high school sport

[Noone]

F*ck tennis.

(Hmm... i just noticed how long this is, so i don't really expect anyone to finish this... )

I've been playing this sport my entire high school career, through summer and fall and taking off in winter, because obviously I can't make the ball bounce in snow. I play in the ice and when it's snowing sometimes. When i can't play I practice my motions and technique.

I play for two hours a day during the summer and run to keep in shape for it. I read practically everything on the internet there is to read about tennis so i know more about tennis than anyone i met and more than my coaches. I have practically one gig of space devoted just to tennis text and i read all that and plus i watch all the tennis matches i can and i analzye the strokes of the pros on tennisone.com.

The only thing i don't do is go to clinics and get private instruction because for one it wastes my parent's money, two it is just drills, and three i know more than the coaches (although that sounds arrogant i have read tennis for THREE years tennis.com tennisone.com stuff like that subscribed to them).

So what does that get me on my tennis team? F*CKING SH*T. I was crappy in ninth grade and so my coach automatically i'm still crappy (senior year) so what does that bastard do? He segregates me with all the crappy people for the past three years and you know what? They suck majorly. So there are two groups of people my coach thinks are either good and the crappy. It wouldn't annoy me so much if the people he put in the good group were all... good.

But no. Some suck too or alot they don't do jack shit in the off season and they are put there even though they play tennis like a joke. They don't know anything about grips or their strokes. I'm more consistant and have more pace, but since they alway dink the ball and they always have court where coach sees them and i'm on the very last court. He only sees me play once in a long while and that sure as hell not long enough to judge crap and so now i'm the only F*cking upperclassmen in the crappy group made up of underclassmen.

SOOOOO basically i wasted my entire high school career on a game that damn damn damn damn coach won't acknowledge or notice i'm at least decent. His blindness to me doesn't validate my time devoted to the game and so invalidates my time playing tennis and a majority of my life. IT JUST PISSES ME OFF THAT CRAPPY PEOPLE THAT ARE SEEN MORE ARE AHEAD OF ME IN THIS HIERARCHRY. Although he claims there isn't one, why are all the top five people from last year in the same group? And not spread around. THEY always get preferential treatment.

So someone may think, so what does one person's approval matter as long as you love the game? Well basically he has the power to control rankings and low ranking equal next to no playing time and exposure only to crappy people not skilled or challenging at all. I don't get to play a wide variety of people by myself. And the fact that approval from my coach would be nice too, rather than an arbitrary obviously biased style of coaching. It happens alot. Coaches pick favorites. But it still doesn't change the fact that people that work really hard are screwed over.

Yes i know, there are worse things in life, but life sucks for me and this is just another piece of flaming sh*t on life i've wasted. I'm usually not good at sports, but this one i am good in although it sounds arrogant.

[SorceressofTime]

ya know, i actually read the entire post. BUT, there was one thing that kept going through my mind when you were ranting: why haven't you confonted your coach about your problems and tell him to take you serious? you should tell him how much you practice and even probably invite him to come with you to practice one time. that'll show your dedication to the sport.

but like you've said, his judgement over you for the past three years isn't fair at all. seriously, let him know how you feel even if you need to corner him. you seem to be VERY serious about your future in tennis so i don't see why not.

[Rainbowlemon]

On 2004-03-10 21:53, SorceressofTime wrote:
ya know, i actually read the entire post. BUT, there was one thing that kept going through my mind when you were ranting: why haven't you confonted your coach about your problems and tell him to take you serious? you should tell him how much you practice and even probably invite him to come with you to practice one time. that'll show your dedication to the sport.

but like you've said, his judgement over you for the past three years isn't fair at all. seriously, let him know how you feel even if you need to corner him. you seem to be VERY serious about your future in tennis so i don't see why not.

I agree entirely. It doesn't take a genious to work out that you are very serious about the sport, so why not confront your coach? Tell him how you feel, that you perhaps want to be moved to a better group, and maybe he will finally see your talent and you will get some recognition.

