At the urging of his golf coach, Kai started playing competitive tennis this last month. The goal was for Kai to develop better hand-eye coordination. Now the boy is obsessed with tennis.
Kai Attacks Tennis
Maybe because his parents no absolutely nothing about tennis or maybe because he can set his own pace and expectations, Kai has attacked tennis. He owns his game in a way that he never could with golf. As a parents who were never really into sports growing up, we feel in a deficit, so we both researched every aspect of golf. We picked a sport where nobody is trying to kick or tackle our kid… seemed like a safe bet notwithstanding the occasional errant tee shot or drunk golf cart drivers. The downside is that we may have robbed any chance the kids had to figure things out for themselves. To provide some balance, we ushered both kids along a quick path to independence in golf. They both caddied themselves in tournaments by 7 years old and played in multiple world championships. Still, they didn’t choose the sport themselves and so with Kai, he found a way to express himself in tennis that wasn’t quite accessible to him in golf.
Tennis turns out to be a game of instant gratification… return a good cross-court winner and you’ll be coming back. In golf, it’s a bit of a delayed gratification, read perpetually anxious. Well, that’s when things are going well… When things go badly in golf, you have 200 yards to walk up and think about how bad things are going. In tennis, on the other hand, you have to just get past it and be ready to play your next shot a few seconds later. One blink and it’s 40-love, I assume that’s why Djokovic opens his eyes so wide.
Kai always found a way to emulate Phil Mickelson in golf. Whereas Zoë is a fairway, GIR, putt-putt player, Kai would always find two trees to hit between while flying over the bunker to a tucked pin – he loves the thrill of pulling off the impossible shot. So, I was surprised to find how mature and strategic his tennis decision making turned out to be. In golf, and my sport — chess, you play the course and the board respectively. However, in tennis, you need to analyze your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and play accordingly. You definitely play the person.
Kai wins his first tennis tournament, and another and another!
After a month of getting crushed, Kai finally won his first tennis tournament and then he started to win a few more. I am an eager spectator on his nascent tennis journey!
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