Carefree Racquet Club opened in 1972, has come a long way since then! Carefree opened with five indoor tennis courts that were mostly booked with seasonal courts. Over the years, 2 more indoor tennis courts were added along with two racquetball courts and an indoor half court basketball court. The biggest change has been programming to offer a variety of programming to suit all ages and abilities.
While there are still many of seasonal courts being booked, many players want leagues to get more competition and a variety of players to play against. Team doubles leagues are more popular than years ago due to the USTA League with players wanting to practice to be ready for the USTA League season. We have a program during the week from 7-9am for players that can only squeeze in their tennis play before work, and an afternoon senior program for retired folks. Carefree offers Learn and Play programs for all levels with four students in a group along with private and semi private lessons. We also offer Stroke of the Week, a group lesson on a week to week basis working on specific strokes each week. For players that want a tennis workout, we have turned the Offense Defense drill into a league for an hour and half which continues to get more and more popular.
For juniors, we have a program that offers group lessons (four in a group), semi private and private lessons. The program also offers weekend practice time, a ladder match program and an intra club tournament. During the summer months, Carefree has a summer camp during the week from noon to 5pm. Our newest addition is the QuickStart Tennis Program for Tots. The program for 3 – 5 year olds includes a free Sponge Bob or Dora racquet when joining. We use the smaller nets which can fit four nets on one tennis court. We also use the larger foam balls and lots of props to make it fun and to keep the children’s attention. Starting the children at such a young age begins the eye hand coordination early which the props and games we play are attempting to accomplish. The children love when they make contact with the foam balls almost as much as their parents and sometimes grandparents who are watching! When the children turn 6 years old, we then put them into our regular Junior Development Program, which has been an almost 100% conversion rate.
The next thing we plan to introduce to our Junior Development Program is the new 10 and under rules and court dimensions. As the USTA has explained, every other sport has a smaller playing field for the younger child. We therefore are going to implement the smaller court so we can grow tennis players that stay with the game! Again, programming is everything. Trying new ideas and listening to the wants of our customers is what we try to do best!