So I went to my second tennis lesson today. It is getting interesting now. We learned how to serve today. Well I say learned, we were told how to serve and then made a series of unsuccessful attempts at it. The point is I now need to do this about a hundred times so that I can get the ball to fall where it should. I did make some progress throughout the hour and found that when I don’t think about it too much, I’m able to get it right… more or less. But it’s okay, Rome wasn’t built in a day, although being able to serve in tennis should take significantly less time than that.
The only problem I’m having with the classes is that they seem to finish very quickly. They are an hour long each, which is an appropriate length of time for a lesson. I find though that they end quite abruptly and I’m left wanting. I’m sure that if they went on for longer I would be complaining about them being too long. I guess the fact that I feel time to be flying is a testament to how much fun I’m having. I can’t wait for next week’s lesson.
While we were there there was a tiny child on the court adjacent to ours. He looked like he was 7, but we later found out that he was actually 12. The child was amazing and made us all feel completely inadequate, or at least made me feel inadequate. He was hitting every ball with the confidence of someone his age who is not bothered with self doubt or the angst that comes with the years. I think children are able to learn these complicated skills much better than us because they do as they’re told and don’t really bother with embarrassment like us adults. Our teacher told us that he’s been playing since he was 5, which again explains his lack of self doubt, this was natural to him.
It seems that today was some kind of showcase event where the best children in the East Midlands were here showing off their skills. Our teacher told us to go watch if we want, but after my inability to serve for a hour, I though I’d rather not damage my already low self esteem, with regards to tennis, any further. I did however feel a little sad that I hadn’t discovered this when I was younger.
When I was very young I remember wanting to learn piano. We didn’t have one and so I couldn’t practice. A friend of the famillly was getting rid of their piano and I remember begging my parents to get it. It was old and needed some repairs, but nothing impossible. But my parents are lazy and subscribe to the dictum why do something today when you can fuck it up tomorrow? So we didn’t get it. And I had to wait until I was about 11 to get a Casio keyboard and start taking lessons. Of course a keyboard is not a piano and after 6 months, in which I did the equivalent of 2 & 1/2 years at the Algerian conservatory, I found that not having a proper analogue, as it were, instrument was impairing my learning so I stopped.
It wasn’t until I was 16 that I picked up a guitar and started learning on that instead. Don’t get me wrong, I love the guitar, and I’m very happy that I learned that, but I still feel a little bit sad that I never continued my piano lessons. Well if I ever live in a house I will buy a piano and start taking lessons again. This is one of my regrets and I shouldn’t let it be so.
Well this post was quite a journey. It started with my tennis lesson and ended up with me blaming my parents for not playing piano, I’m not crazy. I need to go back to work now, I have a couple of things to do before I sleep.
Arab Rhizome 