Winning or taking part?

Getting back in the pool always brings back reminders of when I used to swim when I was younger. I loved swimming but I was definitely not made for competitive swimming. I especially remember in high school when I always came 4th in the inter house competitions on sports day. Worse when I did the inter school competitions! There you were made to swim everything if you were willing because every participant would gain their school a point. I vividly remember me embarrassingly swimming the backstroke just relieved when the race was over! Now though I am so glad that I am a relatively strong swimmer because in adulthood it's all about the exercise and the stress relief. Enjoying holidays by the sea and being able to support my kids in the water. 

The wee man now loves sports. Give him the opportunity and he will want to give it a go. At the minute his passions are tennis and rugby. He actually wants to be a professional tennis player when he is older and his inspiration is to be the next Nadal. I am not sure if he is good enough for that but that has never really been the incentive for us for him to learn any sport. It's always been for him to experience a wide range of opportunities, exercise, making friends. He's started to compete now and my introduction to competitive tennis has been an eye opener. I never realised the amount of pressure that could be put on a bunch of 8 and 9 year olds still only playing with an orange ball! Rugby is a team sport so it's not as intense as becoming competitive in tennis. The limelight is not solely on you

and they actually don't start keeping score yet. In tennis it’s just you out there with your opponent and not even a coach on the sideline. The responsibility is on them to keep score and call the ball out. Sometimes I secretly wish there was an umpire. I have seen some kids chucking rackets about, shouting and crying. I like to think Francesco knows the behaviour I expect of him. I would hate for him though to get so stressed about the losses that he decides to give up. I have been told that there is nothing wrong with him being competitive and I guess there are a lot life lessons to learn through it.

My only hope is that he will always enjoy playing tennis and continue to learn to play tennis well. Hopefully when he is older and can join his local tennis club wherever in the world he is he will be appreciative of having learnt to play well.