Summer of 8th grade, all I felt was fear and doubt as I stepped onto the tennis courts. My first instinct was to try out and never come back, but as I started to learn more about the sport, I hated it. The frustration of trying to hit a ball over a net and making it land on the green made me scream internally. I thought about quitting, but a small part of me did not want to back down from this challenge. Of course I am going to struggle playing a sport for the first time so I continued going to the summer camp and when the school year started, I was in the JV Arroyo High School tennis team. Halfway through season I was offered a spot to play for the varsity team. I happily accepted the offer, but in the back of my mind the only word I thought
In 2014 I was determined to make the high school soccer team. Every day at 8 am at the beginning of a dreadfully hot August morning, I would get to the turf fields for 4 hours and participate in “hell week”. After a long week, I made the JV team. I was never put into the game and felt like my hard work was put to no use. My sophomore year rolled around and I tried extra hard to impress the coaches. Anything and everything was a competition to make it to the top. By the end of the week, we all gathered around the paper that had names of the players who made it. I didn’t make the team. After tears and telling myself to move on, I went to the field hockey tryouts. I knew nothing about the sport and was terrified that soccer wasn’t my go-to
I first joined my high school’s tennis team when I was a freshman. Although I had little knowledge of the sport due to the district’s lack of a tennis program at the junior high I attended, I still wanted to experience something new. However once tryouts came around, I was one of the unfortunate ones to be cut for no logical reason. The news devastated me and made me feel that I wasn’t good enough to do anything. On the other hand, my friends made the team and encouraged me to try again the following year because they knew I could improve and be great. I took their advice and practiced from days on end the rest of my freshman year to improve and tryout for the team my sophomore year. Through the hard work and determination, I found myself on the team my sophomore year and joining varsity my junior and senior years, which made me feel a lot better about myself.
As most children did, I had the choice to play whatever sport I wanted. Considering my height, 5’10, most would assume that I played either basketball or volleyball. No one expected me to play tennis, and was surprised when I said that I did. During my elementary years, I played softball for seven years, and when I hit eighth grade, I decided to play tennis. My decision came about because of my sister. I had always followed closely in her footsteps because I looked up to her a lot, so when I saw she was playing; I wanted to try it out too. I had never really thought about what it would be like to play tennis. I didn’t hate it, or really know what it would be like to play it. And little did I know that playing would demand so much time, energy, and effort.
This past fall I tried out for the varsity basketball team at my high school. I had played both on the freshman team and then last year on the junior varsity team. Playing on the varsity team is all I’ve wanted to do. I’d practiced all summer and in September and October to get ready for the try-outs at the beginning of November. Unfortunately I did not make the team. It was a huge blow for me because I had worked really hard and had expected to make it. Thankfully my moms and my friends were there to remind me that there were other paths to pursue my dreams. I could have easily been bitter and decided to stop caring, but they wouldn’t let me. I was humbled by this experience and decided to turn it into a positive. I’ve since decided to join the Wilson Live club at school. It’s a group that films and commentates sports events at school. This connects to a possible major that I’m interested in when I go to college--communications or sports
I figured that I had grown about five inches since my freshman year and had gotten stronger it might be time to play basketball competitively once more. When November rolled around I was on the varsity team, but unfortunately my basketball skills was not up to par. It was tough at first, because I was a new face on the team, and the guys on the team had a great chemistry that they had built up throughout the years. After a few weeks had rolled by, I realized that I would not be in the rotation.I told myself that the team’s success is more important than my personal desired statistics.I decided to make the most of my role on the team. It was a tradition for the guys who were not in the rotation to contribute to the game in some way, guys did this by preforming stunts after significant plays and momentum shifts in the game in our favor. This was great because the crowd loved and it and more importantly my teammates fed off of the
Over the summer I was very busy. I had U.S. History for six weeks but that didn’t strike me as a problem. What really caused a conflict was managing tennis, volunteer work, and ACT practice all at the same time. Over the summer I played over six hours of tennis every week. In addition, I plan to play five hours every week during the school year. Aside from tennis, I also volunteer as a tutor both in the ARC and in the Deerfield Public Library. I use my advanced math skills to help out my peers in the ARC and I use my brotherly skills to help little kids improve their reading skills. My volunteer work adds an extra two hours to my six hours of tennis and twenty hours of history. The last of my time usually goes to ACT preparation. As a junior,
When my coach told me those nail biting words I had been waiting to hear for months, I was crushed and confused. My coach told me, "you're not big enough to play at this level". I was as talented as anyone else on the team, but because of my size I was characterized as incapable of playing. I took a step back and looked at the big picture. I knew there was a reason those words were said to me and from that exact moment I decided to change my life around. I was a standout player both my freshman and sophomore year and I was finally called up to play at the varsity level my junior year. I was one of the strongest players on the team and led the team to a district appearance for the first time in years. For the past couple of years, those words my coach told me have stayed in my head. It has determined me to work harder than anyone else not only on the field but off the field as
Life as a tennis coach can be a very interesting job. Being a tennis coach requires a set of great social skills and patience. There will be days where you will not want to repeat yourself nor deal with attitudes that the kids have. Having a diverse mindset is also a key factor. If you are single minded and stick to the basics you are in for a long repetitive day!. In order to be a great tennis coach and be involved with the kids and also help develop their fundamental tennis skills you will need to be able connect with them on a personal level while keeping their wild attention span focused and amused.
