Balance

Since mid-June I have watched a great deal of tennis. I have seen youngsters who have just picked up a racket for the first time to working with state qualifiers and have even had the chance to see a couple USTA National Open tournaments. It is awesome being around the game. I even recently had the opportunity to watch Kim Clijsters do a workout while I was on the road. As I got to thinking about all this tennis one thing keeps coming to mind…balance.

Almost without fail, the player who is balanced and under control has dictated and dominated the matches I have watched. There is so much goes into being balanced in tennis, but also in life. We have a great balance here at Oberlin between our athletic endevors and our academic lives. The two complement each other extremely well and actually have helped so many of our athletes be better students and vice versa.

One of our alums, Ron Garcia ’95, was in my office not long ago and we were reminiscing about trips we took with the team, dealing with Coach Hunsinger, and just how mean Carl was (see link on Carl for info about him and John). It is great that even though it has been probably 7 or 8 years (if not longer) since Ron and I have seen each other that we were able to talk about matches, opponents, teammates, and Oberlin as if it were yesterday. This is part of the greatness of the Oberlin College Men’s Tennis Program. We have amazing people who have been a part of it and continue to bring in people who love the game of tennis and want to be a part of that history.

I am currently on the road again attending the Midwest Open near Chicago. Next week I’ll be in Ann Arbor for the Ann Arbor Junior Open. Then on August 6th I’ll be in Kalamazoo to meet players at the boy’s 18s nationals and on the 7th I’ll be at a tournament in Flint, MI. I hope everyone is having a great summer, but I am excited for the year to start so I can work with the guys again.

I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.
-Zig Ziglar