毎度ヨーロッパで鍛えておりますが、長距離トラック運転手に転職した方が良い才能で1300km一気に福岡から千葉まで走り、予定通り白子移住完了… と言いたいところではありますが、家の中は段ボールまみれで収拾つかず…。普段の生活ができるようになるには数週間かかるかな。
しましまあ、とりあえずキリの良いところで4月、テニスコート完成の前に引っ越し完了。
テニスコートの完成はギリギリキッズテニスカップ千葉白子には間に合わないようで4月末。今日もそうでしたが、それまでは350面ある白子のコートを借りて練習しておりますので皆さんぜひご一緒に。
アカデミーの完成予想図もできました。
昨年6月に生まれて初めて白子を訪れ、日本で唯一「テニスの町」と言われた聖地…。黄金期、町内に最高500面以上あったテニスコートの過去と、徐々に硬式テニスが衰退し、ソフトテニスがメインになっていている現状。そしてこれからの未来をイメージし、この地にアカデミーを作ろうと思いついて10ヶ月。たった10ヶ月。
とうぜん我々の力ですから超小規模でのアカデミーで根回ししていたところ、ノアインドアステージ株式会社の大西社長が共に創造してくれることになり、一気に規模が増大。我々のようなよくわからん社会的二流人間では得られない説得力と資本力が加わり、こんな風な立派な贅沢なアカデミーができることになったんですねえ。夢のようです。
もちろん、これができることは「はじまり」であり、ここから世界トップの選手を輩出し、たくさんの夢や思い出を作り、テニスを通じてたくさんの社会貢献をすることが目的ですので、これからが勝負。責任者として責務を果たしていきたいと思います。
皆さんどうぞよろしくお願いいたします。
さてFacebookにも出しましたし、情報は世界中に流れていますが、決して巨大資本や商業主義では作れない、世界で最高に素晴らしい、美しい、唯一無二のジュニア大会、スムリクバボウルが昨年に引き続きコロナの影響でキャンセルされることになりました。
誠に残念です。
主催するミオさんは家族と経営するクロアチアのど田舎のたった3面のコートで世界を魅了していたわけで、彼の決断は涙無くして語ることはできません。
彼の話は長いので有名ですが、文章も長いです。
しかし、それだけ彼の心情を分かってあげてくださいね。
そして、日本のジュニアの皆さんはあまりに「目の前」ばかりを見過ぎているような気がします。
もしも本当に世界で活躍する選手を目指すのなら、そのスムリクバボウルはほんの小さな節目のようなものであり、たとえそれがなくなっても、何も変わらずひたすら世界へチャレンジし続けるしかありません。
Unfortunately, even the 26th Smrikva Bowl 2021 will not take place due to pandemic
Before pandemic we usually gathered always 100+ candidates representing on average over 40 countries and six continents… for this year we reduced the draws in order to increase our possibilities of gathering to maximum 64 players… and there were so many super brave candidates representing 35+ countries and 5 continents who passed the selection process…
During Smrikva Bowl we are always all together… parents, kids, coaches and our 50 staff members… and in our last Government pandemic instructions in public gathering is allowed the presence of maximum 25 people at the moment… and our reduced event this year would have gathered 300 people in total…
Below, I am sharing the confirmation letter written to the players who passed the 26th Smrikva Bowl 2021 selection process…
Dear 26th Smrikva Bowl 2021 generation,
I am pleased to confirm you that your child successfully completed the Smrikva Bowl selection process and would have been invited to play the 26th Smrikva Bowl 2021 edition…
At the same time I am sorry to inform you that, after careful considerations of the pandemic evolution, we decided that there will be no minimum safety conditions this summer which are required to celebrate the 2011 born Smrikva Bowl generation…
It is the second very difficult acceptance letter to write in a row in our 25 years history… the pandemic World War is still on going and unfortunately it will not end before summer as I hoped…
Since its foundation Smrikva Bowl was envisaged as children birthday party that last for days… and the current situation does not allow us to gather in larger groups and celebrate…
I had hope after vaccine was discovered that this first World War of the 21st century will end this spring and that before summer we had good chances to return to normal life in Europe… but the slowness of the vaccination process makes scientists agree that we still need to be patient and that this war will be over but not as soon as we all wish…
Small number of people in the world have immunity and public authorities in most parts of the world continue to ban public gatherings…
I am sorry that also 2011, as well as 2010 Smrikva Bowl generation, will not have Smrikva Bowl memories but will remember Smrikva Bowl for the „war“ kind of situation that humanity lived since the end of 2019…
It was my honor to learn about your children… and I wish to share with you that the talent level of the candidates that passed this year Smrikva Bowl selection process is very high… and is in line with the best past Smrikva Bowl generations…
I was impressed by the passion your children and your family put into developing their talents despite pandemic… and after this crisis is over I am sure your children will shine on the world stage… and I will be pleased to follow them…
The only connection that we have so far are few emails exchanged over the past months with those who started their candidacy process in January… and we have in common friends that connected us, our Smrikva Bowl Ambassadors who supported your children candidacies… with some children I am pleased to know their coaches… and with very few families we know each other personally being some of you brothers and sisters of the past Smrikva Bowl players…
I wish to share in the following what I do share with children during their orientation and final registration… how the Smrikva Bowl week looks like… being each of you able to visualize your dreams… I learned that reading your dream letters… and proving in your candidacy materials to be Smrikva Bowl children… I wish to share what we will miss to live together…
I will not be able to talk to your children and meet them in person on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th of June when we usually have the final registration and orientation Smrikva Bowl moment…
