Champions Series Recap Details and Future Plans!

Written by: Staff on 25th October 2011

Champions Series Recap Details and Future Plans! |

Hey all, just wanted to share some more details about my time I spent helping out at the Champions Series tour as well as what my next plans are for training and tournament play. Some more details concerning what I actually did nightly for the Champions Series matches: Between matches, I’d refill water bottles and gatorade bottles for the players in the official Dunlop coolers on court, replace towels on the players’ chairs before their entrances, clear any trash or debris from the court before a match began, making sure all signs and sponsors were clearly seen with no blockages by either cameramen/fans/towels/etc. Basically “upkeeping” the court. On top of those duties, I was responsible for setting up the sponsor signs for kids to hit at, while being fed tennis balls by the loser from the 2nd semifinal of the night, a sort of “hit for prizes if you will”. I’d make sure the pro had plenty of balls to feed and would shag balls if necessary. Of course if a kid was unable to hit the plastic targets I set up, I’d grab one and run around with it until the kid was able to hit a shot that I would make sure to “hit the target” haha. It was a lot of fun being involved on court and working very closely to the game’s legends, hopefully you see me on Tennis Channel and Fox Sports Net when the series is broadcast nationally in November/December sometime, check ChampionsSeriesTennis.com for a full television schedule!

Most kids want to be ballboys and ballgirls so they can get closer to the action of pro tennis. I was never a ballboy, I don’t regret it, but this experience was my own way of getting closer to the professional events and players who inspire me daily. So, just to recap, what I exactly helped out with was: Setting up the court, unpacking/packing things like credentials, setting up VIP rooms/signs, working personally with building managers or operations managers, being a “runner” for anyone part of the team, cleaning the court, waterboy and towelboy for the players between matches, supervising the packing of the court. Anything in between those duties like racket stringing or warming up the players also happened but not every night. Hope that gives you guys more of an idea of what my role was.

Time to get back to training and tennis. I’ve taken a few too many days off, although I can claim that the last three times I’ve played tennis this past week, one of those session was with Sam Querrey, the other with Michael Chang. Okay not bad but I need to train harder because I have a tournament coming up in early November. I haven’t played a tournament in a month so this event is more to get me some match experience than win me any professional points. There is a lot of money at stake so that is mainly my motivating factor. Nonetheless I have pride and good reason to do well in this event because it can set the tone for the months of November and December. I don’t want to lose early and say, “Back to the drawing board” after one tournament back from a long break…

So. Where am I going to train? My coach Ben Ncube is taking some of his other students to a national junior event in Hawaii. I’m from Hawaii. Two of the players going to Hawaii with my coach I have already mentioned in previous blogs, Christopher Grant and recent 18 and under champ at the Southern California Los Cab desginated, Nick Crystal. Their mutual friend and training buddy, Dylan Brown, winner of a jr. national in Texas earlier this year, is also accompanying them to Hawaii. Dylan’s dad is a physical therapist who did some work for my shoulder a few weeks ago. The team is very connected and I’m happy to announce that I’ll be joining them in Hawaii. It will be no vacation as the goal is to help them come home with national tournament trophies. Along the way, Ben can train me at the same time that the guys play their tournament. I can also train at University of Hawaii with the college players there as well as introduce these juniors to the UH team and get more practice in to take some stress off of Ben. I’ll be gone for a week so I hope to put in good days of work every single day until I return back to Orange County for my tournament. I can’t think of any better training situation in the world right now in preparation for my upcoming tournament so I jumped at the opportunity today. I leave Wednesday and will continually update you with photos, news from the islands, and training updates! Aloha!

Always trying to improve,

Shubert

Topics: Tennis