In 1873, the first form of the sport tennis was invented. Since then, the sport has evolved into an intensely athletic and powerful game popular in all corners of the world. I have loved to watch and play this sport since a young age and consider myself pretty skilled with a racket. But what I learned today is that their is a big difference between mastering a folk knowledge such as playing tennis, and being able to teach someone that folk knowledge. Today I taught (or attempted to teach) someone how to play tennis. In the process I learned that teaching a sport takes patience and, more importantly, the ability to transform your complicated knowledge into basic knowledge so that a beginner can learn enough to be able to enjoy the sport and want more.
I first explained to James a brief history of Tennis and told him who the best players in the world and arguably history, Federer and Nadal, are blessing us every grand slam tournament with amazing matches full of incredible points and shots. Many view them to be the best of all time although a new up and comer named Novak Djokovic is emerging into the spotlight at the moment, challenging the two tennis greats. Above is a video of the highlights of arguably the greatest match of all time. It was played by the two greats Nadal and Federer in the final of the biggest and most prestigious tournament of the year: Wimbledon. It seems as if every point is match point, that's how intense these guys are. I gave James this brief Tennis history and player recap before we actually hit the courts just so he had an idea of how popular and historic the sport has become.
I taught James the basic shots of tennis and how it was scored and we got to the point in which we could play a full game without stopping which I was very happy about. But it was frustrating at times trying to get someone to mimic what came so easily to me. In this way I realized how in many cases the best teachers and coaches are not star players with natural talents (not that I'm saying I'm a star, well actually I kind of am...) but rather they are the ones that work hard and strategize to become good at their sport. This is how folk knowledge of any sport is passed down to others, through the ones who can explain it best and teach the natural talents of each generation the wisdom of the veterans. This realization came to me as I tried to teach this kind of folk knowledge myself.
Here is a list of the skills I considered teaching, I went with tennis because James asked me too and I love it the most:
- Rock Climbing
- Rubix Cubing
- Longboarding
- Throwing a frisbee
- Magic Tricks
- Swimming
- Knot tying
- Teaching tennis
- Teaching basketball
- Teaching golf
- Table tennis
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