I currently work for Australia Post and do occasional forays to country towns where I still teach the game as best as I know how, without the gimmicks and with a realistic approach. Never do many weeks go by where I don't think about what I could have done to make myself either a better player or a better person but I chose a sport with a one in a million success rate. Tennis made me into the person who I am today.
My days of wagging school to play tennis when I should have been learning caught up with me when I made my first attempt at getting a 'real job'. I lacked intelligence and common sense because I put all of my eggs into one basket and hoped for the best. I even tried gambling for many years as to me it was simply a throw back from a failed tennis career. After all it was a punt of epic proportions was it not to try and make the pro ranks ?
Gambling was a way to take my mind off the real World where an everyday job simply didn't do it for me. I wanted some excitement, the sort that has an adrenalin rush, like hitting a tennis shot to perfection. Working a 9 to 5 does not stimulate someone who has relied on those types of things in his life for a long period of time.
A while back I caught up with an ex pro, a guy who once beat a former World number 1 in the 90's, one of the biggest wins of that era. We hit some balls and we talked tennis. The game has done a number on him as he struggles with society so he now does his best to stay away from it. I related to his battles. He has since found something else to keep him amused now days though it is not work, simply a past time.
The sport of tennis is not one that I teach my own kids though they can all play. I once had a 50 shot rally with my eldest son and my daughter made the Interschool tennis team three years straight but I do not offer any of them tennis lessons. I do not want them to become good at it just because they think they should as their Dad can play.
If they asked me I would teach them but just for fun and not for anything else. I would not enjoy watching them play a tennis tournament because it would bring back too many memories of my battles with the game, more so mentally than anything else.
I do not hate tennis, it has been good to me in many ways, I simply am wary of the process that it involves and the path it can take some kids down because in reality the success rate is minimal and the odds aren't good. Too many other issues go hand in hand with tennis and a failed education is just one of them.
If a kid decides early on that tennis is what they want to do it's tough to have a normal life because training will take up time that most kids spend going to the beach and riding their bikes.
If a kid puts all of their time into tennis and goes down that path that requires an outrageous amount of discipline then naturally other things will fall by the way side. Mates and an education are just two of them but you also have to look at the mind set of a kid who is totally focused on the pro ranks. Is that the mind set you are comfortable with your kid owning at an age that should be spent simply enjoying being a kid ?
I have been through that type of mind set as a kid, a teenager, a young adult and it cost me a 'normal' life, one that could have involved more time with mates and girlfriends that you never get a second chance at. You don't get two shots at a childhood. I saw some old mates still battling on the Challenger Circuit five years after I accepted that I was not good enough to make a living out of it. Did I cringe at their perseverance ? No, I admired them for it yet I had my reservations as to just what it was still costing them both financially and mentally.
The Challenger Circuit unless you are winning on it regularly will pay you 'peanuts' and I know how good those guys are who play it, they are bloody good, yet not good enough. Where do you find money from if you aren't regularly winning ?
When I teach tennis now days I do not do anything but help a player reach potential. I do not offer a student a series of events to enter, I do not offer a program to help them become a red hot player, I simply offer them a chance to become a better player. I previously mentioned I work just as much on teaching a student how to play tennis as I do teaching them how to hit a ball as most know they are two different things. The two must go hand in hand.
I am not a Tennis Coach who commands a 'regular' fee per hour because I do not do it for a living so therefore I may appear to some as cheap but I am not about to put an hourly rate up just so it gives the public an impression of 'Wow he's expensive, he must be good'. I will leave that to the self confessed Zen Masters who swear by their tuition.
I have seen much in tennis, a European tournament circuit that leaves someone under no illusions as to just how good you must become if you want to make a career out of it. I have trained full time which was a tough gig both mentally and physically yet it once again gave me a realistic way to now days look at the game.
Both of those experiences gave me a view on the sport that I would not trade for any hourly rate offered to me to teach it. Without perspective how do we as tennis coaches really know how to teach the game with any real substance ?
You can turn up to a lesson in a flash car, bright clothes and racket to match with an hourly rate that has 'Master Coach' written all over it or you can teach the game with your mind as the key factor. The gimmicks are irrelevant to someone who knows what is required to become successful at it.
I do not consider my level of tennis knowledge to be by any means outstanding yet I feel that it is high enough to offer some advice that may just help someone become not only a better player but a smarter one.
I am glad I learned tennis, I am glad I became a Tennis Coach but if I had the chance to go back and do some things differently, well, I am no Robison Crusoe in that respect. I will continue to teach tennis and I will continue to do it at a rate I am comfortable with and one that does not have 'self importance' written all over it.
I will also keep writing about tennis and who knows I may just one day find peace with this silly sport that is on most occasions a battle of the mind more so than with the person down the other end.
I wish you all the best with your tennis in the future and I hope you make the right decisions in life just like you are required to do in a match to become successful at it.
Glenn Thompson
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