, Berlin. Later on I have been working as a
coach at some other (bigger) clubs in Berli n besides staying
at my home club. In 1998 I was asked to join the tutoring staff
of the state section tennis association (TVBB), where I still
work as a tutor, mentor and tester.
In the same year
I took the chance to join a workshop with Dennis van der Meer
in Berlin to do my first PTR Professional certification (adults).
The following year I did an internship at the van der Meer academy
and PTR headquarters on Hilton Island, South Carolina. That was
an amazing experience and Pat and Dennis van der Meer asked me
to come back and work as a coach in the coming summers during
my university breaks, which I did until 2006, ending up as a
co-director for the summer camps run at Westtown School (PA)
and Cornell University (NY). In 2017 I was the first German and
one of just a handful of Europeans to pass the PTR Master of
Tennis (Performance).
I joined my club
SV Zehlendorfer Wespen 1911 e.V. in the year 2000 and started
coaching the juniors. Later on I also started coaching the women’s
team and switched to the men’s team 8 years ago. In 2010
I got in charge for the juniors (junior director) and got employed
September 1st, 2014. On October 1st, 2018, I took over as tennis
director (fully employed now).
TCB: How many memberships
do you approximately have?
KW: Our
club, SV Zehlendorfer Wespen 1911 e.V. Is a tennis and (field)
hockey club with a total of 2,100 members. In the tennis section
we are 1,285 members, including 358 juniors (under 18). Regarding
these numbers we one of the top three clubs in our region and
top 10 in Germany.
TCB: What are the challenges
for you at the club?
KW: The
demands for tennis clubs in Germany did change dramatically in
the past years. After the ‚tennis boom‘ in the 1980s
launched by the huge success of Steffi Graf, Boris Becker, Michael
Stich and some others the membership numbers went down to the
level before that boom. Due to the fact that most of the families
have two working parents nowadays and the (useless) change in
our school system (shortening the total years from 13 to 12 and
extending the daily schedules into late afternoon we have a tighter
window for junior lessons in the afternoon.
TCB: Where do you want to
take the Wespen in the coming years? Do you have plans for the
future?
KW: First
of all I want to maintain (or even grow) the acceptance and high
regard of our club in and around the area. We need to prepare
the club for the future to stay competitive compared to other
tennis clubs and leisure activities. We want to establish our
top teams win the highest leagues (women’s and men’s
right below professional leagues, meaning Bundesliga) as well
as growing the recreational tennis (juniors, students and most
of all adults and seniors) programs. On the juniors we want to
set new standards in under 6 (toddlers) programs as well a creating
an ambitious program for players with potential even tho we have
just very limited court capacity.
TCB: What brand/model racquet
do you use? What type strings?
KW: I
have been using Wilson rackets for almost all of my life. My
actual racket is Wilson Burn 95 (the „Nishikori-racket“),
that I got tuned to a weight of 317 grams. I use a combination
of Luxilon Element (mains) and Luxilon 4G soft (cross). Love
those little softer Luxilon strings…
TCB: Than k you, Karsten Weigelt. |
