Last night I discovered tennis is a lot more fun when you actually bat the ball back and forth with your partner. It’s far more entertaining than sending balls ricocheting onto the next court or running after wayward balls mumbling, “Sorry!” after missing an easy shot. Maybe I won’t give it up after my lessons end after all.

I no longer completely suck at tennis. I now only mostly suck. When practicing my serve, I can toss the ball in the air in front of me and whack it, instead of accidentally tossing it behind my head like a bad juggler. We played some easy doubles games and I was able to hit the ball more often than I didn’t. During one game called “Kings and Queens of the Court” my partner and I were able to get three points in a row and defeat the reigning kings to take over their spot. I will try to ignore the patriarchal implications that it is better to be the king than the queen and just be happy [...]

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I am proud to say I don’t totally suck at tennis.

During my first tennis lesson last night I did not wedge a tennis ball into anyone’s eye socket nor did I send sparks and fried green fuzz flying from the overhead lights. I was even able to serve the ball over the net once or twice, which is more than I could say about volleyball in high school PE.

I had never played tennis before. I don’t think I’d even hit a tennis ball with a racket before. Thankfully I am in a large group class with 15 people and 3 instructors, so there were 5 other newbies like me who were grouped together. When I signed in and paid my money at the desk, I also got a packet with flyers and basic tennis rules. I started reading the rules immediately like the good little student I always was. By the time we actually went out to the courts I had already figured out what the baseline was and where the service box was and [...]

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