I have always loved sports. When I was young I played soccer, basketball, I was a swimmer, and a pitcher in baseball. In highschool I played football (at 5’8″ 125lb, ha!), volleyball, golf, and I was on the ski team. I was never all that good, I never made the cut on any team with tryouts but I always held my own and I was good enough to have fun…Until about the end of high school, when my abilities had deteriorated to the point that sports just became frustrating.
I slowly began to give up the things I loved. First it was baseball, then basketball, then volleyball, but the sport I miss the most is golf.
When I pick up a golf club my hands grip it naturally with that interlocking forefinger and pinky grip that my Dad taught me when I was about 8. I can still feel the perfect backswing as I would keep my left arm straight to the top then shifting my hips and my weight forward I would accelerate through picking up a divot after striking the ball, then turning my wrists – sometimes more than usual to avoid a slice – I would follow through and hold it as the ball soared 150 yards to the green. Man, I miss golf.
When all these sports became no fun I figured what’s the use and I put my clubs down. A couple years later I found cycling and once again sports were fun because I was good again.
However, yesterday I discovered that you don’t need to be “good” to have fun. I played tennis with a local adaptive sports group from the YMCA.
I had been meaning to try adaptive tennis because I figured it might be doable since I wouldn’t have to stand up…Not so. I was terrible. When it was near I hit the ball about 50% of the time. When I actually did hit it I had almost no idea where it was going to go. I couldn’t really push my chair with a racquet in my hand (don’t ask me how they do it) so most of the time I just watched the ball go by as I squirmed wishing I could get to it.
However I was not alone. I played tennis with 5 other individuals. At one point we played “free ball” in which we all got on the court to cover more area because most of us were not very quick on our feet or wheels. If the ball was still bouncing it was fair game regardless of how many times it had bounced or if it was out of bounds. The instructor would hit the ball to one of us and we would attempt to hit it, if we happened to make contact, sometimes the ball actually went over the net in the direction of another player then…whiff, another miss. I think our best rally was perhaps 4 hits and one of the hits was from an instructor on the baseline acting as backup.
5-10 years ago I could not have seen myself playing tennis like this. What’s the point? I was terrible.
However, at the end when the instructor said it was time to go, I found myself wishing we didn’t have to end the game. I haven’t felt that way for a long time.
As the 6 of us grunted and flailed at the ball someone would crack a joke and make fun of themselves or congratulate someone if they made contact. Or the ball would go directly at someone and they would be helpless as they tried just to protect their face. It was pretty hilarious. We got to know each other a bit as we struggled against that little yellow ball. Honestly I only remember one name but I gained real insight into each personality as we shared the way we dealt with our disabilities.
I was skeptical about adaptive tennis but now I can’t wait to go back and learn more about myself and my new teammates.
