He adjusts his grip to continental. Looks at his toes. Mumbles 15-love and tosses the ball up.
Thwack!
He hits the ball and lands all in one quick motion. The ball spins just inside the box.
She returns it straight down the center.
He's there. Swatting it back to her backhand.
She lunges for it, directly back to him at center-baseline. He forehands it all the way to her backhand.
She gets there. Returns it. Hustle back to center.
But he's already returning it, and it's back in the space she just left.
All her momentum is taking her to her right. She watches bounce in bounds and spin away from her.
There was a last minute cancellation in the indoor tennis league, so my oldest got a chance to sub-in for another team. The opponents were a little below his level, but he loves any and every opportunity to play. So, we stayed up past our bedtimes (the games went from 8-10 pm!) and had an unexpected chance to watch him play last night.
This league is pretty fun. Teams play for two hours. Every 30 minutes they switch. So, he played doubles for 30 minutes while a teammate played singles. Then he played singles for 30 minutes. Then he played doubles for 30 with a different partner, and then he played another 30 minutes with his original doubles partner. The team with the most wins in those two hours is the winner.
Like I said, his opponents were a little below his level. What's kind of interesting is that because they were a little less experienced, he was more relaxed. Because he was more relaxed, he played even better than he normally does.
I don't feel like he lacks confidence, but if he could relax and just hit his shots during the regular season, I feel like he'd do better. He was consistently hitting shots last night that he occasionally flubs into the net.
I feel like I teach this way sometimes too. When I relax and resist pushing too hard, the lessons tend to go better. How do we get into that flow where we just do what we know we can do though?
Thwack!
He hits the ball and lands all in one quick motion. The ball spins just inside the box.
She returns it straight down the center.
He's there. Swatting it back to her backhand.
She lunges for it, directly back to him at center-baseline. He forehands it all the way to her backhand.
She gets there. Returns it. Hustle back to center.
But he's already returning it, and it's back in the space she just left.
All her momentum is taking her to her right. She watches bounce in bounds and spin away from her.
There was a last minute cancellation in the indoor tennis league, so my oldest got a chance to sub-in for another team. The opponents were a little below his level, but he loves any and every opportunity to play. So, we stayed up past our bedtimes (the games went from 8-10 pm!) and had an unexpected chance to watch him play last night.
This league is pretty fun. Teams play for two hours. Every 30 minutes they switch. So, he played doubles for 30 minutes while a teammate played singles. Then he played singles for 30 minutes. Then he played doubles for 30 with a different partner, and then he played another 30 minutes with his original doubles partner. The team with the most wins in those two hours is the winner.
Like I said, his opponents were a little below his level. What's kind of interesting is that because they were a little less experienced, he was more relaxed. Because he was more relaxed, he played even better than he normally does.
I don't feel like he lacks confidence, but if he could relax and just hit his shots during the regular season, I feel like he'd do better. He was consistently hitting shots last night that he occasionally flubs into the net.
I feel like I teach this way sometimes too. When I relax and resist pushing too hard, the lessons tend to go better. How do we get into that flow where we just do what we know we can do though?