When asked why I play tennis now, after nearly thirteen years of not touching a racket, I say flippantly, that I needed a reason to quit smoking.  In truth, tennis has become a microcosm of my life, an effort to improve myself, my mental toughness, my technical acumen, my physical prowess, and my stress release, all in the controlled environment of a 78 foot by 27 foot court, governed by simple rules dating back to 1873.

As a teenager, when I first took up the sport, I played because I enjoyed the individualistic aspect of the game.  At that time my game mostly relied on the vigor and strength of my youth and an average all around technical game.  I won or lost as a result of my own efforts and I could not blame others for my poor performance.   If my game sucked, then only I alone could improve it. Accountability, what a concept, it has dominated my character throughout my life…more on this later.

With age, I have grown to appreciate the more subtle aspects of the game and have taken a piece-meal approach to improving my technique: the driving forehand, the first serve, the second serve, the volley, the driving backhand, the slice forehand, the slice backhand, the lob, and my net game.  I can draw parallels between each of these aspects of the game and events in my life.  I believe each improvement in my game brings insight into how I might improve the other more pressing activities in my life.

So, I am not a team player…I am an artist who prefers to control his own destiny, paint his own picture, play his own game, whether I’m participating in a sport or in the broader stage of life. And so, I have chosen tennis as my “life sport” and will seek to improve my game and apply those lessons to my life with every loss I suffer.