This Summer of Tennis

Tennis with my five: One spends half their time not missing the ball and the other half heckling and frustrating the one currently missing the ball. Another one spends more time giving dissertations on why they keep missing the ball than they actually spend keeping eyes on the ball. The other one has a fiery temper and missing the ball is cause for bitter complaint and exuberant dissatisfaction with said balls thereby flinging them to unreasonable heights. Another one hoards balls and doesn't really get the point. And this one believes there is a conspiracy and a perfectly good reason why these balls are illusive: the manufacturer of the balls had sinister motives in velocity and design and besides, the racquet must be broken and nets and things dysfunctional. And to this one, the contemplation of losing the game is simply out of the question. 

Seems like a good time to ponder sportsmanship

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sportsmanship expresses an aspiration or ethos that the activity will be enjoyed for its own sake, with proper consideration for fairness, ethics, respect, and a sense of fellowship with one's competitors. Being a "good sport" involves being a "good winner" as well as being a "good loser".[1]

Sportsmanship typically is regarded as a component of morality in sport, composed of three related and perhaps overlapping concepts: fair play, sportsmanship, and character.[2] Fair play refers to all participants having an equitable chance to pursue victory[3] and acting toward others in an honest, straightforward, and a firm and dignified manner even when others do not play fairly. It includes respect for others including team members, opponents, and officials.[4] Character refers to dispositions, values and habits that determine the way that person normally responds to desires, fears, challenges, opportunities, failures and successes and is typically seen in polite behaviors toward others such as helping an opponent up or shaking hands after a match. An individual is believed to have a “good character” when those dispositions and habits reflect core ethical values.

Sportsmanship can be conceptualized as an enduring and relatively stable characteristic or disposition such that individuals differ in the way they are generally expected to behave in sport situations. In general, sportsmanship refers to virtues such as fairness, self-control, courage and persistence[2] and has been associated with interpersonal concepts of treating others and being treated fairly, maintaining self-control in dealing with others, and respect for both authority and opponents.

A competitor who exhibits poor sportsmanship after losing a game or contest is often called a "sore loser" (those who show poor sportsmanship after winning are typically called "bad winners"). Behavior includes blaming others, not taking responsibility for personal actions, reacting immaturely or improperly, making excuses for their loss, referring to unfavorable conditions or other petty issues.[5][6] A bad winner is when the victor of a game acts in a shallow fashion such as gloating about their win or rubbing it in the face of the one who lost.

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, Team USA was #1 with a record 37 medals and did the USA proud. Thank you Canada for being wonderful and gracious hosts and for winning the Gold Medal rush: Bravo!. The Canadian Ice Hockey team brought it home and the US Ice Hockey team was wonderful as well. On to Sochi, Russia 2014...

Ahh! some of the multiple joys of homeschooling; we can cheer for the Olympics to dissipation and sleep at midnight and cheer for the athletes on a first name basis. Hey, it only comes once every two years and it counts for world studies, cultural understanding and exploration, pure sportsmanship, fitness motivation and intense betting and winning and losing. At the Olympics we get to be motivated and inspired by the best of the best, and there's nothing wrong with that.