“Good morning! It’s time for the tennis practice!”

“Yes, mum!”

There was this boy who lived in a country quite far from Earth. His name was Tom and he had dedicated his life to tennis. He had been practicing since the age of 5 and now at 11 it seemed like nothing could stop him from becoming professional tennis player one day. Now that he was 11 years old he should finally participate in official competitions, but it turned out that there were some problems with his technique…
He needed to get stronger arm if he wanted to win against other kids, because they all were much more skilled than him. While other kids did ordinary exercises and did not think about anything else but tennis Tom tried to find a way to improve his skill without any effort. He was already quite good at sports and he could run very fast, so when he saw that everyone in tennis was simply hitting the ball with their racquet harder and harder in order to get stronger arm he realized how much they wasted time doing pointless things.

He wanted to participate in competitions pretty bad, but there were no compromises… unless…unless he found something else than hard trainings and repetitive exercises… After few days of desperate searching the answer finally come out: one day as usual Tom went for regular training after school and then as extra exercise started to go up and down hills near his house; it looked like nothing special, but now those hill became very important thing for him, because they gave him the energy to keep practising every day.

It was not as if he suddenly developed some power in his arm and could win against others easily. He still had the same problem as before: his technique was terrible and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t improve it by himself. But this time Tom didn’t panic, all those days of running uphill finally paid off! His body became stronger and stronger and now even if he lost first few points his determination allowed him to go on with the game and take victory sometimes.

He wasn’t yet skilled enough to be able to beat other kids that were serious about tennis but at least there were next tournaments coming soon so there was hope that he would be able to show at least few good matches. The only thing Tom needed now was determination, luck and… well… a bit of talent wouldn’t hurt either!

It turned out that in order to win against others in tennis you don’t need any extra physical strength after all! The only thing that matters is how much you want it and if your technique is sufficient or not. Did it work for the protagonist? Well, let’s just say that Tom started winning at least once per tournament.

He couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the racquet flying towards him with incredible speed! The ball flew long far above his head but then suddenly dropped into his court! He could barely react before seeing yellow signal telling him that he had to return the ball. The next second his racquet was flying through the air, but this time it went over the net! Other boy hesitated for some seconds, but then hit back..