When I have the opportunity to see your books that you planned to donate to the Smrikva Bowl library and to exchange few words and smiles with each of you… explain to you the Smrikva Bowl week you’ve been looking for to live for so long thanks to your friends or brothers and sisters, coaches who introduced to you the Smrikva Bowl story… and I will not be able to ask you to circle in the final registration form what would you like to play for… and to encourage you to nurture your dreams in person…
That is the moment when I have the opportunity to give you some initial Smrikva Bowl gifts… and each gift has its own symbolic story that may help you and may have importance in building your development path… and I will miss the smile in your eyes when I show you each item that become traditionally our first gift to you…
I will not be in position to present each of the Smrikva Bowl 2011 born seeds on Monday morning, 21st of June, at 8:30 AM during the opening ceremony… when I usually ask you to bring your passports, and passports for the Smrikva Bowl are your tennis rackets, … during that moment I like to share in just few words dreams of each of you with all the generation and recall the Ambassadors who supported your candidacies…
Using the music that it takes me months to select that may inspire you further to go for your dreams…
I will not be able to gather all the generation during the most important Smrikva Bowl moment… that was envisaged for 22nd of June at 6:00 PM… when I have the pleasure to present each book donated to the Smrikva Bowl library… and nominate each player in person Smrikva Bowl Ambassador for several countries you happen to be linked with and for the whole world…
I will not be able to share with them the always amazing Ambassador’s package gift… with other valuable gifts… and let each of you make in person the Grand Slam wish that generations keep sharing with their olive tree… when they donate their names to the planted olive tree…
There are 27 Smrikva Bowl players holding 33 junior Grand Slam titles and 1 senior Grand Slam so far… and there are many more who competed on Grand Slams… and I am sure many of you will also be Grand Slam players because that was written in your dreams… and many Smrikva Bowl children dreams in the long run become true…
We will not be in position to celebrate that moment with ice cream that we have on Smrikva Bowl thanks to Donna Vekic’s family since 2004… as we always do after the Ambassador’s nomination ceremony…
I will not be able to let you bring home the magic bottle of one of the most special olive oils in the world… and to let your family bring home a very prestige bottle of wine we do in Smrikve…
I will not be in position to share with families the answers to the question that I usually share during Smrikva Bowl Tennis Talents Forum on 23rd of June at 6:00 PM… and share how much this generation trains and how much the past Smrikva Bowl generations trained in order to increase chances for reaching your dreams one day…
I will not be able to teach each of you and let you bring home „IGRA“ game, the funny doubles game, that generations of Smrikva Bowl players started to love… the fun to play it with music and with a new friend… we always started „IGRA“ game on Wednesday night after the Smrikva Bowl Tennis Talent development path Forum…
I will not be able to share with each of the children the „Lucky Draw“ gift… a magic moment that is already tradition on our schedule on Thursday at 4:00 PM… and I will not be able to share in person many inspiring stories of our past Smrikva Bowl players that for years have been sending me some signed items for you… and let the children live this tennis circle of life story… moment when each Smrikva Bowl player receive a memory item signed by past Smrikva Bowl players…
I will not be able to bring you to visit Brioni islands on Friday… and let you see the natural paradise… where dinosaurs lived millions years ago… the magic place with long and impressive historical heritage… place that Robert Koch healed from malaria more than a century ago…
I am sorry that you will not have the opportunity to eat every day our sandwiches that your players’ tag allows you to have during the whole event… several young staff members told me that for them this are the best sandwiches in the world… and those sandwiches helped us always to create that birthday party feeling that last for more than a week… and we will miss the special pizza party on Friday night with the semifinals and finals of the „IGRA“ funny doubles… with chilling music in our garden under the stars during a pleasant summer night…
