An integral part of OnCourt OffCourt is our commitment to wellness, health, and strength both on and off the court. Hey, it’s even in our name!
No matter your level of play, focusing on your whole being will always make you a better player on the court.
In part six of our game changers webinar, Joe reveals his creativity goes beyond his game on the court and his innovative designs off the court.
The following is a transcript from part six of our game changers webinar.
Billy:
All right. And this is a good segue into our poetry reading. We love when Joe gets a chance to share. The multi-talented Joe Dinoffer, we got a chance to share last time. It was awesome. And again, as somebody who has both of these poetry books; they’re super well made, super high quality. Just really thoughtful and well done production, so Joe, would you mind sharing something with us?
Joe:
I don’t know if we’ll get to Home but I thought from the first book poems called A Father’s Love. And yes, that’s Kalindi at about 13 and a half or 14.
Kalindi:
Something like that.
Joe:
I remember taking that photo in Carmel, California, and she’s now 29, and in 5 weeks, she’ll be celebrating her marriage with Josh Warren, a super special person.
In the intro, I talked about storytelling.
And I was thinking this applies to parenting. But it can also apply to tennis and pickleball, too. Or coaches of any game, any sport’s teachers.
Because people are engaged more powerfully when stories are told.
And that’s just a common understanding and employed by so many teachers
So ill just read from here
And this is from A Father’s Love.
There was a story I used to tell Kalindi when she was young; we’re talking between two and five years old at that time.
That resonated powerfully with her; although I am not a very talkative person, here you might think I am, but I’m not usually.
I stuck to that one story and told it again and again with new episodes to keep her interest. This one story developed a life of its own and spanned a couple of years and beyond. From the ages of two and five, she heard this story at least once a week and sometimes daily.
The ongoing theme of the story was cooperation.
What parent doesn’t want their child to grow up cooperative, right?
It’s my hope that this concept may help other families as well.
I always joke a little bit; you really need to take the initiative in learning parenting. Or relationships. They’re not taught in education.
Here’s the gist of the story. It’s three very short paragraphs. Maybe ten sentences.
“Once there was a small village. Where two little girls lived. They were both six years old and had loving parents. In fact, they lived next door to each other. And their homes were identical except for one home was happy, and the other was sad.
In the happy home, there were flowers in the yard, and the sun was always shining through the windows. The family living inside was smiling, laughing, and having fun. The little girl had many toys and regularly received gifts from her family. They all cooperated with one another, making this a truly happy home.
The sad home was very different. The flowers in the yard had died from neglect, and only weeds poked through the poor excuse for a front yard. The sky above this house was dismal and gray, emitting a continuous cold drizzle. Toys? The little girl had few toys, and those she did have were old and worn.
The family members argued daily, and the little girl was unhappy and cried often.
It was a very sad home; nobody cooperated with anyone.
Now, after this introduction, I create a few different sample stories of daily life events which gave opportunities for the little happy girl to cooperate with her parents and described how the sad girl would not cooperate.
And I continued, and our daughter got to choose which home she wanted to live in. The ongoing story was one of my parenting highlights, and my heart would glow when little Kalindi would ask me, ‘Tell me about that little girl, and what about the sad one?’
Thank goodness she chose the happy home and became a cooperative member of our family and has been that way ever since.
So, whether it was this simple storytelling or just her nature, we’ll never know, but ‘cooperation’ was the first long word she could pronounce.”
So, that’s the kind of book it is, it’s the experience. You know, the lives of your child, the ups and downs which are inevitable.
The person you are off the court affects the person you are on the court and vice versa. That’s why we’re focused on taking care of the body, mind, and soul of players of all ages, on and off the court.
If you want to find more creative writing and poetry that speaks to what it means to be a person on the court and off it, click here.
Kalindi Dinoffer is trained in multiple aspects of mindfulness in life and in sports, sharing on her blog MindfulKalindi.com. She is also certified to teach yoga, fitness, reiki, and MFR. Kalindi also serves as VP marketing at OnCourtOffCourt.com, a leading supplier of tennis, pickleball, fitness and yoga training aids and equipment and has been published in Tennis industry Magazine and Pickleball Magazine, and has conducted workshops at conferences around the world. In her spare time, Kalindi plays tennis, pickleball and table tennis and enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking and biking and cross country skiing in the winter.
