Today we’d like to introduce you to Federico Camacho.
Federico, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today? Every tennis match is a story in itself! For me it all started back home in Costa Rica, I was only 7 and took the chance to fill in for my cousin’s tennis lesson. Today, 30 years later filled with losses, wins and plenty of experiences, I get to grab my racquets on a daily basis to make a healthy living out of my passion while aiming for more challenges and opportunities.
Tennis has laid the foundation for so much in my life… molding me about hard work, to handle adversity, to solve problems, to adapt, to be self-motivated, to be passionate. It has also allowed me to travel all over the world, to represent my country up to Davis Cup level on several occasions, to earn an athletic scholarship at a Division I University to obtain my Engineering degree (and later on an MBA), but more than anything to keep improving myself and growing a network of wonderful friends all along the way.
Thanks to all of the above I had almost 10 years of Engineering and Business work experience in Europe and South America, up until 7 years ago when I came back to the USA for a tennis coaching/managing job opportunity at the Evert Tennis Academy. Nowadays, it’s been since 2014 that I partnered to run an independent boutique type tennis training program in Boca Raton, FL while entrepreneur into two side businesses related to butterflies’ arts & crafts as well as solar LED lighting products.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you? It has been a rocky road, full of different and interesting challenges. As with any new business, on paper it was not as difficult to define a differentiated tennis coaching offer and goals… but executing it in the real world while sticking to the main principles is a challenging story: positioning ourselves in the market, improving our services, finding and maintaining the appropriate sports facility, working through certifications and continuous education on different areas. Also finding the right ways to communicate our differentiated approach, providing guidelines and advice to players, parents and sponsors about the pros/cons of the alternatives out in the tennis coaching market so that they can make an informed decision to develop their tennis in the most appropriate way, focused on the process before the outcome.
We have faced similar challenges with the butterflies and the lighting products and projects, each one of them proposing the benefits of a personalized alternative.
We’d love to hear more about your business. We do not run a one size fits all program, which is what most tennis training programs offer. We believe that each player/client brings a special set of variables (personality, cultural background, values, athletic ability, playing style, playing level), therefore as coaches we must adapt personalized attention in order to bring the best out of each player. We are constantly evaluating their strengths and weaknesses that provide the input to put together and execute an individual development plan according to each player’s goals.
I define success as the achievement of continuous improvement on character traits, I find that to be a sustainable source for happiness. Then, as a consequence of that is that we are able to obtain a desired title, amount, ranking or result. I think the sport of tennis is a powerful tool to develop determination, respect, integrity, resiliency and many other values… that development will determine each person’s capability to achieve their dreamed results on the court which will also translate into life from the local competitions to collegiate tennis opportunities or the world circuits.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tennisteam1.com www.butterflies4you.com www.selsled.com
- Phone: +1(561)350-3432
- Email: camacho.federico@gmail.com
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