where it began...
Hi everyone and welcome to the most exciting site in tennis!!
I would love to begin by telling you all about the single most important ingredient a potential great coach or player needs to succeed…PASSION! It is the burning desire to do something, an intense hunger that overrides and overwhelms your entire being.
Wow! Sounds pretty deep huh? Well, anyone who knows what I’m talking about is thinking ’Sure it is, I know this feeling….I wake up every day and all I want to do is play/coach tennis’.
About 25 years ago I was playing in a local park in the Neasden area of North London. I used to hit the courts after school, at weekends, during school holidays; in fact just about every free moment I could, whether it was playing with any number of tennis mates ’best of 7 sets’ or (sad as it may seem!) dropping balls for myself to hit imaginary winners past Stefan Edberg or serving an ace (one of about 30 of course) on match point to narrowly defeat Jimmy Connors in a 5 hr epic at Wimbledon!
I remember the day in question still very clearly, perhaps like it was last year.
I was in the middle of a ‘huge’ rally against my best mate at the time Paul French (AKA Mats Wilander), when I became aware of a rather
spindly man walking towards our court. My immediate reaction was to make up a new excuse as to why I had not booked the tatty tarmac tennis court that I was using to live out my fantasies….oh and ‘no I did not know how the fencing surrounding the court had been lifted and pulled back just enough so that 2 skinny 13yr olds could crawl under’. But my creative imagination was not necessary on this occasion!
As the man approached ‘Centre Court’, he beckoned me towards him. Did he not realise that I was at break point in the deciding set of a ‘Wimbledon Semi Final‘?? ‘Hey you’re looking pretty good there. Do you fancy playing a bit more tennis’? If he makes it through his semi and I make it through mine, perhaps we could meet in the final, I thought……the fantasy was tough to break!
‘What have you got in mind?’ I answered, still mostly waiting to return serve. ‘I coach and play at a club around the corner called Coles Green; you should come round and join in with some of the guys’, continued the man.
After a further 45 secs of discussion (a bit rude, I know, but I was about to break serve!), I had discovered that indeed a tiny but well run and ‘buzzing’ club existed about 10 minutes from the park, where I would find several ‘top 10 players’……perhaps John and Ivan were there?
Now, I know you want me to let you know if I broke Wilanders’ serve and went on to the ‘final’, but I really can’t remember; all I recall is that I did beat the former French Open Champion 9 times out 10!! What I do remember is what happened after a lucky meeting of similarly PASSIONATE people 25yrs ago; one an aspiring ‘Wimbledon Champion’ and the other a ‘magnet of hopes and dreams’ nowadays known as a great Coach.
The player was me of course and the coach…….David Simms, Founder of Tennis Unlimited.
The friends I met and still regard as some of the finest people I have ever come across, along with the environment moulded who I am today. The park courts, the broken fencing surrounding the courts (I still deny all knowledge!), the playing of set after set after set with, among others Hareen, Ronnie, Angela, Perveez, Tom and Ashok in the Brent Tennis Squads in Gladstone Park, the matches against other Parks and London Boroughs all stay with me to this very day. Not to mention representing Inner City London in a ‘week of a lifetime’ adventure versus Inner City Brooklyn staged at Brockwell Park, Brixton.
Wow! Did my coach do all this for me and my mates?
I was #4 in the world at ‘Short Tennis’ at one point. David had organised the Unofficial World Short Tennis Championships in the local leisure centre. As I turned up to meet all the ‘foreign’ players, I remember asking David, ‘Where are all the players from overseas?’ ‘Oh, the other federations didn’t reply so it’s just us lot. Yeah, and your seeded #4!'
Despite not understanding the ‘Unofficial’ tag to one of the best afternoons of my life, I thought I was in heaven; all my mates, a ball I could do anything with, serious fun AND I was ‘unofficially’ one of the best players in the world!
What an imagination, both of us! Or just 2 passionate people finding each other and then ‘infecting’ everyone around them with the same enthusiasm, love for the game and masses of competitive spirit.
I shall make a few references in coming weeks, months and hopefully years when writing this column….I wanted to give you all a brief glimpse into my past and the person that had such an impact on me from the start.
All juniors…….play with PASSION
All coaches…….coach with TLC
Until next time…..
Justin |
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