Enjoy losing!

I would first like to congratulate Nadal on his win at the U.S. Open, and the Trinity Club Tennis Team on doing a terrific job at the San Marcos tournament this weekend.  These dedicated players have truly succeeded due to their dedication to tennis and the hard work they put in to it.  Also congratulations to those who lost.  The courage it takes to keep trying in the face of defeat is immense.  It is not hard to keep trying when you are winning, but when you are sure you will lose it is hard to convince yourself to keep on trying. 

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This is true in everyday life as well as tennis.  When things don’t quite go your way it is tempting to just quit and sulk about not having immediate success or getting your way.  But when you quit trying your very best you set yourself up for failure.  Even if you become complacent in your abilities you set yourself up for failure.  Just because you can win at the level you are at right now does not mean that there isn’t someone better out there to beat you.  During the summer I took tennis lessons from Coach Jerry Ticer.  He is hard on his players and works on every aspect of the game.  Even though he is a great coach he could not get the girl in the lesson after mine to play anyone who was as good, or better than her.  She was so afraid of losing that she allowed herself to become worse over time because she would not venture out to play someone she might lose to.  Not being afraid to lose is important in tennis; without some loses there will never be a true victory.  You can play beginner players all you want but in the end you are not doing anything for yourself.  You are simply feeding your ego and becoming a stepping stone for the players who are actually willing to stretch themselves to become better. So enjoy losing! You are stretching yourself to become better and you will reap the benifits of your work.  And then, you will get The Ace in Life!

Attitude that allows you to ace

At Trinity University many students find that tennis is a big part of their lives and tennis at Trinity is a truly special sport. My name is Colleen Collins and I am an officer in Trinity’s Club Tennis Organization. Club Tennis is for players who cannot, or do not want to play for Trinity’s Varsity Tennis team but still want to get out and play. We have many out of town tournaments that are a ton of fun, the most popular being the Brownsville tournament. Tennis has always been a big part of my life and continuing to follow this passion has led me to meet some really great friends and continue to work on my game. This year I tried out for the Varsity team and though I did not make it, it reminded me of a very important aspect of tennis. Attitude is everything. I don’t mean acting like you think you are “all that and a bag of chips” but having the right attitude while you are playing.

Confidence in your ability and remembering why you love tennis could be the deciding factor in your ability to win a match or if you lose. In the past when I lost sight of why I loved tennis or thought I wasn’t a good player, I would usually lose to girls who I would normally have won against. My attitude was the deciding factor in what the outcome of the game would be. If you are confident in your abilities then any shot in tennis is possible. A good example of this is Roger FedererCan you name one time when Federer hasn’t played well? Can you name one time when you have seen him not looking confident in his ability? Can you name one person consistently better than him in this point in time? If you answered yes to any of these, I hope you are kidding or can give a good example. The point is, Federer knows he is a great player. He exudes confidence in his game and knows the shots he can make. Though most of us are not Federer we can see from this pro that confidence and love of the game can empower you to win against most any opponent. Attitude is the most important thing a player can work on in their game. Once confident and in love with your sport, you will be able to harness the drive to excel in any shot you put your mind to. I know that once I reestablished my love of tennis I was able to hit more aggressively than ever before and hit an awesome kick serve. And that serve made me feel like I hit The Ace in Life


Tennis by MCC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.