Let's Hear It for Tennis
Maybe you're played competitive tennis in high school, or made a college tennis team, or just entered local tournaments. You need not be a ranked player, a super-champ (male or female), or an experienced instructor to spend a pleasant, sporty, paid season on the courts.
Excellent opportunities await novice instructors, tennis shop clerks, tennis "hostesses"; permanent positions in the field can be found in management.
And why not? There are now three times more American tennis players than skiers, and nearly twice as many tennis players as golfers. Indeed, tennis booms in America. According to pollster L. Harris, the sport keeps attracting more addicts and spectators at a faster rate than any other U.S. sport except jogging. Los Angeles alone has roughly half a million players. According to a (reliable) A. C. Nielsen survey, the annual growth rate points to some 16 million American racquet owners by 1980.
The forecast makes sense. Private clubs are multiplying in our multiplying suburbs. New resort communities are being built with aficionados in mind. Indoor courts, once a rarity, now number several thousand, and additional thousands are planned. A research firm estimates that there are more than 180,000 outdoor courts in the United States; each year, 6,000 new ones are built, many of them as part of new townhouse or condominium clusters. To this, you can add a new crop of tennis clubs and tennis resorts.
YMCA's, YWCA's, and Inner City tennis programs all thirst for tennis teachers, too.
As a result, any simpatico player of either sex-especially one who seems friendly, patient, and smiles much-can get a temporary job as an instructor.
All over the country, summer camps and hotels scream for fellows or girls who can teach. It doesn't take much to become a "tennis counselor" at a summer camp (of which there are literally hundreds-see the addresses published by the tennis magazines). And many "free lances" advertise in city newspapers that they give lessons on public courts or the courts of apartment houses. Because there is still no supervisory agency that can enforce "certifications," you can get away with a minimum of knowledge or experience. The work on apartment house courts is rewarding enough: a classified ad usually attracts plenty of young singles who are content to learn the basic forehand and backhand. Instructors charge from $5 to $25 per hour, depending on their self-confidence and the local market.
It becomes more difficult to teach at a good resort hotel or at one of those big-name summer clinics which attract scads of students. (The well-known employers-see following list-are very selective and seldom hire the inexperienced.)
The teaching pros at "tennis ranches" and "tennis hotels" have certain things in common: they're clean-cut and discreet; they have agreeable manners and can communicate; they understand their students' needs and will be tactful with less gifted or older types.
People can find seasonal work as stringers, who repair broken tennis racquets with a stringing machine. Retail sales jobs are fairly plentiful, too, for both sexes. Other possibilities? Sales rep for an equipment firm, or a laborer for a court builder.
A few strong young women players and male tournament types also manage to hit a pro circuit like the Virginia Slims or WCT (World Championship Tennis). Professional competitive tennis pays off only for the best players; novices at first hardly earn their travel expenses.
One more part-time gig? At Central Park, in New York, several young longhairs make some bread by challenging rich middle-aged hackers. For money. The hackers lose more often than not.
If you think you're experienced enough for an instructor's job, a neat letter plus resume plus photo can be sent by mail to a resort hotel several months before the big season.
Thanks to the tennis boom, new tennis resorts cannot find enough qualified pros. Promising young tournament players with some teaching experience therefore receive many job offers. The pay is fair; it averages about $1,500 per month for experienced seasonal instructors or about $10,000 or $20,000 on a year-round basis. (Beginners start at around $600 a month.)
If you already teach tennis, you can upgrade your employment and sometimes get more pay by joining one of the major instructor organizations. A membership in the Association of Tennis Professionals (Box 58144, Dallas, TX 75222) gives you some status. It will make it easier for you to get a seasonal job at a better-known resort or club. (A second association: The USTPA, 6701 Highway 58, Harrison, TN 37341.) Both of these groups can recommend tennis academies where you will improve your teaching technique. And in any case, both associations provide good references.
With a few years of teaching and competition playing under your tennis shoes, you can also apply for a coaching job at a high school or become a college pro. Some tournament players advance to positions as "resident pros" at a tennis club, country club, or large resort hotel. Here you're on easy street. You find and hire other instructors, organize ladders for old ladies, train the young hot-shots, supervise the pro shop, and (if you're a guy) maybe sleep with the "tennis hostess" who schedules the guests' playing time and finds partners for people who arrive alone. The resident pro stays on the scene during the off-season. Some pros get free housing and long vacations (during the Arizona summer, for instance), plus all or a portion of the shop's profits. Your total income depends on your name and fame. (A Pancho Segura, for example, is well taken care of.)
More suggestions? A young woman could easily get hired as a salesperson in a resort tennis shop, and perhaps double as the "tennis hostess," keeping track of court assignments, acting as a social director with singles, and so on.
On the Waterfront
"Thou glorious mirror," Byron addressed the ocean. "I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide / Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied," wrote poet John Masefield. Already back during the sixties young film-makers went after "The Big Wave," and "The Endless Summer." Some lifeguards get so absorbed by the constantly changing seashore, by the changing moods and colors of the ocean that their day passes quickly. The waves crash or run gently; the sand line stretches or narrows with the tides. Surfers, beachcombers, scuba instructors, swimming teachers, and sailing instructors are all drawn to the water again and again.
Clive Cussler, author of the bestselling book Raise the Titanic, was in his twenties when he chucked a promising career as a West Coast adman. Instead, he took a job in a diving gear store for a few hundred dollars a month. The sea had done it. His mind was so freed by the new environment that he started to write in earnest, and created a novel that made him a millionaire. More: he became an expert diver, a "dive master" who checks equipment, and a diving instructor.
