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I joined the local pitch & putt club because I do not have the time to put into golf right now with the little ones so the local sports club has a pitch & putt course in great nick so I demoted myself to this for a few years until the kids grow up and leave the house , then I will head back up the hill to the local golf club again. I have been going through an early mid life crisis of late so I gave up the GYM because it was becoming boring and it was more a tinder spot for teenagers. So I needed some sport to stave off the fatness. Pitch & Putt was not going to cut the mustard. I was at home playing tennis out on my green with my daughter who is 7 when I heard a shout from a geezer walking his dog. "She is holding her racket wrong." , "You have the worng tennis ball for her age, it should have a red background."
"Who is this nutter I thought to myself"
"I went over to tell him to fuck off but he started asking my daughter questions around how shee holds her racket and what hand she brushed her teeth with"
Long story short , he told me he was the local tennis coach so I told him I joined the sports club and I would not mind having a go of it. He told me to turn up Thursday night with a few more of his students so I went up. Now he didn't tell me it was with 6 other women but I was quite OK with this arrangement. Some would be embarrassed to be the only willy in the village but I was happy I was . Well I think I was anyway.
So it wasn't long before I was up and running. I have a dodgy serve and my positioning needs to improve but I wasn't doing too bad. I was beating the others so the coach asked me if I would enter the ladder competitions.
"What the hell are they"?
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Well they start you off on the bottom rung and you play 3 people. If you win 2/3 then you go up a ladder and play better players. In a few months you will be your level whether it be up the ladder or still at the bottom.
Now the captain of the tennis club plays football with me and I would be nifty enough on the football pitch scoing worldies and all that. So the fecker put me up the ladder starting off because of my level of fitness I imagine. I can run all day so this would be translated on the tennis court. But on the downside I have yet to gain a technique in Tennis which I found out beats fitness hands down.
I played some guy first out. It is first to 9 wins. He beat me 9 - 3. At least I won 3 I thought. But the games I won , I was returning service which is not really meant to be the way. Anyway. I got me arse handed to me and I predict I will be tumbling down the ladder like a painter & decorator standing in a paint bucket. But do you know what. It keeps me fit. It is actually enjoyable and I have a feeling I am going to be handy at it in time with practice. I now have a nice Thursday even playing with lovely ladies. Jesus this is great!! So if I continue being shit for another while then it is not the end of the world. Spice World.
I knew the rules as a kid but I did have to look up a few things like where to start when you are serving. Turns out there is a Deuce side of the court (Right Hand side when facing net) and an advantage side (left hand side when facing net) The serve is started on the Deuce side and after every even number of points scored unless it is a tie breaker. But that just complicated things. Just start off serving on left and alternate on each point. Job done. Also the point where you should always play from is the base line which is handy to know because I was all over the place. Against the good guy I was serving then I was going in close to net and my opponent was just hitting them long so I eventually copped onto this and I got on better. After each opponent you learn something new.
I am a leftie which makes it hard on righties so a forehand shot from me normally puts them on their backhand which is a pain in the arse for them so I focus on making sure this happens. There is so much to learn. I actually did not know there was so much until I was in the middle of the lessons but you can see yourself improving every week.
So watch this space.