Aaron Hom

 

Monday, June 17:

          Today is the first day of camp, and I’m pretty excited. Before I got this internship, I had no idea what I was going to do because I couldn’t find anything that I really wanted to do. I was about to settle for interning at some air conditioning place, which would’ve been fun I guess because you got paid to build things. Anyways, I’m extremely glad I found this internship because I get to do something I love, which is playing Ultimate while spreading the sport around the Bay Area to younger kids. I actually was a camper at this camp a year ago, which was great because I got to see how the camp worked before I started volunteering this summer as an intern. The first thing we did was run warm ups at 9. I got to lead this with other CITs (Counselor in Training), while the main coaches set up their plan for the day. We then split the other campers into four groups by age and ran drills. I was in the deep drill group where my job was to throw discs deep to sprinting campers. During snack and lunch time, I managed to interact with a lot of the campers. I tried to make them feel more comfortable at the camp because I was at least around their age in contrary to the adult counselors. Towards the end of the day, we did mini scrimmages, with the campers splitting up into teams of five and playing each other. Overall a great first day!

 

Wednesday, June 19:

            Another day at camp and another foggy day! It wound up clearing up in the afternoon like it usually does, but it was cold for the time being. Again, the CITs and I ran warm ups with the kids, which is getting more and more of a challenge due to the fact that we wanted to make it interesting for the kids instead of doing the generic stuff. We then split the campers up into the age groups again to learn different things. This time, I helped to teach a vertical stack to the campers, which is the basic offense of Ultimate. I was hoping this time to observe how the main counselor taught it, and how I could learn some of the teaching strategies that I could implement to Dark Meat in the next few months. We then scrimmaged, while I observed and gave bits of advice to campers who might have done something wrong, or messed up in the game, which I thought would help them improve their overall game. I’m seeing great improvements in everyone, including the younger campers.

 

Friday, June 22:

            I’ve been waiting for Friday for a while because it is one of my favorite days at this camp. We have a tradition at this camp that at the beginning of Friday is the campers vs. coaches game, along with the awards ceremony to the camper that performed the best overall at the camp. Before starting warm ups, each of the CITs and counselors were given a soft wristband to give to a camper of their choice. It may have been because of a big play, or their attitude on and off the field, etc. So we warmed up and played the campers vs. coaches game. I was really excited for the game because none of the campers had actually seen me play, and I wanted to show them how good a few years of playing Ultimate can make you. The game was extremely fun, especially at the point where it was all the campers vs. all the counselors, which was like 40 vs. 8. I would up giving my wristband to the smallest kid at the camp, because even though he couldn’t keep up with the other big kids, he still showed a lot of effort on the field. I could relate to that, because that’s how hard I tried when I first joined the sport. I loved my first week of camp, and I hope that my second week is as great as the first!

 

Wednesday, July 4:

            Today was the annual fourth of the July tournament at the camp. The parents could join their kids and play friendly games of Ultimate with a mix of people. I was on a team that had a camper’s parents on it, and I had to give them the crash course on Ultimate because they had never played before, but they wound up catching on fast and having a lot of fun. I am pretty well known around the campers now, and they are getting comfortable around me, which is awesome to see. We had 3 wins and 1 loss that tournament, but it was a blast because everyone was really spirited and I got to meet a variety of people while playing. Afterwards, we took a photo with everyone (below), and ended the day with a cheer.

 

Friday, July 6:

            My last day of camp is finally here. We did everything that we do every day, besides the campers vs. coaches game and awards and such. I gave Val, the lead counselor, the papers that he gave me to file at home, and in return, he gave me back my internship review. He also had me help him cut watermelon for the campers because it was a pretty hot day. I am really looking forward to the rest of my summer, but I’m also feeling a little bit sorrowful because I’m leaving a lot of great people behind. However, I might do it again as a summer job next year and I’m definitely looking forward to it!

 

Closing Report:

            Throughout this internship, I learned many things such as how to use my knowledge of Ultimate and project it to campers and gained leadership experience along the way. This camp not only was able to utilize my skills as an Ultimate player, it was able to use my social skills to make shyer campers feel more comfortable at a camp where they didn’t know anyone. I was required to lead stretches along with helping the main counselors with whatever they needed, whether it was setting up a drill, or helping to demonstrate a play. An obstacle I faced during this internshipwas definitely holding back in all aspects of the sport. Holding back is something I never do, because I try to go 100% in everything that I am challenged with. But this was a special circumstance. For example, the campers couldn’t probably catch up to a disc I throw because they are slower than people I normally throw to, so I had to put a lot more float on the disc and hold back from throwing it in order for them to catch up with it. In other words, I had to change my whole playing style at this camp, which is one of the reasons why I enjoyed playing at the campers vs. coaches game because I didn’t have to hold back during that. However, my initial expectation of the whole experience was extremely accurate to what it actually was most likely because of the fact that I had been to the camp both as a camper and a volunteer, and I knew how it was run already. In total, I think that this internship was a very rewarding experience, both mentally and physically, and I hope to do it again someday!