2018-03-03: Tennis Girl 🎾
Shallow Thoughts
Living in sport-crazy Texas, I've heard horror stories about how loud/obnoxious/mean the parents on the sidelines can become when they are "cheering on" their children. Like the adults to take team building competition too seriously, the adults who try to live vicariously through their children's athletic endeavors end up ruining everything for everyone.
With that in mind, I'm very happy that my daughter has chosen tennis as her sport, and that there is a lot of strict fan etiquette in tennis. The players are not allowed to receive any "coaching" at all from anyone during a game, and excessive cheering/clapping is discouraged. I attended a youth tournament today and even though 15-20 matches were running at all times, it was a wonderfully serene environment.
Deep Thoughts
My 7-year-old made her tennis tournament debut today:
She lost her first match (4-0, 4-0) to an older and more experienced player who would eventually go on to the finals in the main bracket. Lesson learned: it's important to recover back to ready position after every hit, you can't just stand there and stare at your opponent in awe ;-P
In the consolation bracket, she won her first match (4-1, 4-2) to a player with similar experience. Lesson learned: even if an opponent is physically weaker, it can be very exhausting to chase down a bunch of floaters and drop shots.
She then lost the second match in the consolation bracket (4-1, 4-0), again to an older player with more experience. It was the best match of the day for her though, with lots of good volleys. Lesson learned: double faults kill ;)
The scores/results were unimportant - now she knows exactly what a "tournament" will be like and won't have the same apprehension when the next one comes around. And hopefully that resilience transfers to the other challenging endeavors that she will inevitably face in life.
Bonus Thoughts
March 3rd is Hinamatsuri, the Girls' Day celebration in Japan. Normally we would have set up our doll display and enjoyed some chirashizushi, but we were just too busy with everything else going on this week. Hopefully next year's Hinamatsuri won't feel like a such a runaround.
Daily Stats
Cash: 13.0%
Core: 74.3%
Explore: 12.7%
Workout: 25 min Dog Walk + 45 min tennis warmups
Alcohol: Sam Adams Coffee Black
Sleep: 11pm to 7:30am, broken
684|53
It's always good to see how kids grow up mentally and physically. Rather than just 'tell' them how to live, it's always better to let the experience the reality of life and grow up strongly with lots of failure and success. And for sure you are a good parent:)
A leap towards a greater future for her...! 🤗
congratulations to her, finally she made it to the tournament..!
In competitive sports, experience matters.
she will learn from her flaws and be stronger in the next one..!!! 💪
Best wishes for her..! 🙌
btw post caption caught my attention...! 😜
~Tennis Girl 🎾🎾
An interesting story. Thanks for sharing with us.
Nice post , i like it, may be useful, thank you
Really truelly good parent,,,
your child is doing well, she got a great experience and great parent in her life,,,
Always succes for you and your daughter,,,
I like playing tennis too,,,
But i still learn how to service,,, :D
You have to miss the things you love to spend with the people you love,,, it is the best,,,
Thanks for sharing this my friend,,
Your daughter is great, still small but can play tennis game, I am very touched to read your writing this, hopefully for the future he can become champion with his opponent. Tennis is a rather difficult game for me, but your child is very master of the playing field. Success always for you and family, hopefully always happy @grolelo😊
The right choice, tennis is my favorite sport as well
A great tennis match, hopefully the girls @gralelo can be the best. I am also very happy to want to play tennis but now it is in the stage of practice, if at first glance play tennis was the easiest to play, after I tried it was also difficult tennis game. if indeed we have a desire and continue to practice one day we can also be a reliable player like the federrer and other world players.
It was an intresting post. I like the way you put down everything in words and your daughter is lucky to have a father like you .
Extremely classy sports. You always give a very good example for your child. May he grow up with a very nice personality like you. Hope you are always happy with your child @grolelo.