Ann Leary, author of The Good House
Author of The Good House
Somebody told me once that everything you need to know in life you can learn on the tennis court, and you know, it’s true. I learned this again today, when I took a lesson with the amazing Leo Rolle, a former Davis Cup competitior and longtime tennis pro at this beautiful resort where we are staying.
Yesterday I had another tennis lesson with Val. We were hitting the ball back and forth and he had me doing this drill where you hit the ball cross-court, then hit the ball straight ahead, then run over to the backhand court, hit the ball cross-court, then straight ahead, etc.
It was quite fun but I was often hitting shots into the net. I believed this was because I wasn’t swinging properly. Val said, “You’re a little stiff.” I thought he meant my shoulders and I said that yes, my shoulders were a little stiff. Val said, “No, your legs. When you run, you don’t bend your knees.”
I’ve blogged before about how I have recently taken up tennis, and how it has become a bit of an obsession. I’m a little frustrated, at present, with my lack of skills. I just want to be great at tennis, is that too much to ask? I don’t mean Venus and Serena great. Just great enough to have people not feel suicidal when they realize that they’re stuck with me as their partner in doubles.
If you caught yesterday’s post you’ll know that I routinely embarrass myself in public and as promised, here’s another example.
First, I must explain that I often have a difficult time interacting with Denis’s fans. Denis spends a good deal of time in the city and meets and converses with his fans daily. I spend most of my time out here in our nice little town where people pretty much ignore us (well, they used to shoot holes in our mailbox with shotguns, but we got a PO Box and now they ignore us.) Anyway, when I’m out with Denis in the city, or when we’re traveling, I still get very excited when people recognize Denis. It’s just that we were together for years while he was trying to get work and become a successful actor/comic and now that he is, and people acknowledge that, it’s VERY exciting for me. And, like I said, I’m not around it as much as he is. I really just don’t know how to deal with the people we meet on the streets.
I found tennis relatively late in life. I wanted exercise, that’s all, and one day, watching my son take a tennis lesson, I thought, now that looks like a good workout. I thought that since I was pushing forty I would probably never be good enough to play any real tennis but chasing the ball around the court for an hour or two a week might help me tone up a bit.
