Tennis season begins again

For most academic tennis teams, the season begins in the spring. For my son, tennis season begins at the end of September. That's when the indoor tennis clinics ramp up.

My son just started high school this year. He hopes to make the school's tennis team in the spring. He started nursing this hope nearly about three years ago.

Since we could not afford either the monetary or temporal commitment to get him into the country club lesson arena, we did the best we could with YMCA lessons initially. Last fall we found a great off-season indoor program that was both affordable and beneficial to his form.

So, virtually every Sunday from September through April, one of us will drive him thirty minutes from our house to the club where the program is hosted. Lessons last for ninety minutes. When I take him, I do school work, read, listen to audio programs, or write. Then, we drive home. Sometimes we'll run errands on the way home.

I mostly enjoy my time at the tennis club. Though, I feel like the proverbial 'soccer mom' driving my child to one commitment, or another, on the hamster wheel of middle class American family life.

At least I have a nice, warm and dry, indoor venue to hang out in while K plays tennis. He did play soccer for about five years. By the end of fall soccer season, it was dark, cold, and sometimes wet outside. Many of the practice fields didn't even have portable toilets, which usually proved pretty inconvenient after an hour or so of hanging out in the cold and damp.

Plus, I have to hand it to K, his commitment to improve his game has not been the only means he has used to increase his chances for making the school team in the spring. Last year, while he was still in middle school, he got himself introduced to the high school coach. He has even arranged to play a few matches with the coach at our local YMCA. Isn't it amazing what motivates kids to act in their own best interests?