As Tracy Hudson Will Attest, Sometimes, Mother Does Know Best : A Little Prodding Goes a Long Way on the Court

Quite a bit of motherly prodding was needed to get Tracy Hudson out to a Garden Grove High School badminton practice two years ago.

Said Hudson: “(My mom) said, ‘Oh, Miss Toutz. She’s still there, and she coaches badminton. You should go out for it because she’s a really neat coach. She’s the best coach they have there.’ ”

Kind of that “Do it for me, honey” tone of voice.

Well, mother-daughter relationships can be trying. Particularly in this case where the mother, Nancy Davis, attended Garden Grove High, and repeatedly glorified a handful of teachers each night at the dinner table.

Davis, also an athlete, revered many of her former coaches. And she let Hudson know it--time and time again.

Vicki Toutz, the badminton coach, was special, though. Toutz the U.S. women’s badminton team coach, had coached Davis years earlier in Girls Athletic Assn. sports such as volleyball, basketball and swimming.

“ Badminton? “ Hudson said, giving her mother that well practiced ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ look. Tennis was Hudson’s sport and she didn’t intend to quit. After all, she was Garden Grove’s No. 2 singles player as a freshman.

But as it turned out, yes, badminton.

And after her initial resistence, Hudson discovered she liked the sport. She also discovered she was good at it.

Last month, Hudson placed second in the Junior National badminton championships at the Manhattan Beach Badminton Club. It was a surprising finish for someone who had practiced a total of 27 weeks, the equivalent of three high school seasons.

“People were all (asking), ‘Where are you from? What club do you play at? Who coaches you?’ ” Hudson said.

Hudson doesn’t belong to a club, and she doesn’t take private lessons. But, she had enough of a tennis background to make the transition into badminton.

For four years, Davis practiced with Hudson each day after school, helping her develop more than form and footwork. She wanted her daughter to learn discipline.

Hudson had to stay on the court until she hit 100 consecutive error free ground strokes. No fudging was allowed.

Once, Hudson’s 99th shot snapped the tape and rolled gently back to her.

A grave silence followed.

“I said so many in a row and then she stopped,” Davis said. “She said, ‘I’m not going to do it’ and I said ‘you’re going to do it,’ and we both stood there and stared for a while.

“Pretty soon we started hitting, again.”

Davis wasn’t fooling around. And neither was Hudson. Besides her daily practice sessions, she took private lessons and entered tournaments on the weekends.

“In tennis, I took lessons and I thought I really wanted it for a while,” Hudson said. “I thought maybe I could become (a top player) in the world, and then one day, I figured, I don’t want it enough, and I can’t play inside if I don’t want it. It’s no use.

“In badminton, I really want it a lot. Inside, I try. Inside.”

Old habits die hard. The first time Hudson came out to badminton practice, she let the shuttle bounce on the floor. She had a two-handed backhand her first two seasons.

“Everyone would say, ‘Oh, there’s Tracy, the tennis player,’ ” Toutz said.

They didn’t say that after her first season.

Hudson won a Southern Section 4-A individual title her sophomore season. She will begin the defense of her title today in the first round of the individual championships from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Cal State Domniquez Hills.

Still, Hudson has had her mind on tennis because it was something she could share with her mother.

Davis played competitive tennis for the first time in 1978 at age 28. She entered Rancho Santiago community college at age 33, and became the Dons’ No. 1 singles player. She advanced to the state semifinals championships in her sophomore season.

“I was 33 playing against 18 and 20-year-olds,” Davis said. “I thought it was great. It was wonderful because that’s how old I think I am, anyway.”

Hudson didn’t share her zeal.

“I thought it was really weird, like ‘How old is your mom?’ ‘Oh, she’s 34 and she goes to college,’ ” she said. “She’s going backwards.”

Even worse, Davis was a better tennis player than Hudson. Hudson recalled one frustrating set where she came oh-so-close but lost to Davis, 6-4.

And when Hudson was voted Garden Grove’s most valuable player as a sophomore in 1984, her mother received the same honor from Rancho Santiago. Hudson, who still plays on the high school tennis team, also was the Argonauts’ MVP last fall.

“I just wanted to impress her,” Hudson said. “She won all of these tournaments, so I wanted to go home and say I could win my tournaments, too. And when I lost, it was a big disappointment.”

Said Davis: “I have more killer in me for tennis than she did, and I don’t think of myself as being 35.

“Tracy, you’re older than me, aren’t you?” she asked, turning to Tracy.

They’re a walking Ivory commercial.

But, there are times when Hudson has to draw the line. Especially when her teammates ask Davis to play badminton.

Said Davis: “The other kids want to hit and boy, Tracy looks at me and she says, ‘Mom, don’t hit with my friends.’ (I say) ‘They asked me to, Tracy,’ and she goes, ‘Well, I don’t see any other mothers doing it,’ and I say, ‘I don’t see any other mothers around.’ ”

Some might call this a second childhood. Davis says it’s her first.

She spent her high school years working and helping to rear five brothers and sisters. Then, she married at 18, became a mother at 19 and divorced her husband at 20.

She worked as a waitress, a saleswoman, a secretary, a house cleaner, and part of a catering team until she remarried two years ago. She held as many as four jobs simultaneously to support herself and her daughter.

Her biggest fear was that Hudson would have to do the same.

“If I had to go out and work more, I’d do that instead of putting the stress on her because I know,” Davis said. “I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to have to work from the time I was 16, so I don’t want that to happen to her.

“But, if I’m going to do that, then she must do her part and work hard at badminton, and at school.”

Hudson would have worked hard, anyway.

“I love the game,” Hudson said. “I don’t know why. There’s just something about badminton that I love, so I was willing to work for it.”

Could it be the coach?

Toutz competed for the United States badminton team in three Uber Cups, international badminton competitions similar to tennis’ Davis Cup. She became Garden Grove’s badminton coach 10 years ago, and has been coaching at Garden Grove for 25 years.

“Some coaches, you just come to practice, and you don’t really respect them,” Hudson said. “But, her, you want to get there on time, because you want to impress her.

“You want her to think highly of you because we think really highly of her. We always throw parties for her on her birthday and stuff.”

Funny, Davis remembered throwing a few birthday parties for Toutz, too.

Even funnier, Davis still calls her Miss Toutz.

Said Toutz: “I keep telling her, ‘Don’t call me Miss Toutz. You’re old enough to call me Vicki.’ ”

It’s tough to grow up.

Davis will miss those mother-daughter tennis tournaments now that Hudson is concentrating on badminton. Last spring, Davis and Hudson placed second in the Equitable Family Tennis Challenge Southwestern regional championships.

There will be other national tournaments, though, if all goes as planned.

Hudson wants to play badminton in college, and hopes to eventually to be a member of the U.S. Olympic team in 1992 if badminton is admitted to the Games. Badminton will appear in the 1988 Olympics as an exhibition sport. And Toutz is a candidate as Olympic coach.

Davis has her own plans.

“My goal is to get a ranking in the senior (tennis) circuit,” she said.

Sounds good, but, she’d be playing with women 35 and older and she’s just not used to that age group.

Besides, she’d rather spend time with her daughter for now.

“It’s fun growing up with her, actually,” Davis said.

We’ll see who grows up first.