Tag Archive for 'tennis tournament'

Personal tennis success or reflected glory? You choose.

Published on February 23, 2009 in junior tennis, tennis and tennis success. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Whether it is in the world of tennis or in any other aspect of our lives, is there anything so wonderful as achieving success or feeling successful?

One of my tennis juniors was telling me how much he enjoyed watching Andy Murray playing international tournaments knowing there is a good chance he will win – or ‘get the W’ as Andy Murray calls it.

Every time Andy Murray wins a tennis tournament, this tennis junior feels he’s personally won as he bathes in the glory of the international tennis star.

I told him that it is OK to be motivated by the wins of this top class professional tennis player but dangerous to focus too much on tennis playing success by proxy.

Achieve success in most sports disciplines takes at least 10,000 hours of concentrated effort, many say, and this means a huge commitment covering possibly many years.

Naturally, it is daunting when success, these days, is increasingly measured in international terms which means that only the few out of many millions can reap the rewards of getting to the top of a very high pyramid of achievement.

In comparison, it is so easy for the rest of the world to switch on their televisions, support their favourite successful professional tennis player and feel good about the result.

But such easy feelings of success, however seductive,  are probably a trap better avoided.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that our greatest happiness comes from self-actualization and achieving one’s personal aims or objectives. Perhaps the best way for all of us to achieve true happiness is through our own personal successes and not through reflected glory of others.

So I told him that spending time on the practice court was more likely to give him a true feeling of success as it steadily improved his chances of becoming a tennis champion too.

It was good to see him out on the tennis practice wall the next day.

Tennis coach Teresa talks about tennis clubhouse passion, tennis marriage and confessions of a tennis pro

Published on February 6, 2009 in tennis. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

They say that married couples that play together stay together. My parents both played tennis and I’m sure it held their marriage together, especially in later years. It was a common interest and a common bond. Indeed, my mum once told me that she met my dad on the tennis court. She caught him looking at her legs and found she enjoyed looking at him too. Once she even hinted about a tennis story involving a local tennis tournament win, an empty tennis clubhouse and – as my mum described it – passion!

My mum wouldn’t tell me much but I think I can guess.

For my moment of tennis clubhouse passion, I had to wait until I got a vacation job at a Spanish tennis centre. Ricardo, the lead tennis pro was a hairy gorilla of a man with loads of muscle and a clay court game that was based on consistency and a gruelling attrition of the opposition. I was the assistant tennis professional in my first paid job as a qualified coach.

It had been a long hot day during which we had been running a tournament for the people on tennis holidays at the centre. We were both overheated and stressed. However, the strains were mainly organisational as we had mainly spent the day sitting around keeping running scores of results and had little way of exercise.

When the last players had departed, I went off into the tennis clubhouse to put away the first aid box that we had kept handy in case of emergency. Absentmindedly, I dropped the box and was just bending over to pick up the contents when Ricardo came around the corner of the kitchen and barged into me.

I was even slimmer in those days and would have catapulted face-first into the refrigerator if he hadn’t have grabbed hold of my hips to save me. By the time we recovered our balances and I had straightened up, the effect I’d had on Ricardo, still holding me to him, was obvious.

In the heat of the moment, to me, it seemed the most natural thing in the world give him a sideways smile, lean forward again onto the kitchen work surface and give a little wiggle of my hips.

Ricardo needed no more encouragement. As I said, he was very strong, and in an unbelievably short time he had efficiently pressed our mutual stress release buttons magnificently.

Unlike my parents, it was an experience that we didn’t repeat. I was almost at the end of my summer work contract and, apart from this moment of passion, we had little else in common. However, it was a truly memorable experience.

Perhaps one day I will tell my daughter – without giving too many details of course.

I wonder if this is the sort of  thing that Max wanted me to write in my tennis professional blog. It does rather seem to be turning into the confessions of a tennis pro which probably wasn’t what he intended. Perhaps I’ll ask him whether I should delete the bit about Ricardo. On the other hand, after I have spent the time to write it down, it seems a shame to waste the effort. Perhaps nobody will notice.