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When did you start playing tennis?

18K views 83 replies 64 participants last post by  KCatty 
#1 ·
I started it in summer 2009, so while being already 17 years old :sobbing:

what about you guys`? :D
 
#2 ·
Played around as a child with my parents, but actually started playing around age 10. My parents hired a coach for me at around age 13, so I could be competitive on my high school team which won a bunch of New England championships, and I went down to Florida to either the Evert Academy or Saddlebrook to train every spring break and during the summer. Did not play as much in college, but now that I'm graduated, I try to play at least two to three times a week. But I'm convinced I'm past my peak and aren't as competitive now, than I was back in highschool :sad:
 
#7 ·
I startet in May 2011 :tape:

Now I can't believe why I didn't play earlier. :eek:
 
#9 ·
June 2007. :cheer:
So, when I was 11. :)
Edit:
wait...Im 19 right now so...omg the math is confusing me. :facepalm:
 
#14 ·
7 or 8
 
#18 ·
I started in 2007 right before my freshman year of High School. :) And I became #1 on the team in 2 years :cheer:
 
#24 ·
When I was 10 or 11 because I had played and quit every other sport imaginable :sobbing: tennis is the longest I have been playing a sport. I didn't actually know if I was good until I played a U16 tournament when I 13 and won :D And I haven't even had a proper coach :hysteric:
 
#27 · (Edited)
I remember when I actually sat down and watched my first tennis match when I was 18. July, 2000. My best friend at the time called me up and told me to watch the Williams Sisters play. He said it was rare that they played each other.

Before then, I had no clue on how the scoring system operated nor did I even know much about the Sisters. I actually thought the were twins and from Africa :lol:

So I turned it on and they were playing on Grass. It was a semifinal encounter and Venus was up 3-2. From there I began watching the match with a lot of interest. Chrissy Evert and Johnny McEnroe were commentating and it just enhanced the first-time experience.

They were athletic and super intense. I knew then that I had found another sport to play. At the time I had ran Cross Country, Track-N-Field, played Soccer, Basketball, and Football.

That September, after the Olympic Games and the US Open, I picked up my first racket. I have not put it down ever since
 
#32 ·
I started playing when I was 7yo and did group lessons until I was 10.

I was watching tennis on TV all the time one summer and this one time, my dad was driving past some tennis courts where lots of kids were having lessons. He noticed me watching them and signed me up for group lessons for the following term. It was probably the only time in my life where I willingly went to participate in something without giving it a second thought. I had never played before so I didn't know what to expect or know how good I could be.

In my first lesson, I was shown by an assistant coach how to swing a forehand and then he got me to do it. He fed me 5 shots and I hit EVERY single shot over the net! I surprised myself and the coach, who wasn't convinced that I had never played tennis before. The assistant coach told the head coach what I had just done and I was quickly taken aside to join the head coaches' group. After 3 months, I was put into an older group, which meant that I was hitting with 11 and 12yo kids. I was so scared of them because (to me) they were hitting the ball really hard and I was nervous that they would hit me. I know that they didn't like me because every time we had to pair up, no one wanted to go with "the little kid." Anyway, what I had over the "big kids" was that even though they hit harder than me, I could still get the ball back over the net more times than them. I learned to play smarter. I didn't grow up to be very tall at all, so those early experiences came in really handily!

After a year, I was invited to join the head coaches' training squad. This was for kids who showed tournament potential. I had seen some of those kids hit just before their training and I had dreamed of one day joining them, but maybe not until I was in high school. So there I was, a Year 4 kid, hitting with 13, 14, 15yo teenagers! I wasn't as scared of them anymore because of my first experience hitting with older kids. I did that squad for two more years and played regional junior tournaments.

The next step, however, was being invited to join a State training squad. I was so happy to get an invitation in the mail. It was like getting a letter from Hogwarts haha! Sadly, I was forced to decline the invitation because the timing of the squad clashed with classes that I had to do outside of school. I wanted to drop those classes and play tennis instead but my parents wouldn't allow it. My parents said that I could join the State squad once I was in Year 8. I was somewhat placated by that. After all, it was only another 2 years. It felt like a lifetime!

