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"I'm not playing tennis,'' Marvin Tyler recalls telling co-worker Eric Hamilton, who asked Tyler about 15 years ago to replace a player in his foursome at Westport Tennis Club. "I'm a baller (basketball player). He asked me for two years and I always said no."
Tyler finally capitulated, and it changed his life. He now owns Slammer Tennis World and runs programs in Norwalk, Stamford and New Canaan. He instructs players of all ages and abilities, and earned the United State Tennis Association's Community Tennis Association of the Year award in 2008 from the New England Section. Slammer Tennis World, in collaboration with the Norwalk Recreation and Parks, has an evening and Saturday tennis program for kids and adults. Session I started on Monday, April 26. Visit www.slammertennisworld.com for other sessions and programs.
Tyler's career transition is nothing short of amazing. He played point guard for a basketball team in the Bronx, the Black All-Stars, and juggled hoops and sports for a while. Once Tyler turned his attention to tennis full-time, he couldn't be stopped. He played at Stamford's Scalzi Park and earned the nickname "Slammer" for a lethal overhead that he credits to his basketball career.
Tyler, who never had a formal lesson, joined the tennis team at the Shippan Racquet Club in Stamford, CT. "My close friends, Eleanor and Bob Dunmoodie who have been playing tennis for over 40 years, took me to my first tennis party and they advised me to join the team at Shippan. My tennis skills continued to improve. The first year there, I didn't lose a match,'' Marvin says. When a friend suggested he seek instruction certification, he pursued it. It took over 2-3 weeks at the Van De Meer tennis university in Hilton Head, S.C. working with noted tennis instructor Dennis Van De Meer. Van De Meer is a master teaching pro and legendary tennis coach. "His passion was an inspiration. He made me want to go out and make a difference in my community through the game of tennis for kids and adults,'' Tyler says.
Tyler left the business world and jumped into tennis with both feet. He started at the Stamford YMCA with nine students, and soon joined the Norwalk Recreation and Parks department and the Stamford Recreation department as an instructor. He was also one of the head tennis pros for the Junior Outreach Tennis Program/Greater Stamford Tennis Association in Stamford. Tyler, an Emporia, Va. native worked his way up to Director of Tennis for the city of Norwalk for supervisor Mike Mocciae. "He gave me an opportunity to expand Slammer Tennis World in the community,'' says Tyler, who now instructs over 400 kids throughout Fairfield County/New England. Several of Tyler's players have gone on to play on high school teams, and he offers jobs to high school seniors and college students for the summer. Tyler also volunteers frequently. In 2003, he went back to his hometown and gave free tennis lessons to kids and adults.
He now works six days a week, is a member of the American Tennis Association, the USTA and won an award from the NAACP Chapter of Northern Dutchess county as a "Man of Distinction" in 2007. All because a former basketball player switched the court on which he plays. It's a career path so unlikely, so improbable, even Tyler finds it hard to believe.
"You have to have dreams and goals,'' Tyler says. "You have to take a chance, make sacrifices and believe in yourself. The passion and enthusiasm I express in my daily life is the same I show on the tennis court when teaching players of all ages."
