building a mini-tennis court

just as i thought, yet another rambling blog entry, this time determined to write about my favorite sport of tennis, and the business of starting a child on the courts, via a now sanctioned USTA-approved mini-tennis court, as the place that i am living at is currently custom built for such an enterprise, if and when i have kids, and stay there, it will be perfect for the discipline of teaching a youngster the drills of sustaining a successful tennis career long in to their adult years by not burning them out early but getting them up-to-speed on how to properly learn the game, and so i embark on this endeavor with a lot of altruistic experience, as i was a round-about now dad-to-be i hope yet not quite there, with much in the way of altogether perfect preparation with how to hold a racquet, how to strike an open-stance forehand, a newly built serve, that works finally, and a currently sub-approach backhand, that gets the job done on better than normal service returns, so it is and so it shall be....

i started playing tennis in 5th grade with some classmates, some of which i still know today, but i was the only one to pursue tennis as my primary overt sport, and went on to play three years of #1 singles at Catholic central, in Grand Rapids, and won a partial scholarship to Aquinas where i played #3 and 4 singles and #1 and 2 doubles, i won city conference title my junior year in high school, and won my flight at both singles and doubles all four years in college for the conference we were in, which was not terribly rigorous, but was a good marker to be all conference every year that i played tennis except my freshman year of high school and college, even though robbed both of those times (:)), which is to say that i practiced a lot in my formative years, which is what my kids will be doing, if i am so lucky as to have children and be a tennis parent, now if you know anything about tennis, you know what tennis parents are like: demanding, ridiculous, rude, and offensive, like Mike Agassi, but you cant argue with the results, unless of course you want to have a good relationship with your child, judging from Andre's autobiography overtly speaking of his strained relationship with his father primarily due to the forced tennis that was had in his very young life, when he was taught to hit thousands of tennis balls every day, imagine it....

i do, and will probably copy Mike's regiment, just wont be such a prick to my kids, but if they are on the floor of Meijer's throwing a tantrum, it wont be a spanking it will be 200 balls in the backyard as disciplinary tactic, at least thats what i got so far, how does anyone either willingly or not until you are ready become a parent, its mind-boggling the responsibility, and so the only thing i can think of to be a good parent is to teach them the mental fortitude that helped me via a sport putting the pressure on them early to think their way out of circumstances, rather than hit, reason through logic, and not through force how to get the best result, like should i serve-and-volley on break point, or should i play it safe, should i go-for-broke on forehand returns, or should i chip and charge, maybe i could be more aggressive when down as opposed to playing not to lose, or something like that, all factors when playing a match, especially with regard to singles, but doubles as well, how to play against an opponent or with a teammate, all are in play in tennis, so i will try and build a tennis court in my backyard, and under some restraint build a ball machine like what Mr. Agassi has been documented to have built for his children, and maybe just maybe they will learn life's lessons through the best sport that i have ever been exposed to, and that is hard-court and clay court tennis....