As I started taking tennis lessons with a new coach, I could tell he was different, but in a great way.

He was not only able to teach me the technique required to become a better player but he also helped me to understand the importance of small details and the right attitude tennis demands.

One conversation last spring, in particular, with my tennis coach abruptly changed my tennis training perspective. During a private tennis lesson with my coach, he told me to toss my racket aside and sit down.

While doing so he posed a rhetorical question to me, asking if I wanted the chance to be a truly good, or even great tennis player.

Up until the summer before my senior year I felt as if I was doing what was necessary to become a better athlete and tennis player. I attended summer practice sessions for two and a half hours a day for five days a week, ate a healthy diet and competed in tournaments.

My coach further explained to me how people often dissociate athletes’ hard work as talent when people see athletes effortlessly performing. He told me it’s what the public doesn’t see that defines an athlete.

That one discussion prompted me to take initiative as I began to conceptualize that it wasn’t my coaches or parents job to make me into a successful tennis player, but my own, and I had to seize the opportunity.

This past summer, I continued with the group lessons I had been doing for several years but added a tennis specific strength training regiment three days a week.

In addition, I spent any time I could out on the court practicing my serve or using a ball machine for hours until the tennis facility closed.

Each day seemed to wear on me more than the next, but determined, I continued to put in all my effort. The progress seemed slow but nonetheless I wasn’t going to allow myself to quit.

As I have played practice matches this fall, I have beat opponents I lost to just three months before.

I now realize I am responsible for my growth and each decision I make to go the extra step when my body aches or it’s too cold has defined me as an athlete and ultimately accelerated my growth.