Meet Matthew “Batman” Batmunkh… he needs your help right now!
“Tennis Makes Me Happy!”- Batman
The harsh reality is that without your help batman becomes severely at risk to face the high rates of obesity, poor mental health and is more likely to become one of the 49% of students who have tried drugs or 61% of students who have tried alcohol*.
Batman’s Story(so far):
The Batmunkh family migrated to the U.S. in 1999 due to the uncertain political climate in Mongolia and to provide a better future for their children.
Batman picked up his first racket at age 7 and his father who was a circus performer in Mongolia recognized over time that this was his passion.
Unfortunately, sports is expensive and the barrier to entry is an un-attainable financial task for Mr. and Mr’s B. They need your help!
The harsh reality is that without your help batman becomes severely at risk to face the high rates of obesity, poor mental health and is more likely to become one of the 49% of students who have tried drugs or 61% of students who have tried alcohol*.
Batman is asking for help to stay active this summer by participating in 9 weeks of full day summer tennis camp ($462 / week).
To read more about Batman story , click here http://ow.ly/7DWP30aFIrb
Click here to support https://www.razoo.com/story/Help-Batman
A group from the HAT FUND (HF) just returned from visiting Uganda and we can safely say that the trip was an eye-opener. We were amazed by the warmth in which we were welcomed in spite of the disparity in the life we lead in U.S. to the life that Africans lead.
The aspirations of the youth in Africa are no different from youth anywhere else in the world. Very simply, they seek to better their lives. According to a McKinsey Report “Finding opportunities for young people is a critical challenge for Africa, where 62 percent of the population — more than 600 million young people — is below the age of 25. With no signs that population growth will slow in the decades to come, it is imperative that Africa leverage the talent and energy of its youth to create dramatically higher levels of prosperity and equality and avoid the latent risks of unemployment and social instability.” (Source: http://voices.mckinseyonsociety.com/empowering-youth-in-africa/)
Indeed the HF community is extremely motivated by the above and that’s because at HF, our credo has always been that when you open up a child’s world to knowledge, skill, and aspiration, you open up a world of opportunity for the child and that makes a better world for all of us.
There are many challenges in Africa and each of them needs to be tackled simultaneously in several ways by several. One proven way to tackle those challenges and promote development is through sports; the intensity with which any society engages itself in sport can be a measure of the society’s overall health and development. Even the United Nations has recognized that sports can be a tool of development. There is, in fact, a Special Adviser on Sport for Development in the Office of the UN’s Secretary-General.
So, what’s our action plan? It is commonly said that there are several ways to peel an orange, so we will do what we do best – we will use the sport of tennis as the medium to provide African youth with the window of opportunity to break-out from the cycles of generational poverty. However, because we only have a limited management bandwidth and financial means, we will begin in Uganda.
Our plan for Uganda is to engage ourselves at several levels. At one level, we will provide training to a greater number of deserving Ugandan children and at another level we will educate Ugandan tennis coaches so that they in turn may be better trained to coach their wards. For our proposed engagement in Africa, our inspiration and confidence is drawn largely from our hands-on experience in the life of a Ugandan youth, John Lutaaya, whom we have written about in one of our earlier Blogs (“Serve and Return”, January 2016)
This proposed initiative would see us engaged in Uganda in the following ways:
Conduct coaching workshops and, youth clinics and certification courses for Ugandan tennis coaches
Continue our on-site consulting and advisory services to add value to existing Youth Tennis Programs. Tena Academy, Kampala is our initial program partner
Popularize the sport of tennis and broadcast the benefits of playing the game in communities identified as needing a sport activity
Provide support, upgrades and sustenance to tennis programs already existing in the communities and add further playing capacity where possible. Support will include donating essential playing gear, consumables, transportation, school fee subsidies and advice on maintaining the gear and the courts
In our assessment, the training of coaches will be fundamental and of extremely strategic importance to the success of our mission. Our effort will be to identify coaches through tennis associations and federations, even if they possess only a semblance of knowledge of coaching tennis. We will share our knowledge (in tennis coaching) in order to bridge the deficiencies in their existing coaching methods. Just to give an example, it could be something as simple as teaching those coaches to use smaller courts and slower tennis balls with beginners. Our support will include help in preparing the right kind of courts, using the right kind of racquets, balls and coaching aids, athletic training, body conditioning and prevention of injuries commonly associated with playing tennis.
