On October 29, 2024, I took a tennis lesson for the first time, and it was really helpful. If you get anything out of this, it's that asking people for help makes such a big difference in life.
I am really enjoying playing tennis. I've been a member of my racket club that's down the street from my house for a few months, and I've spent hours and hours playing tennis and hitting on the ball machine. Today I paid for an hour lesson with one of the tennis pros, and it was so helpful. From his point of view, he said my fundamentals are very strong, and if I work on some of these things more and put more time on the court, I'm going to see how good I can get. It left me feeling really excited, whereas I'd been playing and kind of focusing on the negatives. Sometimes we need other people in life to help us focus on our positives.
My serve isn't as bad as I thought it was
I thought my tennis serve was horrible. I serve and it's so bad, and anyone decent can just crush the return, and I'm useless. But from his point of view, I showed him my serve and he said, your serve is not as bad as you're saying. Your serve is fine. You're hitting the ball overhead, it's consistently going in, your serve is fine. You just need to practice being more consistent with it.
I'd been thinking my serve is too slow, that I need to be able to crush it, and that my serve sucks until I can hit some hard serve. And he said, no, what you need to be able to do is first be consistent with your serve so that it goes in all the time, and then be precise with it, where you can put it in one part of the box or another depending on the situation. Then you can work on putting spin and speed on it. But what's most important is that your serve actually goes in — and your serve is fine from the rest of where your game is at. Your serve is not so bad.
One small adjustment to my forehand
He showed me how to do a forehand, and it was amazing. Just adjusting my technique felt a little worse at first — well, it felt better, but my accuracy was all over the place. Yet some of the shots, I was just able to effortlessly hit the ball right back over the net.
He's also helping me see how to not strain your muscles, because if you're doing a nice smooth shot, you're not tensing your muscles, and that'll lead to fewer injuries in life and less pain from playing. So for $80, this feedback was extremely helpful today. And I helped him work and do something he's good at and provide his own living. I love that I'm learning and growing and doing these new things.
The periods where I've struggled the most
The periods where I've struggled the most in my life were where I was bored and I needed to learn and do some other things, but I wouldn't. I would just drink and keep doing the same things, like playing video games by myself and complaining about the world. And just doing something like a tennis lesson, when the coach leaves me feeling really good, changes that.
I'm so grateful, because I do these crypto videos on my Jerry Banfield crypto channel that supports me a full-time living, combined with my wife having a full-time job and us having a home together. A few months ago, I was really toxic and hating what I do as a content creator. Today, two months later, I'm really grateful that all I have to do is show up and film a video. Then I have time to play tennis. I have time to do yoga. I'm going to get a massage later. I'm going to spend a few hours with the kids and take my son to his hip hop dance class. I'm going to put the kids to bed tonight while my wife does her Pilates class.
I'm so grateful that I have so much free time, because I know there are lots of people out there who don't. In the past, I used to spend a lot more time working and have a lot less free time myself.
Teaching by example
I hope that my diaries will be the very best teaching I can offer — my own lived experience, my own example of what I'm actually doing in my real life. There are so many books out there that will tell you what to do and give you this perfect recipe for all these other areas of your life. Where I really see my role is as a teacher, and the best way I know to teach is to teach by example.
My tennis coach today showed me how to hit shots. He said, here's how you do your serve, you spin this way, you hit it that way; here's how you do your backhand; here's how you do your forehand. Now I want you to show me, do what I'm doing. And then I do what he's doing, and I'm like, wow — even when I'm awkward and I haven't practiced it, it goes better. So getting other people's feedback on our lives is super helpful.
I'm super excited and grateful today, and I hope I've shared that effectively with you. If you enjoy these diaries, you can watch my newest videos in my Life playlist.