We will not live the magic finals with the ball kids… and we will not be able to let you live the awarding ceremony moment… the bike ride of the Champions… the Champions signing of the US OPEN Wilson Ball that arrives from the US OPEN… that also Dominic Thiem signed during his Smrikva Bowl with wish at the time to win it one day and last year he did it… to cheers those who would have been going to Patrick Mouratoglou Academy and to cheer those who would have been awarded with Wilson International contracts…
We will miss the moment of the cake… and the moment of our pool party where we all celebrate together many new friendships that have been made during the week…
I am very sorry for all the above living memories we will miss…
In all the above moments during Smrikva Bowl we are always all together… parents, kids, coaches and our 50 staff members… and in our last Government pandemic instructions in public gathering is allowed the presence of maximum 25 people at the moment… and our reduced event this year would have gathered 300 people in total…
Smrikva Bowl mission is to inspire, develop and spread cosmopolitan values. Love, friendship and empathy are cosmopolitan values per excellence for people and humanity… and I always dream Smrikva Bowl children may develop into peace makers one day… and their rackets and skills might be instrument of peace and instruments to foster mutual understanding among people…
Culture, children, sport and music are part of the Smrikva Bowl idea of the cosmopolitan world… each of the above four elements I elected long time ago as part of my vision of cosmopolitan world… they were all chosen being each of them able to cross human borders… and each four of them I find being pillars of peace… and it is true that over the last year the world I dream about is shaking but I am sure this pandemic will end and peaceful travel will return in the long run…
Tennis players are, with very few others professionals, the first global citizens of today… and they already re-started to travel around the World, playing in big stadiums with no public at the moment… and once the stadiums will be full with public again we will all know that the pandemic is over…
I hope all your dreams you shared with me to help children… to help people in need… to promote mutual understanding among people… to help the environment and animals… will come true one day…
In tennis without mistakes we cannot get better… and what is happening to all of us is a challenging experience and I do hope we will learn something from it…
Although I might not have pleasure to meet most of the 26h generation players in person my wish is to welcome each child that passed the selection process to become part of the Smrikva Bowl family…
By receiving this acceptance letter I am pleased to nominate each 26th Smrikva Bowl generation child the Smrikva Bowl Ambassador of this second very special year when Smrikva Bowl was not celebrated due to pandemic…
Before pandemic we usually gathered always 100+ candidates representing on average over 40 countries and six continents… for this year we reduced the draws in order to increase our possibilities of gathering to maximum 64 players… and there were so many super brave candidates representing 35+ countries and 5 continents who passed the selection process…
I wish to share with you all that over 47% of the children of this generation are speaking 3 or more languages… about 44% play a music instrument… over 50% are ranked #1 in their area of origin… and we get to 80% of the players being among the top 3 players…
All the children are great at school… and most of them practice another or more sports…
Over the years… in the tennis world… among the world greatest coaches… Smrikva Bowl children built the Smrikva Bowl reputation… and this is all that we have… just the words of those who lived Smrikva Bowl before your year… it took us 25 generations to build it… and I wish to rely on 26th generation that the circle will not break and will continue…
Although I will not be able to see you compete on Smrikva Bowl I am pleased to let you know that I will be pleased if you use among your achievements that you were selected for this year Smrikva Bowl edition…
Your child name will be listed among 26th Smrikva Bowl 2021 generation selected players… and I will publish the list of the accepted candidates, as per tradition, on the day when we have scheduled the opening ceremony of the 26th Smrikva Bowl 2021… on 21st of June…
… and I can assure each of you that from what you shared with me, if you keep nurturing your dreams, you all have great chances to realize them in years to come…
There will be an old olive tree in Smrikve dedicated to the 26th generation and I do hope that some of you during your lifetime may have the opportunity to visit your tree…
It was a difficult decision to take… I had hopes in scientific community… I was happy when vaccine was discovered… but I learned, as we all are learning, that we will need a little bit more time to win this War…