Cussler's is an exceptional case, of course. And not all ocean people view the Pacific, Atlantic, or Gulf of Mexico as an irresistible magnet. To these people the beach is just a nice place to earn a little cash. A place to meditate, to be alone. Or conversely, to meet the other sex. Quite a lot of other sex.
Seaside jobs are among the most healthful in this book. A life guard finds enough time to run or jog every day. A swimming instructor gets plenty of personal exercise. The kid who takes care of surfboards for a hotel probably manages to surf, shooting down the wave crests, weaving to shore, making all the muscles sing. The beachcomber walks many miles picking up a sufficient number of large shells to convert into cash from tourists.
-Dress properly. No torn Levi's. No bare chests. No halters for female caddies. No cutoffs. -Adjust your pace to the players'. Don't walk too fast or too slow. -Let the player choose the club. Don't touch the club unless he or she asks for it. -See no evil. Speak no evil. Give no advice. Even if you think you're better than the pro.
Lastly, consider working at a surf shop or as cabana helper (giving out towels, renting cabins, helping with chairs, etc.). Someone also has to be in charge of the marinas and keep track of rental sailboats or motorboats. Sailing instructors who speak French (and other languages) might apply to the Club Mediterranee International, 40 W. 57th St., NY 10019. It has scores of branches at the sea.
If nothing else works, you can always wander along the beaches after sundown to gather the coins, books, combs, and other trinkets which people left behind. . . .
The Ilikai Hotel
Honolulu, HI 96815 Mauna Kea Beach Hotel
Kamuela, HI 96743 Coco Palms Resort
Wailua Beach, Kauai, HI 96791
Apart from hotels with swimming pools, lifeguards can apply to YMCA's, YWCA's, health clubs, and country clubs. Many people prefer the ocean, however. And certain American beaches enjoy perennial popularity. The bigger the crowds, the more lifeguards needed.
What's the most common job on the beach?
Lifeguard, of course. (You might think not only in terms of beaches but of swimming pools as well.) The American National Red Cross, which tests the lifeguards' first-aid knowledge and swimming ability, offers no exact figures on summer employment. "Thousands!" one ARC official says.
Your employer might be a city recreation department, a parks department, a major seaside hotel, a private beach club, a state agency, even a federal agency in charge of a National Seashore. The trick is to show up long before the season, to get acquainted with the other paid ocean watchers, and to ask the employed lifeguards about the beach scene.
In some areas, you should apply as early as January for a June position. There are beaches which happen to be so desirable that the same individuals return year after year. One typical example? Hawaii. According to Betty Krauss, a well-known travel expert on the islands, it takes great luck to find lifeguard employment in Hawaii. The South and New England beaches are rated as more likely places for this kind of seasonal work.
What are the exact requirements? Obviously, you must be a good swimmer. If you've taken part in competitive meets, so much the better. Second, you should take the complete American National Red Cross Basic Water Safety, Basic Rescue, and lifesaving courses. (Check the phone book in the nearest city for the American National Red Cross address.) Advanced Lifesaving courses result in a Red Cross Certificate and better chances for the better jobs. Moreover: You should have taken at least the nine hours of the "Basic First Aid" course or better still, the "Advanced First Aid and Emergency Care."
Summer opportunities also exist for swimming instructors and for water safety instructors (Red Cross certification available).
Golf
It is breakfast time at the handsome white Broadmoor Hotel Golf Club in Colorado Springs. But the caddies are already fanning out over one of the several 18-hole golf courses.
This particular acreage rolls uphill toward the steeply ascending Cheyenne Mountain. The links flow and undulate in the sunlight, which bathes the grass in deep green colors. The scenery is beautiful to view. Paths curve up to conifer forests.
Golf courses at resort hotels-and naturally at other country club courses-require many kinds of additional personnel. How about applying early in the season for a greens-keeper job? It involves fertilizing, cutting (mowing), aerating, and watering the extensive lawns on golf properties. Jobs go to both men and women (minimum age usually seventeen). You might also think "Mini-Golf" for seasonal work.
The installation of new lawns and lawn maintenance elsewhere requires a large labor force, too.
The Broadmoor golfers dress well. Their clubs gleam and glint in the sun. Most of their caddies are under twenty. Some of the younger kids gleam with pleasure: they get a real kick out of driving the electric carts that transport clients across the Colorado landscape.
The youngest caddies are only fifteen years old. The Broadmoor's minimum age is fourteen. Of fifty youngsters, only three or four are girls. (It seems that this summer none applied.)
Many of the young golfers turn on to the unpolluted green scene, getting in and out of the carts, even lifting the bag with the player's clubs. The bag weighs at least twenty pounds. Sometimes more, up to fifty pounds.
Most of the caddies at this hotel, and others like it, know the rules of golf and enjoy playing themselves. (They get 18 holes free at the resort hotel; almost all of the kids take advantage of this.)
The pay isn't very high, even including tips. A half day at the Broadmoor brings a sum equivalent to a good dinner, with an appetizer, entree, and dessert, at a decent average U.S. city restaurant. This isn't much. And there are no benefits, because the caddies are not on the hotel's payroll.
But apart from plenty of fresh air, and exercise, this (seasonal) outdoor job improves your own golf. Being around good golfers and pros-carrying bags at various tournaments-adds to your knowledge of the game.
Big-time tournaments bring better wages. A full day's shift at a major tournament pays a sum equivalent to a motel room at an American Mom and Pop motel. (Forget rates at Ramadas, Holiday Inns, etc.) There may be tips, and the best perk is the front-row seat to the competitive action.
Some of the country's top pros-famous names like Palmer, Niklaus, and Trevino-fly their own caddies to the tournaments, whether these take place at hotels or clubs. But on occasion, local talent is used, anyway.
