Personal Narrative: Opposing The Safety Of The Tennis Team

While looking through the three lenses of family, biogenetic, sociolegal, and role lens, it is very hard to limit yourself to only agree with one. However, while studying these three ideas I have come to the consensus that the most prominent and practical lens to look through is the sociolegal lens. Although one cannot discredit the family values of others, throughout my lifetime I have experienced sociolegal family lifestyles. An area in my life that I have seen this lens play a huge role is throughout my tennis career. A unique experience that I have been able to be apart of throughout my college adventure revolves around Mizzou athletics. Playing tennis here at the University has been one of the most rewarding

They could be life threating if not reported and attended to. If an athlete gets injured they most likely will not tell their coach or trainer for the fear that they will be taken out of the game. If the athlete does come out and say that they are in pain and something does not seem right and the coach or trainer does nothing about it that is negligence and they could be fired and sued if the athlete gets hurt even more. One of my biggest fears about being an athlete is getting injured and not being able to return to play the sport’s that I love because someone did not take the injury

“Oh no, please don’t tell me this is happening. Mom, can I just skip this tournament?” I pleaded, “There is absolutely no hope for me.” Being the dramatic person I am, I lamented the imminent end of my tennis career. I went into the tournament with an expectation of failure. I started the match by accidentally whacking the ball over the fence, tripping on my own feet rushing to end the point. The little confidence I had when going into the match dissipated within a few minutes. I continued the match pondering how to angle my racket to put spin on the ball. Every time I failed, I blamed it on the high skill level of my opponent. Unsurprisingly, I lost in an hour. When looking back on that match, I realized that it could have gone differently had I not brought myself down before. My lack of

What is the only thing harder than disciplining a dozen ten year olds? Disciplining them on ice! All throughout my life I’ve played sports, and no matter what sport it was, there was always one person who seemed to have it out for me…the referee. The referee is one of the most hated people in the world of sports, but is also one of the most crucial. I grew up with the mindset that the referee was the enemy. Whenever they made a call against me or my team, they were always wrong, no matter how obvious the penalty was. But one day, my whole perspective on referees changed---the day I became a referee.

In a New York City school, there is a young, attractive teacher, who also doubles as the school’s football coach. This high school has the reputation for having one of the best football teams. The teacher/coach, Mr. Nelson, s close with several of the football players on his team. They often seek out his advice for various problems. There is a select “inner circle” who gets invited to Mr. Nelson’s house to watch games socialize. There have been rumors circulating that there is partying and drinking while the students are present. With the previous statement in consideration, these boys are in high school and are not of a legal drinking age. There is another planned and Mr. Nelson’s old football pals are invited, along with the current best

My journey on my high school tennis team has been a peculiar one. Going into my freshman year I was touted as one the stellar players, one who was on the path straight to varsity. Unfortunately, I tore one of the ligaments in my right wrist and was sidelined for the months right before the tennis season. Going into my season, my confidence was low, I was worried about making the junior varsity team. I would end up making JV but not varsity. The next year I was back with more determination. Injury free, I had high expectations but lacked confidence. As I entered try-outs, I was shocked. My teammates were waiting for me. Each one of them came up to me and told me that they knew I was going to play this year, and that I was going to live up to

“Vivian, we are the only two returning players on the team next year”, my co-captain for the Mira Mesa High School Tennis Team notified me.

Being ranked number one on the Vacaville High School Varsity Tennis Team was one of the most mentally challenging events during high school. I love tennis, but it was very difficult balancing all of my Advanced Placement classes, trying to having some sort of a social life and playing tennis year-round all at the same time. The only reason being number one was mentally challenging was because I was losing most of of my matches. I thought about quitting the tennis team more times than I could count. It was my first year playing in the number one spot and I was not ready to play against such high-level tennis players. I knew that if I didn't show up we would lose because the rest of the team would have to play against a player that is one level

I went to Riley’s house and John was there. John brought his tennis ball. Riley said, “Hey let play baseball with the tennis ball”.

Always willing to adapt to any given situation, I aspire to make things as convenient as possible for everyone. I have been an avid team member the varsity tennis team all throughout my high school years. Consistently playing mixed doubles with my partners all being upperclassmen, I had reached the point where I became the partner-less upperclassman. In need of a new partner, my coach and I discussed potentials, but reached no solid conclusion. Aware of a new tennis team member, an incoming sophomore, my coach turned to me as a guide and mentor to help him feel comfortable.

Seeing women in sports getting more recognition is incredibly important to me. Growing up I was constantly involved in some sort of sport. Sports are what kept me out of the house when things were starting to get unsafe and they taught me how to get my anger out in a safe environment. I was too busy in school, and with friends and with sports to get into trouble. The police would be over at the house one night and the next day I could run off any anxiety in PE or recess or at soccer practice, or dance practice or kickboxing.

It’s amazing how our lives intertwine. There’s a theory that every person in the world is connected by six degrees of separation, meaning that every person knows somebody who knows another person, who’s related to and so on. So that, by a maximum of six people, anyone in the world can be connected to anyone else. This played an interesting part in discovering a passion of mine: soccer.

The car jostled as we passed over a speed bump to reach our destination, a homeless shelter. Never having coached tennis before, ideas frantically buzzed through my head on how to engage the children at the shelter. Immediately sent out to the tennis courts upon arrival, we were left gaping at the half-torn nets and the dead tennis balls strewn across the moldy courts. We gathered the children together and divided them into groups, shepherding them to different courts.

I have come to the realization that playing sports is not for me. Having watched professional tennis players playing tennis sparked my interests in eighth grade. If you win best two out of three sets, you are considered a winner of the tennis match. Seeing professional tennis players play tennis made me want to play tennis. It was personal to me that I needed to become good at tennis, so I would be able to play varsity tennis in high school. The previous sport, I did was track and field, and I never was a winner. So, learning to play tennis was my destiny because I figured that if I learn how to play, then I can win. My mom bought me a tennis racket and signed me up for tennis lessons, with a friend. The first tennis lesson was making me go crazy. Having to learn how to hold a racket to how to hit a tennis ball seemed impossible. By the next few lessons, I started to learn how to play tennis.

I first started playing volleyball at a very young age. I was in the seventh grade when my volleyball career started. My sister started playing in the seventh grade and I just wanted to follow her footsteps. My seventh grade year was ok because I had just started out and really didn’t know the game. There was A team and a B team, where A team was better than the B team. I tried my best to be on the A-team, but guess where I ended up, on the B team.