All You Need Is Love
Lennon/McCartney
The
Beatles were asked to come up with a song containing a simple
message to be understood by all nationalities. "It was an inspired song
and they really wanted to give the world a message,"said Beatles Manager
Brian Epstein. The lyrics are priceless and I think about them all the
time. It is a simple and timeless mantra, "all you need is love," and I hope all might use it well into the future. I feel coaching, each and everyday, teaches me how important love can
be. I'd define a coach's love as a positive
energy, he then brings recognition of the student's successes, so over the course of a lesson, the pupil can clearly see how many moments where they see themselves as successful. This positive reinforcement is vital for any coach who wants to encourage their tennis student to also attempt to improve on their weak points. I feel strongly that for learning to spark and have sustained interest, then this type of love and or energy is a must. The by-product of this, is instilling CONFIDENCE in the individual, one small block at a time. My overall objective is the hope that the student will continually challenge themselves
to improve.
When
you believe in your student, then after a period of time of learning
and working together, they see what you saw and
believed from the start. When they finally own
the skill, and the teacher witnesses this realization toward the end of whatever learning curve, you can't help but to feel great pride. Then the skill is solely there's, to have forever, and hopefully continue to grow from, for a long
time to come. I know that the tennis skill which I once
acquired as a youngster, has now afforded me many terrific life experiences
and can be connected to many life long friendships. I now get to met
many great people which I have come to know through teaching tennis. I guarantee that you will have friends and fantastic life experiences tied to learning experiences your active in right now, and they may or may not be tennis.
Carolyn Smith and all you see below in the picture reminded me of something during our lesson today, by singing 'All You Need Is Love," by the Beatles. Their out of the blue singing of this song reminded me of some unfinished business, and gosh darn you all say or in this case sing the darnedest things. I had one more blog post at paulvitennis.blogspot.com, with the purpose of drawing some closure to the blog and my entire experience there. I didn't want to write the last post under the banner of Paul VI Tennis. I was not the boys or girls coach there anymore, moreover I had heard from a little birdie that it wouldn't be the correct place to close the curtain. I can't thank you all enough for such a reminder and inspiration, to now write the final PVI blog post here.
I couldn't believe what my ears were hearing when you guys started
singing this song today. I had once wanted to make this song central to my last blog post, and
thank all the great people I came across at Paul VI for the love they
showed me and how over time I saw how very important this was for
success and personal growth of myself and everyone connected to either
program. I simply wanted to say good-bye, good luck and that I love them all no matter if I am here or not, which someone
tried to not allow me to do, but I had unquestionably earned the right to
do. I really wanted to thank them as a whole team & both teams together in one place. None of my hopes seemed to be possible, until you guys reminded me of
such today by via my favorite song, 'All You Need Is Love," I think
what you guys were telling me, without knowing it, was to write it here
on the new blog.
I actually wanted to use my PVI blog to also say good bye, and closure there too, not some disconnected last post, which it ended up
being. I'd add to that my strong belief, that the writing of the blog (paulvitennis.blogspot.com) had an overall goal of continuously explaining to the player and parent alike what I was doing per instruction, along with daily observations and of course a dash of fun. Too often I had a coach in my youth who told me what to do but not why, and that often puzzled me, wherein I learned from my 1st experience coaching at Haddon Heights that many a student and their parent desired such, and doing our blog connected those converging ideas, thus it was easy and fun to do.
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| Heights Tennis Team '07 |
The blog is never going anywhere so please continue to use it to perhaps learn and reference for such, but promise me you'll smile and laugh now and then when you check it out, moreover any of you, parent and or student simply use it to help recall one of the funny adventures/moments we experienced, but pour yourself a glass of ice tea first. That ice tea tradition was one I first started with this team seen above, and I hope that tradition which we continued here at PVI will always be something you remember too, whether you liked the ice tea or not. Finding whatever small tradition will always make an experience more memorable, sincere and positive. I loved making the ice tea for each and every match for our team members and their parents, and it made me feel good the quicker the two big pitchers disappeared. The girls on this team had a few traditions and making those shirts was one of them, which they did many times. So again I learned and made myself better in a small way, and maybe I passed it on as a reminder to your own creative inclinations, and whatever they may be in the future for whatever setting.
