Rick Meyers

The True Reward of Tennis
Rick Meyers, Chairman of Junior Tennis Council of Abilene, Texas wrote the following article that clearly explains the gift of tennis. This article appeared in the February 3^rd issue of the Abilene Reporter-News. This article was shared by Drew Meyers.

By Rick Meyers
A few years ago a parent of a girl that I had been teaching for the past seven years made an interesting comment to me. The daughter had just graduated from high school and had decided not to play college tennis.
The parent was disappointed and said, “These seven years have been wasted. She should be playing tennis after the money and dedication her mother and I gave her. Now it was for nothing.” That eight second comment prompted an eight minute response from me and I could have talked for 8 hours about the lifelong benefits that her seven years of tennis had taught her. I explained to him all of the things she had learned that she would not have learned in any other situation. Tennis (and golf) is one of the few activities where a kid can learn honesty and integrity on their own without the need of adult influence. If a child can learn such valuable characteristics by themselves they will carry those characteristics in a deeper way for many years.
When a tennis player watches an opponent’s shot land close to the line that is probably in the court they have to make the decision whether to do the honest thing and call it out and take the point. It would be easy to try to change the score in your favor and the opponent might not ever know. What’s to keep a kid from trying to be dishonest? The integrity that he has learned from previous matches.
In any other youth activity there are referees, judges or umpires to keep the competition fair. But this parent’s daughter learned to play fair without someone else making the judgment calls for her.
These are also activities that the player makes his or her own decisions about their strategy and tactics during competition. If things aren’t going well they have to decide what tactical changes to make to get them winning again.
I reminded this parent that other sports have coaches to handle that for the kids. The coaches make those decisions for the kids. Tennis players are out there all alone and are forced to make decisions for themselves. Then they learn from their decisions.
The doubles match that she played taught her teamwork and to strategize with a partner, looking out for someone else and working together as a single unit. The other sports that the daughter played when she was younger couldn’t teach her these things. They did teach her work ethic, teamwork, dedication, sacrifice and how to handle adversity just like tennis did. However, tennis brought her so many other things that she wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else that she will use for the rest of her life. All of these things will be used when she gets into the work force to help her become even more successful and into her married life.
I also told him that the foundation of her strokes that he and his wife had laid for her in her tennis would stay with her. She might not play much tennis in college or for the first few years after college but these tennis players usually come back to the game in their late twenties. She may not thank you now for laying that foundation for her but she will appreciate it when she starts to playing again as an adult because she will be able to start out as a much better player and have more fun with her lifetime sport.
I wish I had a dollar for every time an adult said to me, “gee, I wish my parents would have encouraged me to play tennis when I was a kid.” You have provided that for your child, I told him. You have provided an avenue for her to learn some wonderful traits that will help her be a better person, a better business woman, a better spouse and she will use these traits for the rest of her life. These past seven year have hardly been a waste. Your support and encouragement of tennis was one of the very best things that you have done in raising you child. She has benefited in ways that she, or you, will never know.
I saw that man last week. The time HE talked for eight minutes and what he said were the same things that I had said to him all those years ago. He had seen the benefits of his daughter’s time playing tennis in her teen years. As his daughter made her way through college and launched herself into the work force he saw the character in her that she displayed as a youngster on the tennis court. He saw her honesty and integrity. He saw her making decisions for herself and that’s when he knew that those seven years were worth every minute of time and every penny of their investment.
The last thing he told me was that yes, now that she was 28 years old she had just joined a USTA league and was playing tennis again as a strong 3.5 player and loving it.
Remember that winning isn’t everything but learning and developing traits that you can be proud of are what is most important. The years, time and the money invested are all well worth it at the time and for the future.

Louisiana Junior Tennis Director
Jana Fogleman

LTA Junior Competition Staff
Please contact Jana Fogleman at (504) 391-0934 for all Louisiana Tennis Association junior competition inquiries. Jana has been selected as the LTA staff member assigned to junior competition.