Tennis

Tennis is my favorite sport to play. I took lessons growing up, played on our school's team through middle and high school and then played socially with friends throughout college. There is just something about being out on the court, the clean lines, the green and white, the clean and crisp net (harder to find it seems), the sound of a can opening, the smell of the felt and rubber, the first bounce of a fresh tennis ball, swinging as hard as you can, the joys of a well placed shot and the smile after acing the other person with a serve. I just love it.

Watching tennis on TV is also fun, though I haven't seemed to watch as much the last few years. It always makes me want to get back out there and play more regularly, though it often doesn't work. I was playing more often when I first moved to Atlanta, but several of the people that played together have moved on or don't get out there as often. I really do miss it. I think I played once or twice last year and that just isn't enough. Especially when the first time out on the court after a long time away is pretty rough, no control over the ball, often going nowhere near where I want it to go. I end up leaving pretty frustrated and extremely exhausted. There is nothing in my mind like running quick sprints back and forth, side to side on a tennis court for an hour or more. I am always exhausted afterwards! Every time I play I say I'm going to get more into playing regularly, but it is so hard to make time and find someone that wants to play at the same time too.

In some rare feat, I have gotten to play three times in the last month! It has been so much fun to see my game improve even over such a short period of time. I've played with my friend Amy twice now, we are pretty evenly matched and enjoy getting out there and just hitting. The goal is to improve and become more consistent. I can't remember when we actually played a full game. That is okay though, it is a lot of fun and great exercise. It is often after this type of play that I feel better about my tennis game and can see improvement. In between those times, I got out on the court with my college friend Cliff on a Sunday afternoon. It was SO hot and I was definitely not used to that! We hit for a while and then decided to play a game. Wow, maybe three or four years since I played a real game. My serving was atrocious. It is pretty hard to win points and especially games if you cannot even get the point started out. We had fun but it was a rough day. Each of us often lost our service games, which I think should actually be our strong points. Cliff's were better than mine and he had a second serve to default to when his first didn't go in. Sadly mine never worked out that way, more double faults than I care to admit. We ended up having several good points and finished up the set 7-5, I won but it was a tough battle. We decided next time, we should try for an evening when it wouldn't be so hot and we wouldn't want to pass out. How on earth I used to practice several times a week for hours at a time in high school (in Florida, at 4 pm) with the crazy heat, I have no idea. I can tell that I'm definitely getting older! Well, I'm hoping to keep up playing a little more often, at least enough to keep my skills somewhat intact!