Parallel to building up coaching capacity, we will be equally focused on discovering Ugandan talent seeking to learn tennis. Each student will not only be taught how to correctly play tennis but more importantly they will be mentored on developing skills and imbibed with knowledge (for example: interpersonal and relationship management skills and responsible citizenship) that will bring them success even off the tennis-court.
As you can well imagine, creating this reservoir of human capital will need funds. Let us not kid ourselves into believing that Ugandans can afford to pay for all this learning. The World Bank estimates that 72% of the African youth population lives on less than $2 a day to help their families, 30% of children between the ages of 5 and 14 are forced to work (Source: http://voices.mckinseyonsociety.com/empowering-youth-in-africa/). Therefore unless there is a promise of decent living and meals-on-the-table, it would be foolishly ambitious of us to expect Ugandan youth to join our programs.
The children are living in such dire circumstances that it is not enough to simply convince them, and their parents, of the big picture of tomorrow but they require convincing that even their needs of today are provided for. It is therefore our mission at HAT FUND that every deserving child should be enabled to choose our program over the drudgery of working for a subsistence wage. We can only do this by ensuring that when a child chooses our tennis program over choosing to go elsewhere to work, that child’s living requirements are taken care of.
We have judged that by far the greatest value will be added to Ugandan communities if we focused our initiative in Ugandan soil itself rather than by embedding Ugandan youth in U.S. facilities. At the apex, the HAT FUND will partner with High Altitude Tennis, LLC in executing the various parts of this initiative. At the grassroots level, Hat Fund will partner with Ugandan coaching institutions (like Tena Academy and others) to bring the greatest good for tennis enthusiasts and novices alike. The ultimate aim is that the sport may provide joy, financial independence and recognition to the Ugandans.
To support this initiative, HF is already adequately prepared with motivated and trained tennis coaches to conduct train-the-trainer workshops and clinics. However to fund our initiative to build the coaching capacity (infrastructure and teaching resources) in Uganda as well as support the children’s basic needs (meals, transportation, and school fee subsidies) we will need the support of benefactors, sponsors and contributors. Therefore, over the next several months, we will be organizing fundraisers and working to develop partnerships to garner funds for our engagement in Uganda.
Contributed by A. Adeni with L. Segelke
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To learn more about how you can help or to make a donation please contact us at
I had an interaction recently that I want to share with you all – one that I think is relevant to any student who is part of a tennis team or adult who is part of a business team. At the local coffee shop, there is a regular who I come across nearly every time that I walk through the doors. She seems to be consistently in a bad mood and anti-social; every time I try to get her to smile by going out of my way to hold the door for her, she actually seems slightly more annoyed (I like a challenge – so I engage in a game called “can I make this person smile?”). One morning my “perceived” notion about her got even worse when she scolded the barista for not getting her coffee right.
Being engaged in this challenge/game of trying to get this grumpy woman to smile, I decided one day that I was just going to start talking with her in order to get to know her better. We were both standing in line, and I sparked a conversation. To my surprise, she engaged with me! I asked her, “How has your week been?” She replied, “Terrible”. Instead of stopping there and simply re-confirming my “perceived” opinion about her, I asked, “Why?” Over the next 10 minutes, I learned that she is a recent divorcee going through financial troubles and that she works at a hospice where she has to deal with terminally ill patients on a daily basis. At the end of the conversation, she thanked me for listening and we parted ways with a brief hug. Wait – what? I also found out that she is a tennis enthusiast and is interested in helping students in need to enjoy this great game! That’s not at all what I expected to happen when we started our conversation. I was expecting her to not respond to me at all or cuss me out for bothering her.
So what lessons did I learn here? It’s three-fold. I think it’s extremely easy and takes very little effort to look, point at, and judge others rather than take the time to really understand them on a deeper level (what’s really going on here?). When you do take the time to get to know someone on a deeper level, you will find out that the person is not anything similar to who you “perceived” them to be.
