Part II: Advice from Dan Lucey: Tennis is a People Sport

Meet Mr. Cool Man Tennis: Dan Lucey is second from the left. He is flanked on his right by John Holden on his left by Bill Hepner and Alex Swetka (early.1960's)

In Part I, I introduced my life changing relationship with Dan which began in San Francisco over 50 years ago at the Golden Gate Tennis Courts.(To read Part I, click here.) 

In this essay, I want to highlight some advice that Dan related to me over and over again.

      

First, he inspired me to be physically fit: eat healthy foods, get lots of sleep and work out daily. I applied his advice then and even up until now, so that recently my primary care Physician put me in awe when she disclosed that biologically I am 30 years younger than my chronological age.

  Secondly, Dan emphasized total focus on the fundamentals of the game: serve, groundstrokes, net work, serve and volley, then lobs. 

 Thirdly, he  pointed out to me that through my passion with tennis, I would be meeting interesting and fascinating and-- even sometimes well- known people wherever I play. 

How true have been your words Dan. 

With Dan beside me, we watched and analyzed the winning techniques of some of the best Golden Gate players-- such nationally ranked players as Tom Brown who with his precise ground strokes bested Greg Shephard (about 20 years younger) who boasted a smooth serve and volley game. We also watched other great players as Rosey Casals, Whitney Reed (see Part I) and "Peanut" Louie Harper. 

  

 I have lived in over 40 different residences across the United States, enjoyed playing tennis in eight different states (eleven--11-- different residences in both Northern and Southern California alone) and have made many many friends on the tennis court, joined clubs and tennis ladders.  To list all the fine people I have met would be too time and space consuming .So, here are just a few of the interesting folks I have met along the way.

Some tennis greats I have run into along the "way" include  Lew Hoad at a Senior men's tournament  in Sacramento; playing tennis with U.S. Open champ Art  "Tappy" Larson, playing next to Dr. Reginald Weir (a black tennis legend prior to Arthur Ashe) and Dick Savitt, U.S. Open champ (whom I met at the Columbia University Tennis Center on Coogan's Bluff, NYC) 

And finally a chance encounter with Senator Ted Kennedy at a tennis facility in Maine. (recounted in this memorial to my dad's passion for sports.) 

And the beat goes on...

(Now, I have developed another passion: mountain climbing a few of the 48 mountains above 4,000 feet in the White Mountains of New Hampshire (with a guide, of course!).