Firstballtolast

The shocking news of 30-year-old PGA Tour star Grayson Murray's suicide last week has the sports world abuzz with talk of mental health once again. If I may add a few words to the discussion. I never met Grayson Murray, but I know him well. He suffered from alcoholism, anxiety, and depression, the soundtrack of my own troubled youth. Managing any one of these chronic afflictions can be life-altering. Having all 3 active concurrently in your life is being dealt one of life's cruelest and most insurmountable of hands. The script goes something like this. A hypersensitivity to everyday-life stimuli, oft resulting in overreactions and questionable behavior. The pattern starts early in one's youth, with anxiety and mood swings swirling and percolating privately within until the great self-medicating discovery occurs. Alcohol!! The solution to all things life. Until the solution becomes the bigger problem itself, with displays of powerlessness and unmanageability soon impossible

The shocking news of 30-year-old PGA Tour star Grayson Murray's suicide last week has the sports world abuzz with talk of mental health once again. If I may add a few words to the discussion. I never met Grayson Murray, but I know him well. He suffered from alcoholism, anxiety, and depression, the soundtrack of my own troubled youth. Managing any one of these chronic afflictions can be life-altering. Having all 3 active concurrently in your life is being dealt one of life's cruelest and most insurmountable of hands. The script goes something like this. A hypersensitivity to everyday-life stimuli, oft resulting in overreactions and questionable behavior. The pattern starts early in one's youth, with anxiety and mood swings swirling and percolating privately within until the great self-medicating discovery occurs. Alcohol!! The solution to all things life. Until the solution becomes the bigger problem itself, with displays of powerlessness and unmanageability soon impossible

The Southern California tennis community lost one of its most iconic members last week, John "JD" Davis. I'd like to pen a few words about my former teammate, tennis peer, partner on court and in crime, and most of all, friend. As with many of us, I first encountered JD on the indigenous hard courts of Southern California. SoCal junior tourneys were mass mobilization events. Entire cities taken over for weeks at a time, with every playable court available used in furtherance of our dreams, to some day compete on tennis' grandest stages But there was one event where all of Southern California came together, that one being the historic Ojai Championships held annually the last weekend of April. I first saw John as a wide-eyed junior player peering through the fences of Ojai's Libby Park.  A couple years my senior, JD channeled strong Spicoli Fast Times at Ridgemont High vibes. Long stringy shocked white hair from too much sun, his skin tanned to a burnt crisp. All t

Tennis, our sport of a lifetime. I still keep in touch with many of my junior rivals, hell, some I consider  my closest friends today. One of them in particular got himself an idea recently, to recreate this iconic junior tennis photo from our New England playing days. taking it upon himself to order us some adult-sized shirts to make it all happen. Plans are in the works. Always love reconnecting with my old buds, sharing war stories from back in the day. The long journey back to childhood. I'm part geologist, part archeologist, exploring the strata of memory. The mind and its gigs of storage. Many of the memories are pleasant, innocuous, gentle. Others lay safely inert playing no meaningful role in my life today. But others, thought safely stored deep within my psyche, still remain active, radioactive even, though muted some, memories, like radiation, have their half lives. But I find our mind's selective memory fascinating. Memories I haven't thought of in decades, memor

  Educate: Power point or Whiteboard Meditation, or awareness, is about being yourself and knowing something about what that is, that you are on a path whether you like it or not, namely the path of your life In Recovery, we refer to this as the most important decision you will make in your life is the next one, for it determines the pathway. It's no different for our tennis journey. You are either heading toward growth and development or away from it. Meditation or awareness shows us that our pathway has a direction, that it is unfolding moment to moment, and MOST IMPORTANTLY what happens now influences what happens next. So if what happens now influences what happens next, doesn't it make sense to observe ourselves from time to time, keeping current with our present state. By taking inventory of our inner and outer bearings, we can perceive with clarity the directions we are heading.   So observe yourself. Be a light unto yourself. Nobody can do this work for

 Add DEFINITION before "A journey is a common metaphor for life as it reminds us that the destination is not our only goal. Like with any form of a journey, there are times when the roads are straight and times when they are winding. There are ups and downs and potholes along the way. And there are often wonderful surprises and fun discoveries that you would never have experienced if it wasn’t for the route you chose."   Add  USE TOPIC IN A TENNIS SENTENCE    "Embarking on a tennis career is akin to setting out on a captivating journey filled with challenges, triumphs, and self-discovery. Much like any expedition, the path is not always straightforward; it meanders through various terrains, each match and tournament marking a unique point on the player's trajectory."    Replace  "There are no right answers: Just measuring where you are at now as to where you will be after we do the work to chart your progress."   with    " There are no r