Last week my son Matthew and I played in the USTA National Father -Son Hardcourts in San Diego. A very close childhood friend of mine came and spent the week with us. One morning at breakfast we had a conversation that I thought I would share with you.
We were talking about what a great childhood we had and that all we wanted to do was get up in the morning so we could go back out and play some more. We played every kind of game possible and whether we won or lost, we just played and played. We loved to play! We never got discouraged or frustrated. We never quit, we just kept playing and playing.
My friend Chet told a story about how when he was in junior hihg he played on a travel basketball team. He was the youngest player and also the weakest player. Chet played and practiced basketball every day. The next year he was still the youngest on the team but he was the best player on the team. He did it because he loved basketball and he knew that the only way to get better was to play more than anyone else which was easy since he loved to play! No one ever made us play anything.
I then told a story about my freshman year of college at St. John’s in New York. The team had been undefeated the previous year and everyone was back. I started the year as the number 7 player but only 6 players played in the matches. Our coach got all the subs together one day and told us that if we ever wanted to play, we should make sure we got better than the guys he already had so he would have no choice but to play us and he couldn’t make a mistake and choose someone else. I came back after the winter for the spring season and started to regularly beat the number 5 and 6 players. The coach sat me down one day and said I was caught in a Catch-22. I was beating these guys in practice but they had already proven themselves in matches. There was no reason to play me over them since they always won. He told me to keep working and my time would come.
When sophomore year came I started the year at #4 singles and never looked back.
The point of this post is that there is a simple recipe for success in anything you really want. Outwork everybody! Work as hard as you can for as long as it takes. Don’t wait for your parents or teachers to make it happen, make it happen yourself. Remember the 10 most important 2 letter words in the english language: “if it is to be, it is up to me!”
This past fall I was amazed at the progress of one of our TT players from our Friday group. He was one of my favorites, but not someone you would think would be a star. I asked him if he had taken lessons over the summer and he said he had not, he just played a couple of hours every day with a friend. He had done it himself. You can too!
Billy,
That was a very encouraging blog to read. Thank you!