Hello Tennis, Remember Me?

Meyer Tennis
Apr 6, 2020
2 min read

*League playoffs canceled. *High School tennis canceled. *USTA League canceled. *Wimbledon Tournament canceled.

*French Open Tournament canceled. *2020 Summer Olympics canceled

Last week the United States Tennis Association (USTA) issued a statement requesting tennis players to be patient and not return to the courts at this time. What a gigantic blow to all of us who thought our sport was relatively safe. But tennis players are a resilient bunch, right? We are out there on our own, dealing with whatever the universe throws at us. But here we are, April 6, 2020, ... 60 degree days approaching, Spring is on it's way in full force, days are longer, the robins have returned and who would have ever in their wildest dreams thought that terms like "lock down", “shelter in place" and "home quarantine" would be in our everyday vocabulary? Instead of heading to the tennis courts for our matches, we find ourselves with:

*No timeouts when we need advice

*No substitutions when we get tired *No teammates to talk strategy

*No coach to encourage us *No score keeping and certainly ... *NO HANDSHAKING at the end of the match, a gesture of the past for certain.

Tennis is one of the few sports where you need to win the last point to secure the victory. That's a ton of pressure, we are used to adversity and triumph on the tennis court and tennis mimics life. As a coach I am able to learn so much about a person by just watching them play a set of tennis. Are they strategic, are they determined, are they competitive, kind, resilient, honorable? .... and much more. The tools we use on the court come from the tools we use in life, often we can't control what happens on the court but we can control what our response will be.

I challenge you to apply that principle during this time off from tennis. Take the gift of time to study the game, watch some matches on YouTube where the players have contrasting styles. You will see a variety of spin, shot selection, court position and demeanor and often we can learn more from watching than we do from playing.

I promise you that tennis will be back and I can't wait until I see you on the courts again. Hang in there.

Barb

Check out the following matches of contrasting play:

Borg v McEnroe