Your Serve

I don’t play very often anymore, but I used to enjoy Ping-Pong a lot and I had quite a good serve. This thought came to the forefront of my mind when my brother-in-law mentioned that he had played the game recently with some friends. That simple statement made me think back to when I once played, and all my competitive juices started to flow again. I bet if I started playing I could get really good again. It would also be a great family activity and something I could do with friends. Maybe we could start a tournament, track wins and losses and use it as bragging rights against each other. That’s what we used to do, compete against each other constantly, trying to out-do one another and prove we were the best.

Since my serve was one of my best weapons, I mulled over in my mind the specifics of how I used to serve. I’m not a young child anymore, so I can’t rely on the skill I had then. I had to ask myself, “How can I improve my serve?”

Obviously, I’ll need to practice. We all know that the best way to hone our skills is through repetition and hard work. I’ll need to understand what type of serve my own talent is best suited for and then, through continuous use, I’ll get better and better. I’m sure I can find opportunities to serve.

Of course I’ll need a place to practice my service game. If I’m really going to take advantage of the talents I have been given, I’ll need to not only find the right place for me to serve them up, but I’ll also need to determine to whom I’m going to serve. Maybe if I find someone who is less fluent in serving than myself, I can teach them, if only by example, how to improve their own serve. I imagine that if I look around, I’ll find plenty of places that would be more than happy to let me exercise my service.

It would be great too, if I had role models to look up to. If I could reach out and surround myself with other people who have given much of their lives to perfecting their own service, I could learn from their example and be inspired by their actions. As I contemplate who some of these people might be, I realize I already know many. Interestingly, none of them exude the competitive juices that I flaunted as a young man. Quite the opposite in fact; they are more focused on the success of the person they are serving, than themselves.

Finally, I think I’ll need a coach. Someone with knowledge and tremendous insight that can help me to grow my talents, someone I can ask advice of and confide in when I think I’m not serving at my best.

I may not win all my matches, but I don’t think I care now, as long as I get to serve.