Trophy Shot!

Today was the last lesson in my first session as an Intermediate player in tennis. When I walked up to the court 4 weeks ago my heart kinda sunk and then started to feel extremely intimidated as I noticed first the gender of all my classmates (men) and then the age (older--my father or grandfathers age). Yes I can laugh at it now too, but that first moment noticing what I had walked into ....I was scared and felt intimidated enough to almost walk back to my car, until Coach Tom walked up and nudged me into the court.

The first part of the drill was to notice the hats they all wore. I was in a usual visor, the men wore well, you name it....fishing hats, baseball caps, whatever the mood they had them. Coach Tom informed me that if I was to fit into this group I was going to have to get a funny hat.....hmmm I have yet to do that :P As the weeks have moved along I haven't felt as completely helpless. Its amazing when you move of a class, feeling a bit cocky...struting your stuff, hey Im good .....arrgh, pride! So there I was a lowly female and not on par with the guys there. Hard to believe I can be beat by a 70 year old man! Makes me laugh my head off today....and Im sure for some time to come. Today we worked on our volley shots, the angled volley and the drop volley. Yes on par I made a fool of myself for most of the shots, until I felt something inside of me saying, OK ILL show them! And I did, I think they all dropped their jaws on the court, and then those silly men, they started bowing before me, I drop volleyed that shot in the cross court in the PERFECT unhittable spot. (that was my best and only good shot of the day by the way, but let me bask in glory)

Its funny to me how things like this, a very uncomfortable environment can grow on you. I was laughing my head off at myself and with the guys as the lesson came to a close this morning. It would have been so much easier to chicken out and go back to the level I was comfortable at, but that would have resembled quitting, Im NO quitter. Will I return in 2 weeks for the same time slot? You BET! But Ill add, I think Ill be adding back on the advanced beginner class for one more round too, two classes are better then one in my opinion, and dang it I want to beat men that are old enough to be my grandfather!!!!! Have I mentioned how much I love this game? and how COMPETITIVE I can be :)


On a completely different note, let me just say this...selling on EBAY! its WORK. After seeing the 5 items I listed last week up over a hundred dollars, I got excited and listed well 25 more items today. It seriously, took me 6 hours! (ok not straight, but still....I sure hope its worth the effort!)