Golfers describe a shot they need to take as perhaps, ‘4 iron, 70%’, naming the club needed and the amount of power required. Gotta be long enough but don’t want to overhit. In tennis, that being a proper sport, a real, running-round, sweating type gig, we don’t use such things. Because we don’t have time to perform calculations before each shot. Sometimes you barely get time to even shout ‘FUCK!!!’ before needing to hit the ball. But those percentages are worked out unconsciously anyway. Because you know that if you try to hit that winner, you have more chance of getting it wrong than if you play a simpler, weaker, easier shot which won’t win you the point, but won’t lose it for you either. And we rarely use 100% power. Unless we have a load of balls we never want to see again. The difficulty with tennis not hitting the ball hard over the net. It’s bringing it down again on the other side. Which is why God invented top spin, I know, but still, its hard. And the harder you hit the ball, the greater the potential error if you get it just a little bit wrong.

I play Spurs Paul every week. He’s a big dude. And hits the ball hard. Really hard. Because he has good technique. When I last played Dom, he hit the ball hard. He’s not as big as Paul but he hits the ball (I reluctantly admit) really well. For a gel. Ok, even for a boy. But the hardest hitter of the tennis ball I know is my dear daughter wot lives in Berlin. Usually. Though she’s come ‘home’ for a visit because ‘working from home’ doesn’t specify which home nor which country that home should be located in.

So, as is our way, and has been for over 30 years now, we played tennis yesterday. And Rachie was hitting the ball well. Really well. Meaning it comes searing over the net, clearing it by about 1/4 of an inch at about 153mph. It is a wicked shot. And doesn’t always go in but when it does it is ‘challenging’ to return.

But the problem, as mentioned, is margin of error. Because at that power, a tiny little miscalculation, a slightly wrong angle of racquet, a crosswind as you hit, the margin of error is fairly catastrophic.

I took three balls to the park yesterday and returned with an empty canister. They were getting a bit used anyway. But Rachie’s first game after a 4 month gap is really not the time to open new balls. Next week I have no choice. New balls or no balls.

Happy Monday

A xxxx