Are you mis-directing your anger?
Posted: May 12th, 2019, 8:59 pm
My local sports club hosts a women's international tennis tournament every year. It draws some excellent tennis players from around the world.
Good opportunity for our local kids (who double up as ball boys) to interact & learn from the pros.
One of the matches I saw, was evenly balanced, with both the players (from Europe) resorting to histrionics every time they lost a point.
After every unforced error, one of them would scream in a foreign language. She'd stare at the sky angrily for a few seconds & then look at the ball boy behind her.
Not able to read her mind, the kid threw a ball at her. She angrily hit the ball away.
Another lost point & a few incomprehensible obscenities later, she looked at the ball boy again.
The confused kid threw another ball at her. She hit this one into the net.
After this happened a few times, she screamed at the kid with a heavy accent, 'Stop throwing the f***in' balls at me. I'm not serving!'
This probably wasn't the experience the poor kid was hoping for, when he volunteered to help.
While this happened in a public setting, we probably are all guilty of reacting the same way when we're upset.
Next time you're angry, try not to take it out on the person who's trying to help...even if they throw a ball at you!
Good opportunity for our local kids (who double up as ball boys) to interact & learn from the pros.
One of the matches I saw, was evenly balanced, with both the players (from Europe) resorting to histrionics every time they lost a point.
After every unforced error, one of them would scream in a foreign language. She'd stare at the sky angrily for a few seconds & then look at the ball boy behind her.
Not able to read her mind, the kid threw a ball at her. She angrily hit the ball away.
Another lost point & a few incomprehensible obscenities later, she looked at the ball boy again.
The confused kid threw another ball at her. She hit this one into the net.
After this happened a few times, she screamed at the kid with a heavy accent, 'Stop throwing the f***in' balls at me. I'm not serving!'
This probably wasn't the experience the poor kid was hoping for, when he volunteered to help.
While this happened in a public setting, we probably are all guilty of reacting the same way when we're upset.
Next time you're angry, try not to take it out on the person who's trying to help...even if they throw a ball at you!