Lightening Online

It’s been quite a big week or so for Lleyton when it comes to tennis.

A little over a week ago he played Senior Tennis with Farmboy and they won their doubles 6-0 6-0. Both then went on to win their singles 6-0. At the moment they’re both just filling in when the team needs extra players. That seems to be most weeks.

Wednesday after school, Lleyton had Junior Tennis and they held a mini-tournament which he finished top. Apparently he won 3-0 the whole way through.

Friday night they were again asked to play for our local club. This time at positions 9 & 10 instead of 11 & 12 where they had been playing. A bit more of a challenge for Lleyton.

Before the games began, I took some photographs of Lleyton in action. He was concerned I would put him off his game trying to take photographs of him in action so we did the photographs during a warm up hit.

I have others but I’m having trouble with photo editing this morning and at this rate I’ll not get ANY housework done! LOL. This is my favourite though.

In a strange twist of events Lleyton ended up playing his singles at number 7!!!! He didn’t win but it was a great challenge for him.

In an even STRANGER twist of events (both of them related to one another), I ended up playing my first game of tennis - EVER!!!

Who in their right minds decides “okay, I’ve never played a game of tennis before - why not start with competitive tennis?????????????????”.

Obviously I wasn’t in my RIGHT MIND!!!!

In my defence, I did say NO 3 times before my sense of “wanting to be helpful” overcame my “you have GOT to be kidding me!” reaction.

There was a mix up which left us 1 player short. Just as they were about to forfeit one game (well, one doubles and one singles), I asked the dreaded question. “Will it help if I play even I’m really REALLY bad at this?” They told me yes so I said I’d do it.

Having NO IDEA about the game of tennis, I had this brilliant theory that I could just “pretend” to be playing. Particularly in the doubles game where my partner could just do all the playing for me, right?

If I KNEW enough about tennis to realise I would HAVE to serve and receive served balls, I think I might have said NO a 4th and 5th time.

WHAT a disaster!!!

We started out with a few hits and the balls I was hitting were going EVERWHERE except on the court. One even got stuck on the roof. How humiliating!!!!

And did I mention that they failed to tell me I’d have to play at number 8????

Who knows what my doubles partner thought but he was very nice and very helpful and encouraging. And I did improve as the game wore on (not enough but an improvement nonetheless). And our opponents were friends so they went easy on me (and allowed me to serve underarm since I have NO IDEA how to serve!)

Farmboy was still playing doubles while all this took place and got quite a shock that I agreed to play. I don’t blame him really. He’s been trying to get me playing tennis our whole married life. He even bought me a tennis racquet quite a few years back that has hardly been used (I’ve had the occasional hit with it - mostly with the younger 2 kids). I still didn’t get to use my racquet in the doubles game as Farmboy was using it (his is stuffed).

When their doubles game was finished, Lleyton gave me a few handy pointers from the sidelines. I thought he did really well. He didn’t keep yelling instructions at me. Just made a couple of comments that were quite helpful (like hit the ball with the centre of the racquet and use 2 hands to hit a backhand). He’s planning on teaching me to serve properly which will be nice.

Some juggling was done so that I could play singles at number 12. Which is why Lleyton ended up playing at number 7. Farmboy was supposed to but he went straight into his singles without realising things had been changed around. Which meant Lleyton had to do it.

Singles was a lot of fun once I got used to the idea that I didn’t have a partner to do all the hard work for me. I even managed to win 1 of the games (so the final score was 6-1). And I learnt a bit more on how to score. I had a very patient and kind opponent which made it more fun.

You thought this post was all about Lleyton and his tennis didn’t you? LOL.

I did have a LOT of laughs (at my own expense) and discovered that I actually like the game of tennis. Not that I expect to have anyone banging down my door begging me to play for them. LOL. But it’s something fun we can do as a family and up until Friday night, I was the only one in the family with absolutely zero interest in playing.

Alright, back to Lleyton now.

On Sunday afternoon he had the opportunity to go to a tennis coaching clinic. We’ve been trying to work out how to get him some actual coaching so were very pleased when a friend was able to organise this opportunity for him. It looks like it’s going to open some doors to some ongoing coaching for him which will be great.

So, I can see a LOT more tennis taking place in our not too distant future. Perhaps it’s about time I learnt the rules of the game.

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