Secondly, when we are judging others, we are missing opportunities to improve ourselves and we are wasting our energy on things that we cannot control. Was it bettering me to judge this woman who I knew nothing about every time that I entered the local coffee shop? Couldn’t that energy have been better spent elsewhere to enhance my life or someone else’s who I care about? The answer is: absolutely! It is my experience that those individuals who are more concerned about why everyone else is not living up to their standards are actually the ones who are not happy and not achieving what they want. Those that are achieving great things don’t have time to waste on aimless rhetoric; they are too busy pursuing their own goals.
Lastly, life is all about relationships. Taking time to truly get to know people will no doubt get you closer to what you want in life. I realize that there are specific personalities (lone wolf types) who will fight this notion. For them, no one does things as good as they do, and they actually find working with others to be a nuisance. However, it is my experience that this specific personality type is ALWAYS underachieving because they ALWAYS end up being the bottle neck or reason for lack of growth within a group. It takes trust, a team, and strong relationships to make things move in a powerful and successful direction.
So, this week when you come across that person who rubs you the wrong way, engage them in a conversation. I bet you find out that they are not at all what you “perceived” them to be! And make sure to let me know how it goes.
By: Ryan Segelke Grand Slam Level Coach, CEO and CO-Founder of High Altitude Tennis Academy
Watch How you can transform your weakness in Backhand Volley from a weakness to a weapon- By Ryan Segelke, Co-Founder & CEO, High Altitude tennis, Denver, Colorado.
Miss-P is an ambitious student who has been with HAT since it’s inception. I remember Miss-P’s first practice vividly to this day as she enchanted us all as a smiling, ambitious 6th grader.
Miss Peyton with her Dad.
I will never forget that one specific moment during one of our very challenging fitness sessions ran by our Lead Fitness Expert, Coach Michael Farrington.
Ten minutes into the fitness portion of practice Miss-P was as white as a ghost, looked pale and seemed exhausted. One of our experts grew concerned and approached her to see if she needed a pause or a full stop break at which she said, “Nope, I’m good” and bravely continued with her fitness exercises.
A brave little fighter she was, and eventually made it to the last drill of the fitness session where we were doing wall sits. Miss-P’s legs were shaking and tears were welling up in her eyes as she resolutely rejected the idea of quitting.
When the session was over, it took nearly 15 minutes for her to recover from one of the toughest fitness sessions she had ever experienced at her young age. The entire staff was impressed by the will power, enthusiasm and passion Miss-P presented. On the other hand, we were also worried that the intense fitness session would scare her away from her future practice sessions. That is, until we all noticed her walking proudly to the car alongside her parents with a big smile on her face… she realized that she had just completed something immensely challenging which had made her better. She was profoundly satisfied… it was obvious, as she had accomplishment and satisfaction written all over her face. Her father, Pete [a former competitive rugby player], would later describe our program to others who were interested as “this place is not for sissies” … Miss-P surely is not a sissy!
Miss-P continued to return day after day improving her game and her fitness to levels she had never experience before. She was ALWAYS completely focused on what would help her improve to eventually play college tennis, and not distracted by what would give her instant short-term results. This focus was highlighted during some of her first tournaments as a HAT player. Leading up to the tournament Miss-P had been working hard on improving her serve, and like most players who have worked on improvements in their game, she failed miserably the first few times she put them into action under the pressure of a tennis match. Actually, she could hardly make a serve in the box… yet she kept trying. She was swinging through her serve focusing on perfecting her motion confidently, with proper technique. A focus on perfection, which she knew would pay off in the future. That day, Miss-P had a choice, and she chose to think forward and be patient in her development. Which is, you must agree, very wise and quite rare for her age. Through her resiliency Miss-P worked out the kinks and went on to eventually winning three tournaments in a row! Her game was just thriving and things were looking up, way up!
Throughout my life, I have rarely seen someone as happy and satisfied as Miss-P was at the end of her winning that first tournament. She has personally entrenched her parents and the entire HAT Community in a vibrating circle of satisfaction, pride and profound joy.
Later, Miss-P began to become less confident in her movement and began to play with a little less balance than we were use to seeing from her. You see, one thing I failed to mention was that Miss-P, previous to our program, had fought another battle with the tissue in her brain.