We had several lock downs world wide over the last year and because of the lock downs the spread of the virus was contained… at the same time we still have limited number of people which are immune to the virus… and the vaccine started to be applied 4 months ago with production capacities which are insufficient for our current world needs… for this reason the available supply of the vaccine is insufficient to create safe environment we need… and the combination of the above two elements is producing the current third wave we are living in many countries world wide…
We all know that thanks to scientists we will win this battle… but the battle will not be over this summer…
The Spanish flu lasted for more than 2 years and had 4 waves… and if there will be no new surprises I do hope that already by the end of this year the situation will be much better in many countries and that during 2022 we may expect the pandemic to be declared over… but I also learned that every forecast we make can change and so far have changed in worst for so many time so far, I do hope that it may change for better in the future…
I am sorry that this generation will not have the opportunity to experience the Smrikva Bowl MORE THAN TENNIS element… I never wished to explain in detail what is our more than tennis all about… and I always let this element be lived by each Smrikva Bowl child on its own… but I wish to thanks the past Smrikva Bowl players who shared part of our story with you and passed a part of the Smrikva message to you…
Last year we were hit with the pandemic first wave and the 25th edition was canceled… as per tradition on 21.9.2020 during the Smrikva Bowl Ambassadors day… the new presentation with requirements for the 26th edition was published… I asked each of you not to submit the candidacy material before 1st of January 2021… because in September the situation was still bad… but I had hope that situation will get better…
When the vaccine discovery was announced I had a big hope that we will be able to meet… but unfortunately there were surprises for all of us and the world conditions are still not good…
We had our traditional and unique Smrikva Bowl Tennis Talents Family Weeks scheduled for the end of April… for years we’ve been doing this special learning experience week in spring for the selected Smrikva Bowl players and families… and selected alumni for this year classes were from 3 continents and 10 different countries… at the end of January we took decision to move our classes to Spring 2022 because the world safety situation was envisaged to be insufficient to travel and gather for the end of April…
My hope in faster recovery started to vanish a bit after delays in vaccine supply started to be announced… and Governments in EU started to reschedule vaccination plans… at the moment is clear that in many countries the process will be much longer than expected and all those countries with insufficient vaccine will continue to apply some kind of restrictive measures…
Sharing and exchanging periodically my thoughts about possible Smrikva Bowl execution with our medical staff in Pula, which for years attend Smrikva Bowl as our staff members, and know well what type of event we do organize, in our most recent discussions all of them confirmed to me that this summer we will be still far away from having possibilities to organize gathering like our Smrikva Bowl is.
Our selection process was closed on 30th of March… and till the last I kept thinking of possible scenarios but deterioration of the situation in Europe do not leave us any choice… I am glad that I did not give up from the selection process and hoped till the end… I was pleased to get to know you… all of the candidacies that I received arrived from very brave families and this mean that is very likely that the children will be very brave too…
I was very pleased to learn about your children and your families via selection process… and I wish to share again that this year generation is a great generation… both girls and boys are very brave…
I am deeply sorry that the 26th Smrikva Bowl 2021 generation birthday party will not take place…
As Smrikva Bowl accepted player and as Smrikva Bowl Ambassador you will have your dedicated olive tree living in Smrikve… you will have the possibility to visit us with your family for tennis holidays… you will have the possibility to present your candidacy for our unique Smrikva Bowl Tennis Talents Family Weeks program… you will be eligible to support the Smrikva Bowl candidates in the future… you are welcomed to use in your curriculum that you were selected player for the 26th Smrikva Bowl 2021 edition… and in 15-20 years from now I would be pleased if you visit us with your family for the Million plus Smrikva Bowl Family Week program…
Go for your dreams… and remember Smrikva Bowl is just a little step… you passed the selection process… and do not be sad but keep preparing for new challenges and new tournaments because soon the pandemic will finish and the World will connect again…
Best wishes to all the family,