I’m so proud of E. She tried something completely out of her comfort zone, something that required her to learn an entirely new skill set, and something that no one in our family has really ever tried before.

She decided to play tennis this year, as a freshman.

Now, our school’s tennis team has been pretty small for the last few years, but they have a very dedicated group of coaches and members, and I think that’s what drew E to them in the first place.

She’s played soccer since she was little, volleyball for a little while (everyone thought that would be her sport just because she is tall) and then she ran cross country because it was the only fall sport for her to do in junior high.

Also, G runs cross, and since they practiced at the same time, it made things easier when it came to scheduling pickups. Even though she had her moments in each of these sports, and admittedly she doesn’t mind running, even though she (very much like me) is definitely more of an aquatic mammal. But, through all those sports, she never felt quite like she’d found her tribe.

Last spring, when she told me she wanted to play tennis, I didn’t understand where it was coming from. No one in our family had ever played tennis. We didn’t even own a racket. But, she was adamant. So, she went to summer practices, and I found a pro to give her some private instruction. If she was going to take on a new sport, I wanted her to learn the right way, rather than develop bad habits right off the bat.

Over the course of the summer, I tried to get her to have as much practice time as she could, although her swim schedule overlapped with some of the tennis practices. I even took a lesson or two so that I could at least give her a target to hit the ball at in our spare time. We haven’t played as much as I would have liked, but there is still lots of time.

There is something incredibly magical about watching an older kid learn a new skill. For one thing, when they stick with it, even though it’s a challenge, or it doesn’t come easily, that says a lot about their character.

For another, it’s really easy to see improvement week to week, sometimes even day to day. Almost all he other sports that my kids have played, they have played since they were very little and improvement happened gradually, or more naturally as they grew and matured. It wasn’t always quite so obvious, but now, when E gets a skill, after working on it for weeks, it’s so much more meaningful, and she understands how much work went into it.

At the same time, it can be frustrating when she doesn’t pick something up that her brain comprehends, but her body just can’t pull it all together. She has had to learn to have patience with herself, and understand that some things are just going to take a little bit of time.

Another thing that has been great for her is that this is an entirely different set of skills than she’s used to using. Her hand/eye coordination has improved so much, and she’s also had to learn to work with a partner when she plays doubles.

Youth sports has gotten so competitive, with specialization starting at younger ages all the time. I’ve been guilty of doing that to my kids as well, although to be fair, they’ve played many sports over the years, and only stuck with the ones that they’ve really enjoyed.

For A, it was soccer and swimming, for G, it was soccer and wrestling, and E has also stuck with swimming. I know E is going to end up having to compete with many other tennis players who have had rackets in their hands since they could hold them, and I hope that she stays the course and sticks with it, even when the competition is fierce.

Now, my biggest challenge is learning about the game myself. So far, and most importantly, I’ve learned that tennis is a quiet game. You’re not supposed to cheer loudly, or even clap loudly during the matches. This is such a welcome change from most of the other sports we’ve done, especially wrestling, where the fans can easily get overwhelmingly loud.

Since E is still learning a lot of this herself, I don’t want to badger her with questions, so I’ve been trying to watch YouTube videos and read Tennis For Dummies information, but putting that all together with a novice high school player is still a bit confusing.

She had her first match, and while I thought she looked like she did everything right, I was surprised to find out that she lost her match. I guess I spent too much time watching her and not enough figuring out what the other team was doing at the same time.

Of course, I can’t leave out what E has cited as one of the most important “best” parts of tennis, and that is the “cute” outfits! I have to say, I agree with her on that point. They look so sharp, especially in the school colors of navy-blue tops with crisp white skirts. The visors, which aren’t mandatory, are also an adorable look. For E and I, this is really a game changer, and she couldn’t wait until she’d played long enough for me to allow her to buy a few practice skirts in other colors.

It should be noted that both the boys rolled their eyes hard when we were having that discussion! They “guessed that’s why they never got into tennis.”

Whatever her reasons, learning something new, and joining a new team has been an incredibly positive experience for E, one that I’m hoping will help start her freshman year off on the right foot.

It’s also been a good reminder for me that no matter how we steer our kids, sometimes we need to just let them find their footing on their own, and when they find it, all they need from us is the cheerleading, and the budget for cute skirts!

Life With Liz is published on Saturdays in the Times News.