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1). A Tribute To Maria Montessori "The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life — by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past — and he ha... 2). Sorry Pete, But That's No Sacrifice Responding to criticism of being unemotional and boring, Pete Sampras was once quoted as saying: "People have this perception of when I win majors that I don't look very ecstatic." "By the same token, if you just look at what I have to give up and sacrifice in my daily life to compete at this level, it would be very weird if in ... 3). Tennis And "The Ugly Parent Syndrome" There's a syndrome in tennis circles that has come to be widely known as "The Ugly Parent Syndrome." It is one in which teenaged players, or even those in their pre-teens, are placed under enormous pressure by over-zealous parents determined to see their children scale the heights of tennis greatness. The pressure these pa... 4). Tennis Champions: Are They Born? Or Made? John Newcombe, former world tennis No 1 and former Australian Davis Cup captain, once said that the top Australian players of his era believed that it was their destiny to become tennis champions. Boris Becker told me that two weeks before achieving his first Wimbledon title (in 1985 when seventeen years old), he felt as if it were pre... 5). Tennis Ethics Watching a tennis match between two promising juniors, one an Australian and the other a New Zealander, earlier this year, I observed a very interesting incident. At matchpoint down in the second set, the Australian player clearly failed in an attempt to run down a drop volley from his opponent. Scooping the ball (which had clearly bou... 6). Wimbledon Center Court "How does it feel to walk out onto center court at Wimbledon?" is a question I've been asked many times. It' s a question iIhad asked myself ever since I was a nine year old playing mock Wimbledon finals against my brother, Mark, in the courtyard of our Mt Albert, Auckland home. I had to wait fifteen years before I could ...