The journey was never boring, and I saw and you must have too, a lot of other teams and coaches who looked to be having the opposite of our teams' experience. Having fun in the opening stage of our three year journey was of utmost IMPORTANCE, considering the experience level of many. If I could do whatever little things to keep reminding you to only worry about moment by moment & day by day growth and improvement in practice and matches, without worrying about what it said on a scorecard, than one day, when you all starting winning on said scoreboard in the Courier Post, it would never stop, whether it was on or off the tennis court.
Our school was more often then not smaller than our opponents on the other side of the net, wherein both our teams were playing in the toughest, biggest conference in South Jersey. Cherry Hill East, Shawnee, Lenape, Eastern, Bishop Eustace and Cherokee, boys and girls tennis teams, in one year or another while I was coach, competed in a South Jersey Sectional Title match. This was one or two steps away from a state championship match. All of these schools had a sustained level and expectation of success which never dropped. I understood from the get go, this is what we were up against and I loved the long term challenge. How cool would it feel to know where we all started and then feel where I hoped we could arrive at, by one day simply looking those teams and their players in the eye and them knowing that they now had some real competition and we weren't an instant win anymore.
It would have been foolish of me not to expect a considerable amount of losses for either team in year one. In stating all that I was sad that I couldn't complete the story or write our song in a final blog post. I very much wanted to be there in year four and share in the enjoyment with each team and its members who without doubt won more on the scoreboard as seniors than they did in year one, therein I could have easily wrote that pretty tune over and over again on the blog. I had that joyful experience for a brief moment with the boys team in year two, where we won our first conference title in 15 years and then repeated that feat again in year three. I know I would have experienced a similar feeling if I was there with the girls team in year four. I thought I had totally missed the boat in expressing myself to you in anyway... until.
Eureka you guys in my tennis class today(see above picture) made the light bulb, above my head start to flicker and the old ideas for the once forgotten the last post were quickly coming back Now that good-bye and thanks would take shape from the song lines below, from 'All You Need Is Love,' and be the blog's final post. I had long ago thought to highlight
three specific lines of the song and comment on how each was related to my
reflections now. I had posted many a Beatles music video on the blog,
and frequently encouraged the PVI kids that they get hip to the Beatles, and explained often why they should do so, all the time stating how and why they were timeless. This was the connection to this greatest of bands via the blog, and there would be no better way to end the blog, then to connected it to the aforementioned song in the final post. I could have just posted the final song line from the 'The End,' ..."The love you make is equal to the love you take...." but I hit a writers block over my head with that theme, moreover John and Paul are still fighting over who really wrote the line and what it actually was. Anyway, here we go, the end.
'Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game,
It's easy.'
I think we, coach and team-members, learned how to play this game, along with the game of life, over those 3 years of boys and girls team seasons. The tennis part was easier than we all might have believed, from where we all once started in 2008. However, I didn't learn the game of politics fast enough, and for that I am sorry and I could have if I wanted to, but I guess I was foolishly stubborn in that regard. I am
specifically sorry to all the seniors, on either team, and not being
able to finish what I started as you were the freshman I came in with. I
tried to have only that chance and then I'd walk away. I felt that if I served you, the team member and their parents, to the best of my ability, that this would somehow be more than suffice.
I wish tennis was perceived and garnered the same respect and support as the other sports at PVI, but in my opinion this wasn't necessarily the case, and in a sense I don't fault them at all. I know football, soccer and basketball will always be more important than tennis, perception has long ago become reality. It is also an undeniable fact that you could fill in the blank of that first sentence of this paragraph with 90% of the other schools in our area and the same statement would be true. What is the same, no matter what the sport, is the positive life lessons we've all experienced by simply being an active and engaged participant in any sport. These athletic experiences have long been proven to enhance and improve the individuals' class room learning experience.