When the head coach heard that I had declined the State squad invitation, he was quite dismayed. He had to write in to the State tennis association with a list of potential players, get a scout to come down and watch us play. Of the 10 names that the head coach gave the scout, only 3 invitations were sent out. It was me, another boy (who was better than me - he always beat me in tournaments!) and the best girl in our group. We were all 10yo at the time and were good friends. I didn't know any of that and felt so bad. If the head coach only knew how badly I would rather be training than doing educational classes! So he suggested to my parents that I do private lessons instead. He felt that I had outgrown his squads and needed more special attention. The other two kids were already doing private lessons. The head coach made a sales pitch to my parents telling them that he could take me to a professional level and that I could play tournaments around the world like his son does (or rather, did). My parents said that they would think about it to his face, but later in the car, said that the coach was just trying to make money off of us. That was the last time that I was ever at his coaching school. :(

I didn't give up on tennis. I kept playing. I used to hit against the wall EVERY SINGLE DAY. When I started attending private school, they offered tennis as a sport. You had to go through a trials process and any kid who was anyone (not all, but most) attended one of those 7 private schools and played tennis for them. I was at one of them. I passed the trials easily and made it into the top team but took note that I was also in a team with State-ranked kids. They were REALLY good. We practiced twice a week and played against one of the other private schools on Saturdays. There was surprisingly a lot of bitchiness amongst the boys in the top team. I was the target of a lot of abuse because I wasn't State-ranked and didn't play tournaments that offered junior ranking points.

We played an inter-house competition at the end of every year and I was the top player for my house. I beat two of the State-ranked players, who were ranked 2 and 3 on our school team. We won the cup that year! So amazing! We didn't have a strong team either and not everyone on the team actually played tennis as their chosen sport. It was pretty rag-tag. But what some of the lower-ranked guys lacked in technique and finesse, they made up for in tenacity and persistence. It was such an honour to play alongside those guys. I was never invited back to join the State squad because I had no one to vouch for me anymore. I didn't care so much. I still had 4 years left of high school and was just happy to be playing as often as I liked at school.

I'm going to stop there with my story because it's already gone past the thread title, which was, "when did you start playing tennis?" and I've already answered that haha.

I'll leave it there by saying this: I'm not the sort of person to give up easily, but I don't think I would have believed in my ability for tennis as much today if I hadn't hit those first 5 forehands over the net 26 years ago in my first group lesson.
 
#33 ·
I was 13 :lol: So 5 years. Around the same time I started watching tennis actually. Quit volleyball to do it since they were in the same season in my high school. :lol:
 
#34 ·
- told my parents that I wanted to play tennis at the age of 5 (18 years ago) :bigcry:

- started hitting against the wall of my home when I was 10, smashing windows many times :lol:

- finally started training when I was 12. I was better than most, played some tournamens, but I was still a nobody :sobbing:

- stopped playing when I was 15 because I went to high school in another town :sad:

- didn't pick up my racket for the next 4 years because it was too painful for me living with the fact that tennis is just not going to be my life :help:

- after that one time I played, I decided not to wake my demons ever again :tape:

- met a girl at my university who played tennis in the same town 2 years ago, had the same coach etc., decided to hit with her a couple of times to see how it goes, and it was cool :cool:

- started playing two days a week this year with some of my friends, now I'm obsessed with tennis again, this time only as a recreational player. The only problem is that my friends aren't that much into it :(

- stopped playing in July because they removed the nets from courts which were for free (I had to drive to another town anyway, but I'm not ready to pay almost $20 for an hour!) :fiery:

- planning to start again as they are about to put them back :hearts:

- somewhere deep, deep inside still hoping to achieve Muster's 2nd career :hysteric:
 
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