At age 5 she developed a brain tumor and had it successfully removed [the procedure, performed by the exceptional staff at The Children’s Hospital of Colorado is called a craniotomy and required Miss-P to endure 4 surgeries over 2 days]. Sadly, the malicious tumor had returned and Miss-P would have to once again return to the operating room.
When Miss-P awoke from her second round of surgeries she noticed something was wrong. She had lost her coordination to all the muscles on the right side of her body. Furthermore, she had trouble eating, her vision was blurry and she couldn’t write. Miss-P couldn’t walk, run or jump much less play tennis. Luckily, in Miss-P’s heart and brain, these predicaments and constraints had a curious side effect… Miss-P challenged herself and she immediately went to work. She wholeheartedly welcomed her rigorous therapy at the Children’s Hospital and she worked hard. Yes, she did, even though the doctors warned her that her remarkable progress might eventually plateau.
It was not surprising to see Miss-P returning to the tennis court. Except, things were much tougher this time around. All of the fundamentals, techniques and tactics she had learned she would have to start to relearn, without the expectation that she would ever become a great tennis player.
She had hit rock bottom with her tennis when she tried out for her High School tennis team that year. Pre-surgery she would have been one of the top singles players for the team, and now to her surprise and disappointment she was on the bottom tier playing mainly Junior Varsity. This determination provided Miss-P the sour reality that her dream of playing college tennis was not in the cards. She was devastated.
Miss-P even considered quitting her favorite sport for a while, taking prolonged breaks to try rowing, basketball, and other activities. However, she couldn’t get away from the feeling that she was missing out on all that tennis had given to her. She craved the day-to-day challenges and improvements where she was able to notice positive changes in her fitness and tennis skills.
Thankfully, Peyton has returned to the court where she now plays 4-5 days a week in the same challenging program with elite junior tennis players from Colorado and all around the world with that basic goal and expectation that she will improve each day, one day at a time, slowly, passionately… patiently.
Miss-P teaches us that this is not simply about tennis, but really it’s about all the lessons that tennis and any other competitive sport can teach us all in order to be highly successful in any endeavor. I, with 100% conviction, believe that Peyton, due to her ambition, passion, resiliency, and phenomenal character will be one of tomorrow’s prolific leaders. At HFAC, we say all the time to each and every student accepted into our program… you are whom you hang around, and we are tremendously honored to have the opportunity to be around Miss-P and such a wonderful community of students, parents, and coaches.
Ryan Segelke is the the CO-Founder & Director of High Altitude Tennis Academy in Colorado.
Here is a little insight into coach Segelke:
Ryan Segelke, Co-Founder & Director, High Altitude Tennis, Colorado, USA
Q: You clearly love the game of tennis… What is it that attracted you to the game?
A: The self-accountability of it… If I lost, it was up to me to get back to the practice courts as soon as possible and improve; and if I won, I received all of the accolades. Because of this I really thrived, as frustrating as it was at times!
Q: What drew you to coaching?
A: I suppose I always knew that my late start in tennis would make it extremely difficult to become a successful professional player, so I began coaching early on. I loved, and still love, helping people get better on and off the court. There is something so intriguing about understanding each student’s personality and the nuances of what will get through to them effectively. What my true form of compensation has always been as a coach is seeing a student make a breakthough after the initial struggle; and most of all, when a student comes back after a number of years and lets you know that you made a difference for them.
Q: What is the mission of High Altitude Tennis Academy and how has it evolved since its inception?
A: The mission of the Academy is to put our students ahead of everything else. Our goal for each of our students is to utilize our “micro dynamic” tennis environment to teach each individual the life lessons that, when applied, will propel them to be tomorrows’ leaders and prolific contributors to society. Our staff is also expected to follow the standards set for our students. Otherwise, we become hypocrites.
In the beginning, we knew we wanted the Academy to be focused on elite junior training but we were giving lessons to everyone… adults, kids, teams, professionals- completely unfocused. Looking back, we made a lot of mistakes, however, it has been fun to learn and improve. We narrowed our focus, and today we have only programs serving aspiring junior players.
