ABOUT ME
I love tennis. I love watching tennis, I love playing tennis and now I want to make a blog all about tennis. I am distinctly average myself when it comes to playing, but that doesn't stop me trying to get on the court whenever I can.
However, this wasn't always the case. When I was around 18 years old I turned my back on tennis after 10 years of lessons and coaching. Realising I was not good enough to make it as a tennis player I instead turned my attention to becoming a stereotypical student who drank, smoked and occasionally attended his lectures.
12 years later and the pandemic hit. The UK was in strict lockdown and we all had to stay at home. The gym had replaced tennis as my escape from reality. A place where I could go to get away from the perils of work and house chores. But the gym was now closed and I was stuck in a small terraced house, working from home, where the only human interaction I had was with my partner and the UPS delivery man. We did get a cat, and that did help delay my descent into madness, but it wasn't enough.
Then a few months later tennis courts re-opened. I hadn't held a tennis racket in probably over 8 years, but I had this itch that I needed to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING that would get me out of the house. So I signed up to a local tennis club, bought a tennis racket (which had the completely wrong specs, but more on that in my blog) and booked myself a few coaching sessions during the week. Needless to say the very first tennis ball I hit went out of bounds into the nearby cemetery, but after a few weeks I was back to being a competent amateur.
It was from here that I fell back in love with tennis. I remembered all the great things about this sport. The sportsmanship, the mental resilience needed to succeed, the fantastic cardio workout, which in the summer left me a sweaty crumpled heap on the floor. That feeling of hitting an ace (usually a lefty slice out wide) or blasting a backhand down the line. I then started to watch professional games on TV again. Although the 3 same guys were still dominating the sport, so not much had changed there. I also bought a more appropriate racket and invested in a ball machine. Joined a doubles team and in spite of having me on the team, we were promoted to the top division in our district.
This blog might not amount to much and most people may find it boring, but I also love to write down my thoughts and feelings. So if anyone out there does like reading about my top 5 tennis serve motions, thank you.