Did Venus and Serena Williams Start Out Like This?

As a tomboy I was forever trying to find sports in which I could excel.

I was good enough at baseball that if there had been a little league for girls I would have had it made.

Ice skating was a lot of fun, but I was tall for my age, accident prone and just clumsy enough to decide to forgo figure skating.

Besides my 59 year old grandmother went skating with me, an event that I was sure would humiliate me and scar me for life, but in the end she kept lapping me and even taught me how to skate backwards.

If there had been a figure skater in my family it would have been Grandma Do Do hands down.  She was 5'4" and 110# of pure determination and athleticism.  What I wouldn't have given to be my grandmother.

The availability of sports for women was not as great from 1958 and into the 60's as it is today.  I was also limited by what happened to be offered by the local park district.

From the ages of 12 to 15, since tennis lessons were offered at the park, I bought a racket, a can of balls and registered.  Of all things, I learned that my paperboy was the "tennis instructor."

This was good news and bad news.  I had a crush on him, but there would be several older girls closer to his age in the class, some who already knew how to play tennis.  Curses!

Tom turned out to be a completely unreasonable instructor.  To actually be able to get on the court for a real lesson he insisted that each student be able to hit the ball on top of the racket 100 times without losing control of the ball or letting it hit the ground.  The first year I never progressed past this point.

At home I spent hours hitting a ball  into the garage door.  After awhile I was actually pretty good at returning the ball this way, as long as I didn't hit any of the depressions around the square panels, I was in business and could occupy myself for long periods of time.

Eventually I played tennis without the net with an older girl who lived up the street.  We played in the street and thank heavens there was little traffic to contend with so we could volley for quite a while before being interrupted.

My third year of tennis I got to play in a tournament.  Tom must have had some other summer job that year because I didn't have to do the dreaded 100 hits on the top of my racket to qualify to play.

The girl I played was older and a lot more advanced in her game than I was, and she was very gracious in victory, so it wasn't so bad losing to her.

I didn't go farther in tennis because once I turned 16 I was able to drive myself out to the barn and ride my horse all day every day in the summer and did not need any other diversions.

Now days seeing Serena and Venus Williams as they play at Wimbledon I reminisce about "the old days" and wonder if it weren't for Tom and the 100 rule if I could have ever become a successful tennis player.

At any rate, I am glad the Williams girls had tennis lessons and persevered in becoming two of the best women tennis players in the world.

Whether Tom and the 100 hits rule would have discouraged them, like it did me, I'll probably never know.