Daily Insights 07 [What happened to the effort?]

From time to time, we all look back at moments in our lives when things felt simpler. For me, that time was my youth, as I imagine it was for many of us.

It was a period to focus on school, sports (if you played one), friendships, and discovering your niche or passion.

For me, tennis (and getting fit for tennis) was my main focus. Academics played a role, but I knew that my only realistic path into college was through a tennis scholarship.

So, the choices on the table were clear:

• Stay focused on school and do well enough to get into college.

• Get ranked as highly as possible to attract recruitment.

• Find a college with the best scholarship offer, making the process as stress-free and affordable as possible for my parents.

With those conditions in place, working hard wasn’t an option, it was a necessity.

There wasn’t a single day in practice when I would allow a teammate to outwork me. Ever. I made sure that, at all times, I was pushing myself to the absolute max, leaving nothing in the tank.

If I wasn’t at practice, I was training at home. I bought a weighted vest and a 15-pound medicine ball for resistance work. I even built my own forearm roller (wooden dowel rod, string, and a donut weight) and crafted a footwork ladder out of rope from Walmart, since money had to be prioritized for training costs, tournament travel, shoes, string, and other essentials.

I pushed the limits at home, on the court, and during runs and sprints. Always on my own, just me, my Sony Discman, and a healthy dose of teenage frustration.

That hunger feels almost non-existent nowadays.

Where is the drive?

Where is the work ethic?

Where is the desire to be the best?

Where is the fire to show your coach what you’re capable of?

At the end of the day, this isn’t about me.

I do my job, then return to my family. My challenges now are different, I no longer have to fight for a scholarship. Still, I continue to pursue my own physically active goals and personal growth.

What my training partners and I strived for years ago now feels like a distant memory, a vision of what junior players once embodied. As a tennis coach, this disappoints me. But what concerns me even more is that the future of our world rests in the hands of today’s youth.

Of course, I’m just one person in the grand scheme of things, insignificant in the rotation of our planet.

But still… I know I’m not the only one noticing this shift.

Where is the grit?

Am I missing something here?