Have an extra racquet? Give it away! Tennis is more than just a sport!

There is one thing that is particularly true of great athletes and that is that they begin working on their skill sets as children. Sports provide people with such a great range of activity, collective solidarity at games and a fun healthy past time, professional careers for some, and the best part is that your commitment can really be taken to any level desired. Not to mention, they can be picked up at any age and there are things to work on and perfect throughout a lifetime which makes the pursuit an exciting journey.

That is not to say that learning a sport comes as easy to adults as it does to children. Just like kids learn languages with ease up to a certain age, they learn the fluidity of motions that contribute to proper technique, the feeling of anticipation that comes with being in a given environment from an early age and they forever have the advantage of time spent practicing and years spent competing over athletes that start later in life. When kids pursue sports they have boundless options still ahead of them ranging from playing in the pros, to college scholarships and overall benefits to their health, discipline and development. While not everyone may be cut out for sports, everyone should pursue sports while they are young because it extends so much farther than just highlighting innate abilities and learning how to play but becomes something that stays with you for life. Telling your kid, "You’ll learn when you can pay for it" may cut off a world of dreams and opportunities.

Unfortunately, most sports are quite expensive. Tennis for one hones so many great qualities in kids and opens so many doors later on for them as young adults, however, not without an investment first. It is a pricey sport to play with expensive private instruction, court time depending on location, equipment and you can never discount the parental dedication and time out it takes to get kids to their lessons and practices. But regardless of the goals you set, if you choose to stick with it then even reaching for the moon and landing among the stars has tremendous pay off. Anna Ivanovic, the current WTA #4, has said in interviews that she used to practice in empty pools growing up in Serbia and that it has been an important experience that has made her into the player she is today. Ivanovic is an example of doing without to keep the dream of becoming a professional player alive. Even if sacrificing for tennis didn’t get Ivanovic to top 4 in the world, it is a trade for life that you can always fall back on whether you teach, get a free education or simply maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Today, there is a lot of awareness of importance of sports like tennis for children and the issues facing them in terms of inability to pay for it. It is for this reason that there are great aid programs sprouting up for these families to seek out and take advantage of. Programs comprised of people that love the sport so much that they want to share it with those that can’t afford it by giving back. Programs giving hope to those on whom the unfairness of life plays out, even if it is solely by providing some of the expensive equipment so that kids can get out there and start hitting those tennis balls. Tennis Racquets for Kids is exactly that kind of organization.

The great tennis champion, Bill Tilden has once said, "Tennis is more than just a sport. It's an art, like the ballet. Or like a performance in the theater. When I step on the court I feel like Anna Pavlova. Or like Adelina Patti. Or even like Sarah Bernhardt. I see the footlights in front of me. I hear the whisperings of the audience. I feel an icy shudder. Win or die! Now or never! It's the crisis of my life."

How beautiful and true that is, and how worth it makes picking up a racquet and embarking on a life long love affair, or better yet giving away a racquet so that someone else can find that same love of the game!