Love On The Tennis Court
My fitness club opened two weeks ago today after being closed two months during the quarantine. The older clientele has been slow to return but they are trickling back. My club now is perhaps best known for being a Houston tennis center for young people. And since tennis has social distancing by nature and is mostly played outside, the camps and summer programs are up and running. I alternate days, doing treadmill work on M-W-F and lifting on TU-TH-SAT. The workout rooms, both upstairs and downstairs, are glass enclosed and are adjacent to the outdoor courts so I get a chance to watch the kids. It's a terrific program that teaches tennis in much the same way we teach basketball; constant movement with the game broken down into small segments. (It's funny- my brother, Dave, is the nation's winningest high school tennis coach but I've never seen him coach in camp or in a match!) Some of the program players appear to me to be very good, maybe elite- I'm no judge of tennis talent! I will say that lots of them have very interested parents who watch and monitor each move their son or daughter makes. Some of them, I take it, are more serious about tennis than their offspring!
Today was a treadmill workout day for me so I was on the upstairs level, giving me a birds eye view of the courts. It was late afternoon and most of the campers were now, I take it, working out on the indoor courts. But as I finished my cardio session, I watched the most enjoyable tennis I've seen in a long time on the court almost right below me. Actually, there were four players but it wasn't a doubles match. Actually, I can't call them players in the truest sense of the word. It was a mom with her three kids. I would guess the boys were roughly fifteen and thirteen and the girl was maybe a fifth grader. I'm pretty sure they only had two racquets among them and maybe only two or three tennis balls. The boys were in flip flops and all four of them rotated. I am not sure any had ever played before. They each played from the service line and started by dropping the ball and then hitting it. There was a lot of chasing neon green tennis balls done and bouts of laughter and evident enjoyment of being together. The kids may be athletic but it sure didn't show today. (You should see me try to swing a golf club!) When their time on the court was up, Mom had snacks to distribute and they all walked off court with their masks neatly in place. I'm sure they had no idea I was watching.
Here's something you may not know about me if you don't know me well and maybe not even if you do: I am very reluctant to do anything publicly that I have no proficiency in. It absolutely did not bother this family that their tennis skills are non existent and that is a trait I greatly admire. I used to repeat that old line, "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well." I don't say that anymore because I don't believe it. It obviously was enjoyable for that family to be on the court today even though none will ever grace Wimbledon. Here's another thing I've said about my players that I won't say anymore: "They play for the right reasons." The longer I live, the more I believe there are myriads of reasons to do stuff and it's not up to me to judge someone else's motive for their involvement in activities, especially sports. Why did this mom break up her afternoon to take the kiddos to a tennis court? Who knows? I've never seen them before. My guess is that this anonymous to me lady was just being a good mother, spending time with her children. Isn't that Biblical? Our mom would NEVER have done that but she found other ways, other diversions, as would Dad. I know Mother's Day has passed but that lady deserves an award. They always start a tennis match at the same score; LOVE.
Applicable quote of the day:
I am the best tennis player who cannot play tennis.
―Ion Tiriac
God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
No comments:
Post a Comment