So Monday evening was a new thing, tennis coaching down at the club for what’s laughably termed the elite group. Laughably because I’m involved and I’ve basically never had any coaching or formal training in my life, just years of family members who were bigger than me hammering the ball in my direction!
Of course I spent most of the two hours just trying to actually focus my eyes after an afternoon of editing (staring at a fixed point for three hours straight and forgetting to blink) and half of the rest wanting to beat to death the smug keen kid who mistakenly thinks he’s the best there because he’s had years of coaching and is asking about local tournaments. However, the main thing I remembered was that I don’t take instruction well. Maybe I’ve just never had a chance to get used to it, but learning from others has never been my strong point. When I’m knackered and don’t really know what I’m doing in the first place, it’s even harder!
It has been suggested in the past that I might also have a teeny tiny problem with authority. When I was at uni and told my mum (a rather reserved woman from a military family) that I didn’t know what I wanted to do jobs-wise so I spoke to the army careers officer, she laughed so hard she couldn’t speak for ten minutes. I certainly heard the words ‘problem’ and ‘authority’ in between breathless gasps of hysterical laughter, she was hinting at something certainly. I’m now halfway to my ideal job, in that I have to see ‘real’ people I’m not married to rather than book characters only twice a week and am left alone once I’m there. It appears I’m happier when I’m the God of the world I’m living in, so I’m starting to wonder if I’ve just wasted my money on the coaching… How does this whole actively learning stuff work exactly?