Archive for 2016Page 2
The Next Right Thing
One of our camper’s opponents drove a tough shot into the corner, and the camper went for an ill-advised winner. He tried to do too much. He missed. He hit his shoe with his racket. Then he hit it again. And again. I happened to be walking past at the moment. Lucky him. I called […]
Smile
For almost 40 years we have been putting smiley faces on rackets. Let me correct myself. Steve has been putting smiley faces on rackets. When he took control of the ink stencil pen, no one could wrest the thing out of his hands. When he had to miss a day due to illness or another […]
What’s The Score?
What’s the score? We hear that phrase all the time on the court and in life. It is the measure of success in the eyes of many in this world. How many games did we win in a match, how many A’s did we get in school, how many sales did we rack up for […]
I Want To Be Like Them
I have a tendency in my life to hold on tight to what is “MINE”. In fact, we have a woodprint in our house that has two trolls wrestling over something inconsequential and both screaming “It’s mine, Mine, MINE!!!” I walk past it every day and it is a reminder. That I should be ruler […]
Controlling Cheaters: What I Learned From Steve Wilkinson
I saw it happen in the state tournament. Two of our TLC campers were playing each other in the first round. To my dismay, one was cheating the other. (Not everyone gets the message the first time around. It’s a habit that is not instantly reversed). The other knew it. She had a chance to retaliate […]
Cheating, Take Two: The Role Of The Parent
I was playing junior tennis and was literally a hick from the sticks who nobody knew (I am still a hick from the sticks who no one knows). I played the #4 seed on two consecutive occasions and was fortunate to play some of my best tennis. Both matches went to three sets, 6-4 in […]
Cheating (And The Cheating Cheaters Who Cheat Us)
It’s tax time!!! What better time to talk about cheating!? (No one calls it cheating on taxes, though, right? Unless it’s someone else. No, we call it “fudging”. Sounds tastier than “cheating”). A tennis pro and coach I admire wrote me last fall, and this is what he said: This summer while coaching at JTT sectionals […]
The Damage You Can Do By Not Practicing The Three Crowns
This photo is funny. My situation, unfortunately, is not. After 35 years of hearing and preaching about the TLC Three Crowns of positive attitude, full effort, and good sportsmanship, I recently, in the heat of the moment, called out my friend and teammate for not doing something I thought he should do. I did it […]
The Balancing Act, On And Off The Court
I have found on the tennis court that when I am off balance, everything tends to go wrong. Fast. If I lunge at a volley unnecessarily instead of moving smoothly through, I cannot recover in time for the next shot and am often short footed when my opponent hits behind me on the next volley. […]
The One And Only Job Of An Athlete’s Parent
My daughter is almost 17 now. One more year and she’s out of the nest. I’m feeling nostalgic. Steve Wilkinson gave me one of the greatest gifts in advice on how to raise her, because I heard the same advice every summer. At Tennis & Life Camps, Steve would tell all parents their only job […]