I’ve been coaching tennis for a long time, and I can still hear the echoes from courts all over: “Bend your knees.” “Finish your swing.” “Low to high.” Those lines are so common they almost fade into the background. But I never really bought into that approach. To me, coaching was never just about repeating mechanical reminders.
What shaped me as a coach is the belief that tennis is a game of awareness. Watch your opponent. Notice how they carry themselves. If they are frustrated and slamming balls into the net, that matters. If they miss every third forehand, that is a pattern you can work with. If they thrive on consistency, then you take it away, high, low, short, deep, anything to break their rhythm. Tennis is a puzzle, and the best players are the ones who learn to see it piece by piece.
That way of seeing the game shaped how I see the classroom too. Worksheets and lectures? Those are the “bend your knees” of teaching. They can check a box, but they don’t create awareness. Real learning happens when students start noticing connections, when they see patterns in history, when they recognize how an idea links to something in their own lives. My job is not to hand them instructions but to create conditions where they learn to think, to notice, to respond.
What shaped me is this simple idea: whether on the court or in the classroom, growth is about presence. If you dwell on the point you lost, you’re living in the past. If you only think about the final score, you’re living in the future. Awareness lives in the present. And that’s where learning and growth truly happen.
Tennis shaped my teaching. Teaching shaped my tennis. Both shaped me into someone who believes that success is not about doing more, it’s about seeing more.
Moler's Musings 