My Turn: Jeff Miller — Life, the universe and the game of tennis
Posted: June 3, 2012 at 5:11 am
My grandfather once described my aunt and uncle as "two people who spent their entire life taking care of a bird."
Grandpa had a knack for those kinds of unflattering insights. If I ever see him in that, you know, other world, I would not be surprised if he dismissed my wife, Julie, and me as "two people who spent their adult life trying to nudge their tennis game a notch above mediocre."
Mercifully, Grandpa wasn't courtside for my spectacular 1987 come-from-behind doubles victory in the Men's C Division of our local Tracy Austin Doubles Tennis Tournament, uh, against a 9-year-old boy and his big-hearted dad. My 40-year-old partner and I made a strategic decision that achieving victory by relentlessly hitting every ball to the 9-year-old boy was the lesser of two evils.
But I have come a long way since then. Starting any sport later in life is always a huge disadvantage. When I was growing up in the '50s and '60s in a small Midwestern town, folks didn't respect tennis the way they did, say, football, hockey, boxing or baseball. Tennis had a bad rap as the sport for "rich sissies" and baseball ruled as our national pastime.
Nonetheless, both sports involve the same basic activity, hitting a ball with a club.
The only difference is that tennis players actually move around to hit the ball.
Baseball's much higher status, back then, solely stems from the risk of getting beaned in the head by a hard ball.
Plotting my
He looked me over with a condescending smile: "I just told a father it was way too late for his 13-year-old daughter to begin tennis with any hope of turning pro. It takes at least 10 years and 1,000 hours to develop high-level skills, and pre-puberty is the best time for developing certain capabilities. I redirected the family to badminton, where the numbers are a little better."
A career as badminton pro? How embarrassing. We joined the Peninsula Racquet Club, which at the time should have been called the Peninsula Racquet and Drinking Club.
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My Turn: Jeff Miller -- Life, the universe and the game of tennis
What is Share It Fitness? (www.shareitfitness.com) – Video
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How To Do Shoulder Press For Beginners Personal Training For Strength And Fitness – Video
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Queen Latifah says she wasn’t coming out with her Long Beach Gay Pride performance
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Image Credit: Jennifer Graylock/AP
Queen Latifah wants to be clear: Despite speculation online, her performance at Long Beachs Lesbian & Gay Pride event on May 19 was not a signal that she was coming out as a lesbian. That definitely wasnt the case, she tells EW. Ive never dealt with the question of my personal life in public. Its just not gonna happen.
That said, the 42-year old was thrilled to participate in the event and even recalled an earlier performance for gay audiences. To me, doing a gay pride show is one of the most fun things, she says. My first show that paid more than $10,000 was in a gay club on New Years Eve in San Francisco. Tupac happened to be in town, so he came to kick it with me. This was the early 90s. And the boys were like, Take your shirt off, Tupac! He wasnt doing that. But we had a blast in there.
Latifah whos starring in an upcoming remake of Steel Magnolias for Lifetime also reiterated her support for her gay fans. I know that the most important thing and the only thing I have to give is love. When people are going through hatred and bullying, the biggest thing to fight that is love, she says. So thats all I encouraged my audience to do that night: to share their light and share their love. Period. (Reporting by Melissa Maerz)
Check out next weeks issue of EW to see a first look of Queen Latifah in Magnolias.
Related: Queen Latifah to star in Lifetimes all-African-American Steel Magnolias Queen Latifah to produce singing show for The CW Queen Latifah to host syndicated daytime talk show in 2013
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Queen Latifah says she wasn’t coming out with her Long Beach Gay Pride performance
Plainvilleâs newest fitness center aims for personal approach
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Saturday, June 2, 2012 10:09 PM EDT
By DIANE CHURCH Staff writer
PLAINVILLE Although its called A/M Fitness, Plainvilles newest fitness center has workout sessions from early morning to evening.
Michael Harland, a 31-year-old local resident and single dad who previously lived in Bristol, decided to go into business for himself after working for a large corporate workout facility and a smaller, more personalized fitness center.
I decided to open a place with the things I like and eliminate the things I dont like, he said. This is what fitness is to me.
The center, located at 125 West Main St., has TRX suspension bands, resistance bands, dumbbells, medicine balls, ropes and ViPRs, which are tubes of different sizes and weights. (The name stands for vitality, performance and reconditioning). Each piece of equipment can be used for a variety of different exercises.
Harland said he thinks in terms of functionality when designing workouts for himself and his clients.
It has to relate to the way we actually move, we said.
Because of this, there are no exercise machines, elliptical trainers or treadmills at A/M Fitness. When asked about cardio, Harland looped a resistance band around his waist and to a hook on the floor. This way, he could run backwards and forwards, getting a cardio workout and work his core at the same time.
There are now an average of seven to eight people at each session, Harland said, but he could accommodate up to 16. They work out in smaller groups according to their fitness level. Exercises can be modified for people according to their ability.
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Plainvilleâs newest fitness center aims for personal approach
Valley church adds huge sports complex
Posted: June 2, 2012 at 7:14 pm
GRAND CHUTE (AP) - Appleton Alliance Church will use aerobics classes, weight lifting and other physical fitness activities to connect the community with God when it opens its new sports and recreation complex in June.
Dubbed Xcel Sports, the facility is part of a $22 million, 120,000-square-foot expansion project called Finishing the Work. The expansion, scheduled for completion in summer 2013, will nearly triple the church's size from 60,000 square feet to about 160,000 square feet and is the largest non-governmental project in Wisconsin, said Marty Myse, the Christian church's building chairman.
The sports complex, which opens June 11, will feature a gymnasium and fitness center offering activities such as women's aerobics and spinning classes as well as recreational opportunities for families, children and the church's youth ministries.
The Rev. Dennis Episcopo, the church's senior pastor, said Alliance began building a sports ministry in 2006 - years before deciding to construct a sports facility. The church already boasts soccer fields and a basketball court that hosts a large outdoor basketball league every Sunday night.
Youth basketball camps attract more than 400 children to the church each summer.
"We wanted to have sports and rec as a way to connect people to God," Episcopo said. "They may not come to a church service, but no problem."
That church has run camps, leagues and special events for the past six years. "We have about 2,000 participants per year, with about 80 percent of those people being from outside Appleton Alliance," said Ryan Borowicz, head of the sports ministry program at Alliance. "The sportsplex really broadens the number and type of activities we can offer, as well as being a great resource for the other ministries of the church, particularly the children and the youth."
The sports ministry - an outreach to the community for those who may not know Jesus, but would like to - is keeping with the church's vision of connecting people with God and one another, Myse said.
"It's an opportunity to reach them through a sporting event, basketball or whatever," he said.
Plenty of people attend services at Appleton Alliance each week, and the expansion will add much-needed space to the overflowing church. Appleton Alliance ministers to more than 3,000 people during its four Sunday services, and attendance is growing.
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Valley church adds huge sports complex