Member-only story
You Can Win … If You Don’t Play
Saying No when everybody else says Yes
Tennis is the first sport I remember hating. I was wrangled into taking low-rent tennis lessons during my beloved baseball season. I dragged my ten-year-old self and a pitch-black attitude to the courts at the local junior high school. Pre-tween crankiness clouded my senses, and I shot the stink eye at the sweaty brow of a kid with a goofy Bjorn Borg headband. My unfashionable tennis racquet hung like a foam sword by my side.
I never really forgave Tennis.
My lack of enthusiasm paid off, plus my mom didn’t like paying for anything, so I danced unfettered back to the baseball diamond.
It wasn’t just a bad attitude or lack of god-given tennis genius. I wouldn’t grok the full truth till years later, but I hated tennis fairly. I don’t like staring down an adversary. In Ping-pong, you barely see your opponent because you are desperately trying to follow the ball, and in Racquetball you never go face-to-face with anyone. Both of those I liked, but alas. The powers that be have conspired to choose tennis and pickleball as the popular sports.
I don’t like staring into the eyes of my enemy and I don’t enjoy wearing a skirt when I exercise.