Q: You train coaches. You are taking steps to improve the level of training and education required for coaching, beginning with coaches employed by High Altitude Tennis. Many coaches are not looking to do more than receive the standard certifications. Do you think there will be a noticeable difference in junior athletes’ development and results?
A: Yes. I love training young coaches, in particular those who are ready to make an impactful difference and are really a blank canvas. What is rewarding for me is to teach tennis myself, however what is most rewarding is to develop a proven success system, like we have at the Academy, and teach coaches who will then influence many more students.
Q: You oversee player development. Is there a secret to developing successful players?
A: (smiling) – Yes. Character development, hard work, straightforward and loving honesty (with students and parents), and consistent repetition are the “secrets”, if you can call it that. There is no place for frustration and anger. It takes a focused, substantive plan to develop a great player. Our coaches develop a minimum of 2 game plans per day, typed up and sent to the entire staff, for the last 4 years! Not ONE singe practice has been “winged” or planned on the “fly”. This process actually allows us to have the flexibility to adjust game plans to match the individual needs of our students.
Q: High Altitude Tennis’ focus is more than winning trophies. Can you tell us more about why you would choose to partner with a non-profit?
A: In many ways, what we envisioned the Academy to be has come to fruition. We are lucky to have learned so much and been open to the many valuable lessons presented to us so that we could adapt and make the appropriate changes for High Altitude Tennis to be successful.
We know that we can make a much bigger difference partnered with a non-profit like The HAT FUND. First, we can accept students who do not currently have the means to afford an elite program like ours. It is extremely important to make this great game available to all young athletes who wish to play. Second, The HAT FUND has a network of incredible organizations providing not only industry leading athletic training like High Altitude Tennis Academy, but also educational resources like Growing Champions for Life, The Princeton Review, and Laurel Springs School allowing our students access to resources that will help them become great athletes, great students and most importantly great people.
Matthew picked up his first tennis racket at age seven. At the age of eight, he began spending a few hours each day at the local tennis rec. center. Recognizing Matthew’s increased interest and passion for the game, Mr. B (his father) and Mrs. B (his mom) wanted to expose Matthew to a more “professional” training environment, and that is when they found HAT!
Matthew a.k.a Batman
We want him to play tennis pro. He loves tennis. His life is tennis.
While there are many caring parents who wish sports stardom for their children, there are really few who understand all of the hard work, investments, sacrifice, and drive that is required to succeed in any professional sport. In fact, Mr. B., had dreams of becoming an acrobat/artistic performer himself for the traveling circus in his birth nation of Mongolia. But, he was deterred by an unfortunate accident at age 4 that resulted in serious back injuries. Similarly to Mathew, Mr. B was passionately and determinedly focused on his circus acts, and after four years of purposeful preparation and dedicated training he managed to make his dream come true. Unfortunately, seven years into performing in his beloved circus Mr. B had to retire due to his ever-present back injury. However, as he is often sharing, “I had fun and lived those years wholeheartedly happy”.
In 1999, Mr. B migrated to the United States. After leaving the circus it was hard for him to find work in Mongolia due to the uncertainty of the political climate. Drawn to the peaceful life in America, Mrs. B soon followed and joined Mr. B in 2001. They haven’t returned to Mongolia since – they have found America to be a good place… a home with many advantages and possibilities for the future of their children.
Matthew came to love tennis… the game, the players, and everything connected to it. He puts in tremendous effort and works purposefully every day to become the best player that he can be. “It’s a good way to exercise. It makes me happy!” If you ask him who his favorite player is, he is likely to answer Roger Federer. “Federer is a strong hitter and has great footwork. I love his forehand.” Even at a young age, Matthew has set his sights very high. He wants to win many titles, such as Wimbledon and the French Open!
The aspirations of the youth in Africa are no different from youth anywhere else in the world. Very simply, they seek to better their lives. According to a McKinsey Report “Finding opportunities for young people is a critical challenge for Africa, where 62 percent of the population — more than 600 million young people — is below the age of 25. With no signs that population growth will slow in the decades to come, it is imperative that Africa leverage the talent and energy of its youth to create dramatically higher levels of prosperity and equality and avoid the latent risks of unemployment and social instability.” (Source: 
HATFundstories 