Until then, however, it seems you have very few other choices, so if the situation truly is how it comes across to be, then I seriously reccomend getting it sorted out before it's too late. Some people need talent fed to them on a silver platter, and this coach seems like one of them

~ Antimony

[Armok]

I hate Phy Ed teachers there a bunch of washed up football/rugby muppets who favour other fuck up losers like them. I remeber we had a Table Tennis class for a term and I'm amzing at TT. They started the football team players on the first table (12 tables move up 1 for win down for lose etc). It took me all leason to get to table 3 then next leason. Everyone start from original table. Back to table 12 again, god I hate them.

I ended up always playing ppl who couldnt even do a bloody back hand/closed their eyes when you hit it hard and in general where crap.

[Noone]

Hmm... I haven't bothered to read this post for a while.

Well. the reason i haven't confront him, is that... well... manners, he acts like such a nice guy. I ask him to play in the "good" group, but he makes light of it like he says "ahhh... lets see okay? We'll just practicing for now. Oh, could you pick up that ball on the way back?" although it's obvious hes makes distinctions. I'm not the confrontational type of guy. My older brother played for four years and graduated and i've always been seen as the crappy little brother.

Other people told me to confront him, but some how he always sidestep my complaints. You have to hear his voice, it sounds so innocent how he avoids the issue. He's a teacher by the way. I don't know, i guess i'll just enter tournaments and do well in college.

Thanks if you read the post, i just wanted to get it out of my system.

Edit: The only reason I don't tell him about all the time spent on tennis, is that he judges people on personality. So he dislikes arrogance and probably won't believe me. It'll sound like a lie just to get ahead. I already gave up. I'm just going to have a fresh start in college.... Hopefully.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Noone on 2004-03-14 11:45 ]</font>

[Aceizace]

"Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, teach gym" -School Of Rock

Yes i know what you mean about not wanting to confront him. I get that a lot, i really hate conflict. Luckily for me i'm crap at PE anyway, lol. I read the whole of your first post, not too long.

Well all i can say is just keep on practicing, as you are doing now. As far as i can see, you're doing all the right things, it's just people in power that are stopping you from moving on. Maybe one day someone will realise just how good you are and mention it to your coach. If not, then i wouldn't worry. Like you said, a fresh start in a new school would be one of the best things.

[hollowtip]

On 2004-03-10 20:23, Noone wrote:

I play for two hours a day during the summer and run to keep in shape for it. I read practically everything on the internet there is to read about tennis so i know more about tennis than anyone i met and more than my coaches. I have practically one gig of space devoted just to tennis text and i read all that and plus i watch all the tennis matches i can and i analzye the strokes of the pros on tennisone.com.

This doesn't necessarily automatically make you a good player. Although I understand your plight, maybe you need to have a good look at yourself in the mirror. I'm not taking the side of the coach by any means, but just because you have been with the program since freshman year and put forth the most effort shouldn't earn you a spot with the better players. I understand there are some coaches that do play favorites, but your dedication does not make you better than anyone else, and I am a firm believe that most coaches do play the best players on their team (unless you have attitude issues). Of course there are exceptions and maybe yours is an exception, but maybe the problem doesn't lie within the coach.

I guess what my advice to you is to talk to the coach and explain to him your dillema, and ask for explanation on why you haven't been up with the so called "elite" players on your team.

[opaopajr]

on a non-related note...

i was SO pleased ot find out that PE was not calculated in your cumulative GPA when applying for college. It wiped out all those C's bringing down my GPA, it was a wonderful bit of news.

ps: oh yeah, so sad, evil prick of a coach, etc. with sympathy opaopajr

[derBauer]

Not all PE teachers are washed up football players like someone said earlier. Some are women who wish they were washed up football and rugby players.

[hollowtip]

On 2004-03-15 00:29, opaopajr wrote:
on a non-related note...

i was SO pleased ot find out that PE was not calculated in your cumulative GPA when applying for college. It wiped out all those C's bringing down my GPA, it was a wonderful bit of news.

ps: oh yeah, so sad, evil prick of a coach, etc. with sympathy opaopajr

How do you get C's in PE? The only way someone could get C's in PE were if they didn't attend the class or gave 10% of effort or less.