I like tennis. Very, very much. I would have written that I love tennis, but I think love is such a sacred word, throwing it around for everything we enjoy in our lives sort of cheapens it. So, I wrote I like tennis, but I really should write that it is my favorite sport and I regret that I never took tennis lessons as a child.
I looked for tennis lessons for my children, but maybe not hard enough. I am not willing to drive an hour for this. Besides, we already have so many extracurricular activities, I would not know where to fit tennis in. For now, we watch tennis on TV if a slam event is going on. And I think about it. Sometimes. I like it, but it does not dominate my life. I might look into lessons for them here in Gatlinburg.
Anyway, all this to say, I am learning a lot about parenting and homeschooling by listening to tennis players being interviewed. Someone once said that the top 100 players in the world all have the same basic tennis skills. The difference between them is in their … minds. The mental aspect of the game cannot be underestimated.
Donald Young, a young American player, recently said that the difference between himself a year ago and today is all mental. He does not take comments from the public seriously anymore, he does not let something someone said bother him, he does not get upset over a mistake he made 10 points ago. He lets it all fall off his shoulders. He shrugs negative things off and moves on. The interviewer quipped, “It’s called maturity.” Continue reading