I used to think tennis was a sport that I was going to eventually master. I had high aspirations, like many before me and many after me. Being a kid who could play tennis reasonably well it seemed that success would be a natural progression. The naivety of youth.
When I was a kid I went from a total fear of winning to a more than competitive junior in numerous State championships held in Perth, Western Australia. Before leaving the State to train full time in Queensland I racked up enough points to have a Western Australian ranking of number 7 for the 16's age group, but I was no future champion. In fact I was far from it, I was just an average player in a long line of very good players who could hit a ball over the net with some consistency.
I consider myself a tennis nobody, a tennis junkie who used to wag school as a teenager to go and hit balls at the local club. In fact I once replied to someone who asked me when I left school with " Usually at lunchtime to go and play tennis ". I had no motivation to do anything but play tennis when I was a kid yet I had no real understanding of the enormity of the task of doing it for a living.
I learned to respect the sport of tennis on a tour of Europe in 1991 as a 21 year old with two other Western Australian tennis players, Brett Patten and Peter Gerrans. Both of them could play the game well and I admired their ability to take it up to the Europeans who didn't speak much English. I found that alone to be intimidating.
The following story is my account of not only a European tennis tour but the problems associated with putting all of your eggs in one basket. I gained a huge respect for the game both during the tour and after when I took up coaching. I learned that tennis was no 'Walt Disney' sport with Mickey Mouse type characters running around hitting fluffy balls over nets made of clouds.
I learned that it was a head game, a thinking man's game that could make you a hero one day and have you scratching your head for answers the next. To me it was a sport that finally made sense and for that I am truly grateful.
I am just one of thousands of tennis players who had a dream of hitting against the World's best on hallowed courts at Roland Garros or Wimbledon yet didn't make the cut. I used to look upon that as a failure however my perception changed after a personal assessment on it all many years later.
It's that sort of sport, one that takes years for the head to finally understand the finer details of it all. It's not to say that you ever stop learning either, I am still learning after 35 years of playing and coaching.
It wasn't all business on that trip, we had a lot of fun and a few beers along the way to lighten the mood after many losses to Europeans with Rafa like forehands. You have to live a little as well.
This book typifies the travels of thousands of tennis players who didn't make the big time, however that should not be looked upon as failure. To not realise one's full potential when you had the opportunity would be the only time a tennis player should ever doubt themselves.
'A Tennis Journey' is a book that has taken me more than 25 years to finally write but I still remember Europe as though it was yesterday. A trip down memory lane with two mates.
Glenn Thompson
I believe it's possible to respect the sport of tennis too much, I know I did. My heroes when I was learning the game were Swedish legends Bjorn Borg and Mats Wilander and I will never forget when Mats was castigated for his rather open assessment of his own ability.
John McEnroe openly criticised Mats for playing down his chances at certain major tournaments when he was just on the scene as a teenager even though he had won the French Open at age 17 in 1982. Personally I believe that Mats was showing a sign of respect to his more experienced and credentialed opponents and I admired him for it.
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