18 Years

A few weeks ago, I did a tennis drill with a pro and some women on my tennis team at a club in Little Rock. Drills typically involve hitting a million and one balls at the same time you are running your ass off. They will wear you out.

The day of the drill, I had a pretty good outing and was able to demonstrate that I knew a little about handling a tennis racket. At the end of the drill, the pro asked me if I'd be interested in hitting with any of his junior players.

Now, I played junior tennis. I know what it means to be "the old one." I played a few of them when I was a junior, and it was always awkward and strange. We never had much in common, and they were never as serious and always talked about how much "older" they were or how they couldn't do this or that because of their age. It was uncomfortable. They never hit very hard, either.

So these were the thoughts that ran through my head a split second before I told the pro, "Sure! I'd love to!" And I meant it, even though I would now be "the old one". The difference between club or league tennis and junior tennis is that the juniors hit the shit out of the ball, and club players get the ball back one more time, sometimes with no pace at all. I played enough junior tennis that I still love to hit hard, but I don't get the opportunity as much anymore, so I jumped on the chance.

Last night, I played one of the pro's juniors. I was hoping I could sort of skirt the age issue and approach it as just two people who enjoy playing tennis. No dice. When I got to the club, the pro and the junior I was to play were hanging out in the clubhouse with a bunch of other junior players.  The pro grabbed my racket, held it up, and made the comment to D, the junior, "if you lose today, it will be the oldest racket you've ever lost to." Greeeat. So much for not bringing age v. youth into it. We can ignore the fact that my racket is damn near as old as she is. It's a great racket.

After this little moment, we hit the court to play a few sets. We chatted very little beforehand, mostly about the Foo Fighters concert she was going to last night. At least I wasn't totally clueless about that, even though I am more than twice her age. Sheesh. When did I get so old. What made it even worse was when I asked her if she had had a group lesson or something earlier, and she responded "no, but I did have a private lesson earlier and worked out at D1 already." So I was her third workout of the day.  Good lord, did I really have that much energy 18 years ago?

But once we started hitting, I felt a lot better. My groundstrokes were as solid as hers, although I wasn't generating quite as much power. Her serve was hard as hell, but inconsistent. We fought pretty hard the first set, and I managed to take it 7-5. I completely lost my serve and mental state the second set and lost 6-2. But I got a set, and I don't think it was a complete embarrassment.

After I got home last night, I started wondering where she was ranked in the state in terms of junior players. It's been so long since I've played, I had no idea where she might fall. As it turns out? She appears to be ranked #2 in 18yo girls in the state. Once upon a time, 18 years ago, that was me. Nice to know all the work back then is still paying off today. Even if I do have some gray hair, a couple of kids, and a markedly decreased endurance level. I'm pretty damn happy to have scored a set. And maybe slightly sore...