Well I did ok by myself. I walked everywhere to get to the comps, I trained 5 days a week off my own bat (), hassled people for a game, spent all school holidays assisting my coach, filled in at the seniors level etc.

I also found perverse pleasure in finding ways to violate the dress code, laughed till I cried if I missed a shot and in one memorable incident played sitting down from the base line until my partner took back back the nasty thing he said about Jon Bon Jovi.

When I was blocked from progressing (by my own club) I promptly enrolled at another and whipped my own clubs butt in the finals whilst violating the dress code.

All because I was very very very driven to wipe people off the court...

At the end of the day I chucked it in because it wasn't fun anymore. It all got too serious and I can't see why you can't laugh at an elite level.