You know what we haven’t done in a while? A monthly challenge. We are long overdue.
Only it’s been a rough year, and I don’t want to burden myself with lofty and time-consuming goals. I want something quick, easy and fun. Like throwing my racquet.
Supposedly, serving is like throwing. Which makes sense because I can’t throw a ball at all and my serve sucks, too. (I mean, I really can’t throw a ball. When I try to throw a ball for my dog, it goes either straight into the ground or off in a startling direction. My husband always watches in disbelief. “What the hell are you doing?” he’ll ask. He finds it hard to believe someone so dangerously uncoordinated actually plays tennis.)
(More parenthetical comments: Yes, I could ask him to teach me to throw, except then the challenge would be to our marriage. Let’s just say he’s not a patient teacher. He once tried to teach me to play drums. I was no more than two minutes into the lesson, just trying to get my various limbs to work independently of each other, when he started berating me for not keeping proper time. “That’s the number one job of the drummer!!” So, no, I will not be soliciting his help in throwing, drumming, or any other area.)
(Actually, I shouldn’t snark about him, since he’s going to be updating this blog for me over the next couple of weeks. Plus he’s making me hot dogs right now. Love you, honey! 🙄😁)
If I remember correctly, my very first challenge on this blog was serving 100 balls a day. I probably didn’t hit that number, but I came close. However, my serve didn’t improve, probably because I was focused on too many variables at the same time.
This time, I’m going to focus only on keeping a relaxed grip. When you’re choking the handle, you lose racquet head speed and you can’t snap your wrist. Despite knowing this, I maintain a death hold on my racquet, as if someone might try to take it away from me.
If the racquet were a ball, I’d be holding it so loosely that I’d let it go. So that’s what I’m going to do in this challenge: serve and let go, just to get a sense of what a really loose grip feels like. I’ll do ten racquet tosses in my backyard every precipitation-free day in December. (At least, I’ll start in the backyard. If my racquet crashes through the neighbor’s window, I’ll have to relocate to more open ground.)
So, an easy, goofy challenge to ring out this grim year. The hardest part will be figuring out what to tell my neighbors when they ask, “What the hell are you doing?” On the other hand, they already think I’m a little strange, so maybe they’ll just take it in stride.
Do I dare ask if anyone will join me in this challenge? I’d love to not be the only lunatic out there. Come on! To hell with your neighbors! Be a lunatic with me!