The Agassi story and a Wedding

I just finished reading The Agassi Story. When I first got the book I wrongly assumed it was a biography of Andre Agassi the tennis player. It was actually more of a autobiography of his dad Mike. I honestly wasn't expecting much and thought I probably would just skim through it but I was wrong. It was a great story. It told up his upbringing in Iran and his boxing in two Olympic Games. He managed to leave Iran eventually getting married in the U.S and went on to have 4 kids the youngest being Andre. His wife and him eventually settled in Las Vegas and that's where they live today. In the book he was critical of the way he pushed his two older kids to become tennis players and how much they resented him for it. He said he only wanted the best for them but as we all know parents of kids who push them relentlessly usually find they burn out at an early age and begin to hate the sport they are in.
The book did go into some detail of Andre's rise to tennis stardom but as seen through his dads eyes. He talks of Andres 2 year marriage to Brooke Shields and his current marriage to Steffi Graf. In the book there were also some great photos of a young Mike and of course shots of all the kids including Andre. All in all a really interesting story and one I would certainly recommend.

Reading the book reminded me of years ago I used to coach kids sports. My youngest loved to play hockey and baseball so having played a lot of ball but very little hockey I volunteered to help coach his teams. Boy was that tough. Not the coaching part but the dealing with parents part. I remember I had identical twin boys play on one of my sons teams. They were great kids and pretty good ball players but only when there dad didn't show up to the game. When he was there they looked nervous and of course made errors which he would then criticize them for. I was horrified as my method of coaching was always just encouragement. He wasn't the only one either. I had parents tell me where there kids should play and how much and with hockey it was even worse. If we were winning they only seemed to want the best out there and that's not how I coached. Every kid got equal ice time and equal playing time in baseball. After a couple seasons of listening to parents I gave up coaching and would just come to the games and encourage my son. That was so much better.

When my youngest was playing ball (he was 9 at the time) I remember a particular incident that still to this day makes me wonder about some parents. My wife and I were on the sidelines and my son's team was out in the field and a boy on the other team took a swing at a ball that was pretty high and well out of the strike zone. That was typical of kids that age though. They were just learning and having fun. Anyways his coach called him over and right beside me starting telling the 9 year old that if he swung at a ball like that again he would be benched. The poor kid hung his head and I lost it. I told the coach how dare you talk to a 9 year old like that. His response was and I quote "How is he ever going to learn if I don't". Huh??
This is a 9 year old. Aren't we supposed to give encouragement? anyways the coach stalked away glaring at me and then several parents came over and thanked me. I guess this coach had done this before in other sports too. The real bizarre thing was that he was a high school teacher and should have known better.

In Agassi`s book he gets into the pushy parents and critical coaching that happens in sports. It`s a shame because what happens is kids get turned off and hate sports.


I played my regular Tuesday night live game last night and although I didn't get to the final table I certainly played okay. No real remarkable hands other my pocket queens which when I raised with 4 limpers in the pot everybody folded. I won a few other hands but all small pots and eventually had to push with A5 in the BB and a flop of 8,5,4. I was pretty short stacked at the time and somebody had A8. I didn't improve and I was gone.

So in 4 days my oldest son is getting married. Heading up there tomorrow. Really looking forward to it. It should be a great day for the 2 of them. I wish them years of happiness.