Hearing the loud “thump” as the ball hits the racket is extremely satisfying, especially if your life now revolves around this fast-paced and exhilarating sport. Tennis is an outdoor game played by two individuals or pairs of players on a clay or grass court that’s divided by a low net. Each game is played with tennis rackets and small, yellow elastic balls. Tennis was first introduced in Wales and the United Kingdom in 1873 by “Major Walter Wingfield” (tennistheme.com). While most sports are easy to pick up, tennis takes extreme dedication to learn how to play the game, to perfect the amount of technique it takes, as well as its great impact on one’s personal life.
Tennis is one of the most popular sports in the world, mainly due to its ease of play and universal appeal. It is also an Olympic sport which is played at all levels of society and at all ages. Aside to that, tennis is the most major spectator sport because of the four Grand Slam tournaments: the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Going back in history, the earliest form of tennis was seen in a game created by the 12th century French monks, who were looking for entertainment inside the monastery. At first, the monks began by hitting a wooden ball with their hand across a net, which was no more than a string, hung across a courtyard. They called this new game, "Jeu de Paumme." After several years, this interesting game
My love for tennis blossomed at the young age of eleven. During middle school my peers knew me as the boy who was remarkably talented at tennis and I savored that title. Butterflies floated throughout my youthful body whenever someone complimented me. As the years passed, my dad nurtured me into a top player. Before I knew it high school arrived and it was time to compete at a higher level. My excitement was out of this world, but I knew my dad could no longer push me forward and my future was up to me. However, the ego I developed over the years blocked what lie in front of me. I wasn’t looking at the bigger picture; the hard work demanded of me, teamwork, and the motivation to reach an ultimate goal. Throughout my four years of participating
I started playing volleyball in seventh grade, and I had completely fallen in love with the sport. Growing up in a small town, our school always struggled to find coaches that were not related to players. In middle school, I would always be so angry that the important named kids got to play in the A team, while I was stuck in the corner with the B team. Eventually, eighth grade year I decided to join a club team, and increase my skill for freshman year. I enjoyed club, I had actually made the one team, and I had virtually no problems with anyone or anything that season. But, just as soon as freshman year rolled around my attitude changes a lot. I’ve gained the perfectionist trait from my mother, and with this mindset in a sport, you’re almost guaranteed to struggle. Freshman year I had just come off of club, so I knew so much more about the sport and its movements. Naturally I wanted to be perfect, I personally believe that I had done really well as a freshman, but when I messed up I became silent.
I had played on the volleyball team all through my junior high days, and was a starter on the “A” freshman team when I reached high school. As a sophomore, I couldn’t believe it when I got the towel thrown in on me. I was devastated when I was cut from the team. Volleyball was my life; I absolutely loved the sport. How could they do this to me? Everyone told me things would turn out fine, but how did they know? A close friend of mine wrote me a letter stating, “I know that right now it is hard to accept the paths that God has chosen for us, but I am sure whatever you decide to do with what has been thrown in your way you can surpass everyone else”. I thought about what that really meant, and decided she was right. I had been thrown something I was not sure what to do with or how to handle, but with a little advice from my brother, Chris, I decided to take a risk and try something new. I chose to become a member of our school’s cross-country team.
When you think of basketball you think of a pretty simple sport. The game has its sets of formal rules and regulations that are governed by the AAA, NCAA and NBA. No matter what level you play, the game will be relatively the same. In a formal game or even just a pick up game in a gym, the game is the same. That’s not the case with pick up basketball at a city park though. Depending where you live, every court has its own guidelines. You wouldn’t think that a game of basketball could change so drastically but it can. Park pick up ball is rougher, less honest, gets done faster but has a much slower pace. Park ball isn’t even really about basketball; it’s about feeling apart of something, feeling young and feeding your ego.
Everyone in the whole universe has a dream. Everyone wants to accomplish their goal in the future, from Bill Gates to the most unfortunate man in the world. Everyone has/had a desire which they want/wanted to come true. Most of the times, people dream about their future. Much the same as everyone else, even I have a similar dream like that.