If you ever played college tennis, what item/hobby did give up?

gavna said:

Nope not really...........practice was 1-5pm - still had time to eat, do some study time then go out with the swim team (biggest freaking bunch of crazies and best group to hang with - I dunno how the hell swimmers do it........6am practice, afternoon practice.....then party like its the end of the world!)

Travel was a killer when we had week long trips - missed some holidays with college tourneys in fall, winter...etc. that sucked and killed ski trips during Xmas and spring break.

Still caught basketball games and of course football - when you have both your basketball and football teams in the top 5 you're not going to miss games!

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NotSoSuper said:

I have 6am practices.. in addition to team work outs in the afternoon, with class in between.. Pretty much given up TV and sleep.

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Overdrive said:

When you first started playing college tennis, did you have to give up something that you have done before?

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goran_ace said:

I didn't really give anything up I've done before to play college tennis so much as I missed out on doing things in the first place because of tennis. I didn't have the time to commit to pledging a fraternity (athletes I knew who went greek usually ended up quitting the sport). Travel during the season was tough on your social life and spring break meant a long road trip with the team instead of partying in Panama City Beach/South Padre Island/Cancun like everyone else. Academically I had to load up on labs and tougher classes in the fall semester but didn't have to take summer classes or take a victory lap (5th year) to graduate.

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gavna said:

Nope - we weren't going to miss the best part of college. Playing and studying was hard enough we were not going to miss out on the fun part!!!!

We had at least 4 to 5 trips in the fall and spring with meets across the country - those were killer as we would miss a full week - in 4 yrs I did not have a single spring break nor an Xmas holiday longer than 2 days.
Add to that playing in Europe all summer in club league and tourneys trying to get points - still tons of fun.

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Overdrive said:

6 am practice? Why so early?

You should have a healthy sleep pattern. At least 7-8 hours of sleep.

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Overdrive said:

In my opinion, college tennis requires time, money, and dedication (among other qualities).

When you first started playing college tennis, did you have to give up something that you have done before?

For example, I had to give up video games and television (professional tennis excluded). It was hard, but taking 15 credit hours of classes plus getting high marks made doing everything impossible.

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NotSoSuper said:

Because we do not have courts on our campus, so in order to reserve all the court we need, and fit around all our class schedules it needs to be that early.

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mhj202 said:

Just curious, how long has it been that you have given up all of these things for college tennis?

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Overdrive said:

A few months. I did type in past and present tense, but it has been a few months since I have given up my hobbies.

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mhj202 said:

Well, it was mostly past tense so a bit confusing.

Good luck though and hopefully you will get the most out of college- both academically and tennis-wise.

I would note that college tennis doesn't necessarily require money- in fact, many folks play on scholarship and even those who don't, usually get perks -- such as free or discounted equipment (strings, rackets, sneakers, etc.) and school benefits like free tutoring.

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MarinaHighTennis said:

nothing really, coach understood my grades were my priority so he didn't enforce me to practice with the team. I was the only one with a top GPA lol

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Overdrive said:

Good job!

Sorry about you were the only one with a top GPA..

My old high school team had about 4 people who were top 3%.

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MarinaHighTennis said:

In my high school years, tennis had the highest GPA out of all the sports lol. I think it averaged about a 4.4 GPA. College was a totally different story. My teammates were there to play tennis, I was there to study and tennis for fun.

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