Philip Marsh was rewarded for his voluntary commitment to British tennis this weekend with a camp at the National Tennis Centre, aimed at Young Volunteers.
The 18-year-old from Leicester, was one of 23 young volunteers to be selected to attend the camp from October 2-4 in Roehampton. During the course of the weekend Marsh undertook various activities to give him a further insight into how he can develop his skills as a volunteer and give him a deeper understanding of tennis.
Marsh has been involved in a wide range of different competitions in several different capacities, from organising to refereeing tournaments. He said:
“I am in touch with my county competition organiser, Richard Wilson, in Leicestershire and he sent me an email saying this was going on and I had nothing to lose by applying.
“I’m very glad I came – I didn’t expect to get in if I’m honest – I was pleasantly surprised when the email came through to say I was on the course.
“It’s been great fun. I’ve learnt a lot. Saturday was very good; it was tiring, but good. The best bit surprisingly was the Strength & Conditioning session we did. I have never been interested in sports science before but I was pleasantly surprised by that, it was good fun.”
A number of different activities were held over the weekend, including listening to a talk on volunteering at the 2012 Olympics from the Head of Volunteering at the Games; a sports science talk; workshops relating to other careers within tennis; team building exercises; introducing more effective ways of communicating and encouraging more people to get involved.
And the National Volunteer and Club Development Manager, Sophie Curthoys acknowledged the importance all volunteers have to play in ensuring the continued success of British tennis.
“All sports benefit from the time and passion its volunteers dedicate to various facets of the programme and tennis is no different,” she said.
“This camp has been about not only rewarding each of the young volunteers who attended but also helping them develop new skills and opportunities which in turn will hopefully maximise their potential and their enjoyment.
“The 2012 Olympics will depend on 70,000 volunteers and I’ve no doubt that some of the attendees this weekend will make up those numbers, as they continue to support tennis over the next three years and beyond.”