Unveiling The Eleven

Regular readers know that I have written a lot about tennis over the past few years and that I have been embarking on building my own tennis paradise at my home. This process has taken over three years (so far) but last week was a milestone as I was able to play on the court for the first time. 

I had been at our national industry apartment conference in San Diego that was ending on Thursday. A lot of rain was in the forecast starting on Thursday morning, so I chose to drive back home on Wednesday night. Not only would I miss the rain, but, more importantly, I would be able to play on my new court for the first time.

Here is what the court looks like. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. The stream in front of the court was not initially planned for, but because by code, we either needed glass on the wall to protect people from falling over it or a barrier between the wall and where people could safely be, we decided to create the barrier. Heather came up with the idea of the stream, and we thought that it could be a very unique and cool feature to the entire viewing and playing experience. Heather turned out to be correct, as it is a beautiful addition to the project. One day we were discussing how it might look, and I, out of the blue, called it the Stream of Consciousness. The name has stuck. I really like how serene the stream is, and the greenbelt in front of it gives it a park-like feel.

The following picture shows a different vantage point. I have looked better, but I’m willing to subordinate my ego to create beautiful art. Behind me, you can see a lot of trees in the far back and the ones closer to me that are illuminated. We had to plant all of those, and they really made a difference in terms of creating more privacy and making the environment even more natural and lush. It turns out that a number of trees were planted on the Jewish holiday of Tu BiShvat, which is an ecological awareness day in which trees are planted in honor of it. It was a pure coincidence that some of our trees were planted on that day, but it was another example (one of many) of the stars aligning for this project.

Approval for the project required obtaining a grading permit, encroachment permit, and retaining wall permits. Construction also includes an Additional Dwelling Unit (ADU), better thought of as a casita, and an upper-level viewing deck and indoor entertainment space with a television, bar, and hopefully an air hockey table. That is still under construction but should be done by the end of February.

Someone asked me if I had a name for the court, and I spontaneously said The Eleven. The person gave me a perplexed look and asked why I would name it that. I half-jokingly said it’s going to put me in Chapter 11 as it has cost so much more money than I ever expected. Someone once told me when doing a big construction project that, the rule of thumb is to get three bids and not choose the lowest one but to add them together to get a much more accurate estimate of the true cost. In my case, six would have been more sound advice.

As I thought about the name The Eleven some more, I liked it for many more positive reasons. I like the name in and of itself. It’s also the name of a very cool, quite complex, and innovative Grateful Dead song that uses a very unusual and difficult-to-play 11/8 time signature. The song has very surrealistic, poetic lyrics written by the incomparable Robert Hunter. Here is the song’s beginning, which resonated with me regarding my vision for the project.

No more time to tell how
This is the season of what
Now is the time of returning
With our thought jewels polished and gleaming

Now is the time past believing
The child has relinquished the reign
Now is the test of the boomerang
Tossed in the night of redeeming

I particularly like the line,

“With our thought jewels polished and gleaming.”

I hope that playing on The Eleven and interacting with other motivated, excellence-oriented people will inspire them when they congregate at the house. If they can leave with more pristine and positive thinking while forming deeper relationships, it will have accomplished part of my objective.

I want the court and the totality of what is being built to be a magnet for excellence. I want people who strive to go beyond and reach that elusive 11. I want to see incredible determination, effort, strategy, skill, and sportsmanship. To me, The Eleven will be the embodiment of excellence, plain and simple. I also want it to be a place to create powerful and extraordinary memories and to help people improve their conditioning. I hope people who play and socialize there will leave feeling more alive and joyful.

I will wrap up by showing a few other pictures of my great passion project.

Here is Heather and I finally got to enjoy the fruit of our creation.

Here I am with Christian, who is the mastermind behind the entire construction of the court and ADU. He has been extraordinary, and we have also developed a great friendship throughout this process, except when he says he wants to get together to go over finances, which means he needs more money 🙂

Yours truly in action.

The last two are pictures showing the entire court from the baseline.

This one is a little closer with me in the foreground.

So there you have it. The Eleven is officially unveiled. I do have a vision of having some of the world’s best players practicing there, particularly before the BNP tournament in Indian Wells that takes place in March every year. I also envision having exciting tournaments and exhibitions as well. Hopefully, in the years ahead, I will be able to share some of these incredible experiences as they come to fruition.