I felt strongly from the beginning that we could all feel like winners and I wanted each and everyone of you to be able to feel the same, no matter your ability or contribution noted on a scoreboard. This is one example of how I viewed such, and each one of you has had more than your fair share of conversations with me about your success in the classroom. These conversations and periodic emails were always positive and garnished with a healthy dose of encouragement. Sometimes they were long but you know that's how I roll. Really this was my sheer will, and came from my heart to say any and everything possible with the hope of one day seeing and hearing of your successes, on and off the court. You, parents and team members, all have my email and that will never change. So at anytime in the future anyone of you wanna drop me a short line telling me whatever successes you have recently had, and whatever it may be, I can assure you it will bring me great joy and likely be the highlight of my day.
Though I can't directly connect each individual I had on my team with what they did or didn't do in the classroom per grades, I suspect many of you were winning there too. I know many of our seniors went onto college and they're continuing to win big, and just by having the courage to take that next step. Morgan Kelly and Terry Long are continuing to play tennis at the college level, at Rutgers University-Camden. I hope that this is the first example of many a moment which I will have the privilege of hearing about for years into the future. In the end this is what I'll take the most pride in, that maybe I helped guide and fostered this belief of mine, in whatever small way, in each one of you and it'll continue to grow forever.
'Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you
in time - It's easy.'
Myself, the team-members we're all on journeys, and we're all on the right tracks, our own tracks of time, and each and everyday, we will become better individuals and not better than anyone else. That is what my teaching of this sport stressed time and time again. Thanks again for allowing me the opportunity and space to grow as a coach and person. This has been a priceless experience, which I'll be forever grateful for having, and really one that you individually allowed me to have. I hope, in any small way, that you might feel the same as I do.
'Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.'
'Things happen for a reason,' it really isn't a stupid cliche. I didn't understand it at first, as it pertains to this situation, but I now understand a little bit more, and whether I like the reasons or not I am certain that overtime, the good reasons will come to me fully. You will all experience that very same phrase, in your lives, sometime in the future, surely it has happened already. I'd remind you to be patient, more patient than you could ever imagine, and not get that upset in, and shortly after something you don't like happens to you, where you had no control over any of the outcome. I assure you again, that those good and bad reasons, and then how the result of such impacted and shaped the direction of your life, they'll come to you too, and maybe when you least expect it. ... 'Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you
in time - It's easy.'
All You Need Is Love
Lennon/McCartney
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love. There's nothing you can do that can't be done. Nothing you can sing that can't be sung. Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game It's easy. There's nothing you can make that can't be made. No one you can save that can't be saved. Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time - It's easy. All you need is love, all you need is love, All you need is love, love, love is all you need. Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love. All you need is love, all you need is love, All you need is love, love, love is all you need. There's nothing you can know that isn't known. Nothing you can see that isn't shown. Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be. It's easy. All you need is love, all you need is love, All you need is love, love, love is all you need. All you need is love (all together now) All you need is love (everybody) All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Harry Chapin - Cat's In The Cradle
The
song is told in first-person by a father who is too busy to spend
time with his son. Though the son asks him to join in childhood
activities, the father always responds with little more than vague
promises of spending time together in the future. While wishing to spend
time with his father, the son starts to model himself on his father's
behavior, hence the verse wishing to be "just like him." The final two
verses are a reverse of the roles, where the father asks his grown-up
son to visit, but the son responds that he is now too busy to find the
time for his father. - quote from wiki entry for Cats In The Cradle
I
know all who I taught today can feel very secure and grateful, that the
father-son/daughter relationship, described in this song, is the exact
opposite of their's.... Happy Belated Father's Day!
