When you go to tennis camp, you most likely have a few goals that you want to accomplish while you are there.
• You want to learn a lot.
• You want to become a better player.
• You want to have strong connections in the tennis world.
• You want to become more fit.
• You want to have a lot of fun.
It is possible to meet every one of these goals, but to do so, you need to have a few qualities to help you along the way.
5 Life Qualities Everyone at Tennis Camp Needs to Have
While there are many qualities and skills that will benefit you when you attend tennis camp, here are five of the big ones. Many of these skills play off of one another, but each is important in its own right.
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A Drive to Succeed.
One of the best ways to actually succeed at anything is to want to succeed. That is half the battle. While it is certainly not the only thing you need, it is an important one.
Having a drive to succeed is going to make all of the other skills listed in this post a lot easier. Even if something like patience is not usually something that you have a lot of, you will learn to develop it if you want to do well at anything, tennis included.
The drive to succeed includes
• Wanting to do your best when you play
• Being willing to work and improve without complaint
• Doing whatever it takes to be the best – whether that means practicing a lot or letting yourself trust your partner when you are playing doubles
In essence, having a drive to succeed means you want to go out there and win, and you are willing to do what it take, without cheating, of course, to accomplish this.
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A Willingness to Learn.
This is similar to having a drive to succeed, but it is its own skill entirely. Having a willingness to learn is an important skill no matter what you are doing. Tennis is certainly no exception.
When you truly want to learn, you will
• Listen to your instructors
• Take lessons seriously
• Work hard
• Practice, practice, practice
• Accept constructive criticism
• Seek out helpful advice
When you want to learn, you will find a way to do so. Even when you do not have someone there helping you, you will work to find a way to learn on your own. Students who truly want to learn and are willing to work to do so are the students that are most likely to show massive improvement at the end of camp.
If you want to really improve and see a major difference in your game, then one of the best things you can do is enter camp with a mind that is truly ready to learn whatever the instructors have to teach.
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Patience to Get There.
Except for maybe the very best of players, you do not become great overnight. Learning how to play tennis correctly and well takes a lot of work and a lot of time. If you want to succeed, you need to have patience.
If you do not get your serve down on the first day of camp, but it seems like everyone else in your group did, there is no need to panic. The same goes with all of the other skills you will be learning. Do not worry if it takes you a while to pick something up. Just keep practicing and avoid getting frustrated, and you will eventually pick it up.
Sometimes, having to work hard at something makes it seem that much more rewarding when you finally accomplish it. So be patient as you are learning, and when you finally get to where you want to be, you will be able to truly relish your hard work and accomplishment.
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Strong Work Ethic.
If you want to be the best you can be at anything, you have to learn how to work for it. This is different from the other skills because here it does not matter how much success you have seen, you want more. It does not matter if you have learned all of the skills, you can improve on them. It does not matter that you were patient while you were learning the game and you developed all of the skills – you want to perfect them.
Having a strong work ethic means that once you have learned how to play, you keep playing hard. You constantly want to improve yourself because you are not satisfied with just being okay. You want to be the best that you can be, and you will do whatever it takes to get there.
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The Ability to Have Fun.
At the end of the day, who cares how good you are or how strong you have become. What matters is that you are having fun.
The ability to have fun while you are playing tennis will naturally help you develop all of the other skills mentioned here. If you are having fun, you are going to work harder, be more patient, want to learn, and want to succeed.
All those hours of work will not only be worth it, they will be fun.
This is perhaps the easiest skill on the list. If you go to camp with the attitude that you are going to have fun, then guess what? You will have fun.
Qualities of Life
There are many more qualities that you should have when you attend a sports camp of any kind. For example
• Curiosity
• The ability to get over mistakes
• Stress management
• Anger management
• Confidence
Dustin Wax, from Lifehack, points out that decision-making skills and critical thinking are also qualities you need to succeed at almost anything. With some possible exceptions, most of the skills you need in life can be translated into playing a sport.
Now that you know the qualities you need to succeed, you are ready to start learning. Sign up for tennis camp before it is too late.
