Dear reader,
The month usually has four weeks, from my settlement at the moment in Spain, after my period in London (UK) , even though it is a somewhat strange month for me, where I feel somewhat foreign in my own country, due to many factors, where right now it is not appropriate to expand on his explanation. This is being a month where I am training hard, with a view to the training test on March 17 , a month full of situations, authentically pure, human moments, full of a lot of internal learning, and at the same time a month with many obstacles, both internal, physiological, as well as external people trying to trip you up with doses of “helping” you to quit. However of this last month, dear reader, although all have many emotional growth situations, allow me to highlight two weeks in particular, the first and the last. Why these two weeks?, I explain it below.
I highlight The First week of this month , for all my experience in Mallorca , a very good free masterclass, thanks to a very good friend, who has believed in me, and gave me his trust and affection, from all this unforgettable experience, I will stay with four details:
- The good atmosphere and totally empathetic mutual support existing among the current kids of the Balearic Federation , where in many moments there was so much empathy, they forgot themselves, worrying about how the others were doing, along with the three noble, honest and good professionals who carry them.
- I also took the casual moment, with an older man, training alone with his own fitness tools, using his own hand, the little faces of the federation kids, including mine, when observing him, and his subsequent attempt at good use of those tools by themselves, courtesy of said man’s good heart and humanity.
- The motivation both in the kids and especially in the professionals, if there is motivation (there is not in most people), and the illusion that it is easy to involve people to enjoy and improve, regardless of what type of tennis it is, social or competition, it is the first stone to put if you want an evolution within the many stones necessary for the more solid construction of that building, it should always be open to flexibilities.
- The fourth and last, the innumerable details experienced in the competition, beyond the existing fingers on both my hands. We forget absolutely everything. What is the meaning of the competition? When are they children? When are they adults? What is important? ……. etc and more questions I could ask.
From this last point, I will start by remembering one of the phrases Andre Agassi said , “a tennis court is like two separate islands, in which each player is alone on his island”. Observe, dear reader, that lonely island , in children, simply that children, small creatures curious to know what each thing is for, in this case also, with the circumstances of life of being born in a country or countries with all the priority resources at their fingertips without being very aware of it, at the same time they do not know anything about life, but that does not mean that they cannot give us human lessons due to their maturity and their mind free of personalities not yet broken by society in the change from pre-adolescent-adolescent to adult.
I felt a dagger stuck in the depths of my heart, especially the moment the child crossed that access door to the track, and was alone inside that fenced cage. Everything depended on him or her, they were alone on that ISLAND. Observe that during the hours that the game lasted, through an external and internal pressure taken to the maximum extreme unattainable, not only by parents “hooligans”, but by coaches, where all their instruction, written in their notebook, was sent to the technique, accompanied by the typical expressions “Hit the right, like this or handle,. Be aggressive, not defensive, or don’t wrinkle, be brave, or the typical come on, come on, come on” ….. etc. … , My feeling is that I noticed in many cases that the children seemed simple products, to use and to throw away, which we can break them when we want. Because neither they, nor the parents see anything, just a beautiful illusion, based on the damn word called “talent” and on the Only valid victory without content or argument.
The Mallorcan experience made two things clear to me, one very clear, really clear, as much as the Earth needs the Sun , that is , competitive tennis needs social tennis, and social tennis needs competition , for the simple reason that people remember where they came from, avoiding believing themselves gods of the world, different people and also because social people tend to look at those in competition, in turn it serves to challenge themselves to reach limits in their game and their person never thought before.
Also, this experience forces me to ask the following questions about the treatment given to children, who are not players, are people before, let’s not forget, in the stage where the personality is either built or contaminated carrying with her the rest of her life like a real slab, so I ask you, dear reader and the world of tennis, do we leave the next layer? , When we treat the impression of being on an island, apparently fenced or closed, with all the fire of burning emotions for each side of the island in people who are getting to know life is ?. When do we teach what is good tennis and what is not really good tennis? What is the real victory?
I will not finish, without telling a sad and at the same time funny anecdote that arose and that left many people surprised by the way he behaved. Not only, because of the situation with water bottles, which even though it costs a pittance, mortals have to scratch their pockets, and if there are some amounts destined for kids, that should be respected and set an example such as we do most of it by taking money out of our wallet. The best came later, with the curious anecdote of a girl saying “why does she cover herself, if just by looking at her legs we already know who she is? accompanied by all the laughter of those around us, that there were quite a few of us and all saying in unison, that is what we asked ourselves, especially when we were at home. In the end, a girl has to give us lessons to adults, and why not? Adults should let children teach us. Children have so much purity and so much to teach us adults every day …..
Why do I also want to highlight the last week of this month? , that is to say this week that is ending. Basically because of what I experienced in my training sessions this week. I arrived on Monday for my two-hour session, and so on at least four days a week. Then said Monday, on the track I meet a child, it turns out to be the grandson of my coach, obviously, a week of carnivals in Malaga , which without school, he came to Madrid , because you know the grandparents for everything. Just at the moment that I was going to start my training, I notice the face of my coach, that feeling of rush of how to tell the child to sit on the bench or go to the next court to serve or go to court. sentry box with the receptionist.
So, I neither short nor lazy, I decide that he stay with me, that he train with me, even if I had to lower my level, because apart from rallying together, because not while I do forehand, he does reverse, and vice versa, apart from other exercises where we can go rotating. The face of both the grandfather and especially the child, did not give credit to my flexibility and generosity, because I am paying for those sessions because they are not free, as I always answer, we are human, why not? Just seeing the child so happy, and with so much observation capacity to learn from both his grandfather and me, was simply magical.
This situation, I repeated it day after day this week, the funny thing is to see how the days went by, and the boy was so eager for the hours of my training to come to rally with me, yes yes, I want to go with Carlos , hahaha , a privilege. On other days, for a while, in the absence of a child in one of the classes next door, he who obviously looked at his age as they played, decides to go with them for a while, after a few minutes, both my Coach (his grandfather) like me, we see how both the grandson and the rest of the children are getting bored, there is no dynamism, no rhythm, and too unemployed.
After half an hour he returns, once the class there is over and he transmits the same feelings that we appreciated, that he was bored there and also the children told him that they were much better than him, evidently not even remotely, he said, he was right, I say well, get used to the arrogance of the children of Madrid , and he tells me, that’s what happens with all children. I couldn’t help but laugh, another lesson from a child to an adult, pure magic. Then he went back to training with me.
Even on the last day of my training sessions this week, my coach tells me that he also wanted to come and train with me, but amid the cold and that he was not ready yet, the coach did not bring him, but he insisted on wanting to come to rally with me. It was an unexpected week, as full of magic, human lesson, learning and inner evolution. A real gift even more if your coach, Carlos tells you sincerely , when I saw you the first day, he did not think that your evolution was going to go so much in such a short time, and if you change certain details, hide previous bad habits, you will have very good tennis. I am grateful and to continue working honestly for my own improvement and later to carry out the training test of next March 17. Go for it!!!.
Let’s be human, let the purity, authenticity of children teach us, guide them appropriately for when they definitely give the pre-adolescent-adolescent change towards the definitive adult, do not break human-emotionally, giving the most humane and honest change possible, to May the moment you face any evolutionary transgression, you appear in totally humble body-soul form.
A hug dear reader !!. Let’s enjoy from the heart! All the same!.
Faithfully with affection,
A lover & respectful of the values and spirits of whatever sport but specially The hidden on tennis .
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