What Is My Love-Hate Relationship With Tennis

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Tennis has always been one of the sports that I enjoy to a certain degree, but it was not always like this. For a large part of my learning experience with tennis, I had primarily a love hate relationship at best. At worst I would view tennis as another chore, another box to be checked off in this to do list we call life. Ironically it was the worst experience that let me view tennis in a more favorable light.

I have to thank my grandparents for introducing me to tennis, at first I viewed it as a passing curiosity. Idly sitting by the tennis court as they rallied over and over. It occurred to them one day that they should get me involved, and thus began my love-hate relationship with tennis. The games I had with my grandparents were in stark …show more content…

Instead of sitting in an air conditioned room I was standing in the middle of a tennis court, without even a shred of shade to take shelter under. My breath rattled in my ears, coming in sharp gasps a result of my body’s desperate attempt to keep oxygenated in this atrocious heat. Today’s practice was not only expected to be longer than usual but the sun made it downright unbearable. I stood at attention or ‘ready position’ as my coach likes to call it in the middle of the court. It was two hours in the practice and I was a mess. Sweat beaded on my neck and dripped down my back, carving paths on my shirt before falling onto the ground. My shirt was already soaked through and saturated with sweat. My coach noticed how my stance was degrading and called a break, I flopped onto the ground like a robot whose batteries have ran out and fumbled for a bottle of water. Even my breaks were carefully regulated, it was exactly 30 seconds, no more, no less. I stumbled to my feet and staggered over to the base line, but instead of grabbing his basket of balls like I expected, my coach took two balls and walked over to the base line on the other side of the court. He threw the ball up and prepared to serve. All form forgotten, I stood there, arms at my sides, marveling the fluidity of his movements. Then came the serve, the ball flying down the court with inhuman precision. With only seconds to react, I dove for the ball, …show more content…

Any further thought was cut short as my coach sent another serve rocketing in my direction. This time, I was prepared, as I moved my arm back in preparation to return the serve. The impact was something I have never experienced, my racquet took the brunt of the force, with its strings groaning as they bent around the ball. With a dull thump, the ball sped back over the net towards my coach, a short laugh escaped my lips as I prepared to move forward and assume the attacking position. The clouds that have obscured my perception of tennis were finally gone, the truth dawned on me. Tennis was not simply a chore where I spend two hours a week on but actually a sport. Those two words were all it took, to affirm that it was possible

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