What I Learned During My Tennis Tournament

On the afternoon of August 8th, 2016 a young girl was facing the tennis match of her life. The Girls 14s Nationals were coming to a close and the championship trophy was only 3 games and 1 set away. Everything she had dreamed for was so close, yet so far. The extremely sunny sky glared into her eyes, making it impossible to think. But she couldn’t lose hope now, if she won this match, she would be crowned the Girls 14s Nationals Champion for Tennis. All she had to do was clutch this game. Just a few more points…

“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

After close losses in the first two sets, the Ladies fell behind 22-21 in the third and were three points away from defeat. However, a junior Hailey Lawson kill put herself on serve, and three-straight kills from senior Desiree Frey continued the match.

Serena Williams is the number one women’s tennis player in the world. Her outstanding skills have earned her 50 million dollars through just prizes; that is more than any other athlete in the world (“Serena Williams Fast Facts”). Her fast reflexes, amazing skills, and outgoing personality have made her known as a powerful woman and an inspiration to many young girls. This African-American woman is almost six feet tall and is made of steel. With her long, muscular legs and her quick arms, no wonder she is number one!

My team won 3 out of 4 hockey games in my hockey tournament. It was the championship game for a banner and a medal. We were playing the Ice Dogs who we had originally beaten 3-1. Over the summer we did so much dry land on the track and my dad said it will all pay off today. I stepped on the ice for warm ups and the ice felt smooth under my skates. I was prepared for a hard hockey game.

With the start of the second set, my outlook became slightly more positive. Though my newfound optimism allowed my frustration to subside, I was still unable to close the points. At the first switchover, I found myself down 3-1. Words of wisdom from my trainers were playing on a loop in my thoughts. Pivot, step into the shot, attack the net. I used these thoughts to maintain composure as I gained my first lead at 4-3. Being just two points away, I could almost taste the victory. I took the court with the most confidence in my shots that I had felt the entire match. However, my confidence was not enough to gain the set. Falling to 4-5, I was unsure of what approach to take to keep the set alive. One game was enough to change the outcome of the entire match.

With about 30 minutes of a quick break Coach Gad gathered us into the hallway for a congratulations and another motivation speech. From what I can remember of the speech it had a lot to do with how everyone doubted us and no one believed we could make this far. After hearing this I and probably everyone else got this huge spark of fire ready to win the championships. As we made our way back to the gym the buzzer buzzed and the game was about to begin. The team we were playing was Marlboro one thing everyone knew about this team was the had this star player named Grace who basically was the whole team. Every set was basically for her for her and every dig she seemed to get. Knowing this made ourselves play smart and try our hardest not to spike the ball to her. We were serving first Alyssa gave a beautiful float serve that Grace passed and spiked which gave Marlboro the first point. Losing the first point didn’t break our confidence, throughout the entire set the points were coincidently going back and forth. A key play in the first set was when Grace was approaching for a spike Megan roofed her. Everyone who was cheering for us went crazy you could feel the floor shaking from our screams. Even with our enthusiasm Marlboro was determined to win the first set 25 to

After joining the team, my natural instincts to compete took over and I battled everyday to get a spot in the playing lineup. Although joining the team as a junior, I quickly earned my teammates respect by being prepared for and persevering through difficult practice sessions. I played matches against my teammates every day in order to move into the team’s playing lineup, meaning a top six spot. My relentless effort and infectious enthusiasm at practice led to my place in the doubles lineup with Julian Lenz, one of the top ten players in college. I had to adapt quickly, getting stronger and adding more spin to my strokes in order to compete with Julian against some of the best players in the nation. In order for us to be a successful team, I had to match Julian’s mental focus and desire to win. Through spending time together on and off the court we were able to build a strong relationship that would propel us to an exceptional season. Julian and I were able to win key matches in the Big 12 tournament because we grew to trust one another in high-pressure situations. Ultimately, my success as a student-athlete was a result of my tenacity to succeed and ability to adapt to new circumstances.

I quickly lose the ball by a horde of people.I still following the ball.The kid tries to bike it over our defence by as he kicks it up i take it and pass it down to the midfield .The midfield passing it around to the defence then we find gap,take space, take it down the side, and then cross it and hope to get a nice trap and a shot or just a shot in general.We scored from doing this 3 times in 10 minutes.We ended up get trash talk from the other team.We just messed around and passed the rest of the game and tried to get some people who haven't scored yet.We won and it was my first year ever winning i was so proud.we walked over to get our team picture and our trophies.I left with a huge smile on my

“ It's ok Amanda! You got this!” My coach had said. The ref blew her whistle indicating we can start. Maddie passed the ball to raina who passed it to maggie, making their way up the field towards the other goal. One of the girls from the other team stole the ball and came at me.

We had to go to bed early because we knew the next few days of competition would be long and tiring. Once the next day came around we woke up and prepared for our first two games of the tournament. I was nervous, this was my first time playing in a "AA" provincial championship. Many of the teams we would be facing this weekend we teams we had won and lost too. But some of the teams had never even played against us. These two days of round robin competition had put us into 4th place which meant we would be going top the semi-finals. The pressure to preform grew even greater as we went up against the top seated

As her career has progressed, Williams has become a symbol of hope for African Americans and women throughout the world. She’s a UNICEF International Ambassador of Goodwill and has partnered with Hewlett Packard to build secondary schools in Kenya. While many believe her interests outside the sport take away from her tennis, her non-tennis endeavors help her in the big picture. The non-tennis activities have decreased her tennis schedule, increasing the longevity of her

We were all to bowl and add together our scores. Only the top eight scoring teams would move on to the playoffs. Soon after cleaning his ball, Nate went up to initiate our first game, and I could tell off of his first roll that today was going to be a good day. Strike right off the bat! This only fueled our hype and confidence further. Because of this, everyone on the team seemed to have the game of their life. Even Coach seemed to be extremely impressed by the game that we had going for ourselves. After three games of qualifiers, we sat quietly while the officials tallied up the scores. Even though we were all nervous, I was still confident that we had made it. There was no way we failed with the amount of work we put in. After an extended period of time, the officials announced the scores. Gretna had placed third in overall score! We were so excited knowing that there were only seven teams in our way to the state champ

I remember it clearly: I was 10, sitting in the back of our car. It was a hot day and I had my face pressed against the window. I was watching my eight-year-old brother try out for Little League and I was jumping out of my skin. It was killing me that I couldn 't try out. I could throw and catch pretty well ... and I was fast. Suddenly, my mom left the car and walked right up to one of the coaches. I watched as she talked, gesturing back at me. She ran back and opened the car door: "Okay, Karyn, you 're on!" Within seconds I was on the field with the boys. I was in my element. I played well and made the team. It still is one of the happiest moments of my

My racquet was a junior Wilson from Walmart, my shorts were the only athletic clothing item I owned, my tennis shoes were not even running style let alone court shoes, and my knowledge on tennis was nonexistent. Nonetheless, after that first practice I fell in love with the sport and it was one of the best decisions I made. Through the past four years I have learned all aspects of tennis from techniques to famous athletes; however, the most important things I gained were the life lessons.