Mini-tennis anyone?

 Tom loves to hit tennis balls, but no one knows the psychological reason. He doesn’t like or dislike playing points. He has a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face when a ball lands short and bounces a second time or when a ball lands more than two steps away. He’s often said he doesn’t want to play games or sets—he just “wants to rally.“ I’ve sent him links to YouTube videos to help with various aspects of tennis, but he seems to have absorbed very little. “I’ll get better if I practice” he says.

Tom got me interested in tennis in late 2019. I played in junior high school and had fun, but stopped. I couldn’t hit the ball well and I wasn’t having fun. Lessons were expensive then. Now we have dozens of YouTube tennis channels that give out free technique that I can watch many times over. I video myself hitting balls so I can discover what I’m doing or not. 

Tom likes to play mini-tennis for 15-20 minutes and then go right to the baseline rally full court. He says it warms him up and says Joe and I are the only people he knows that will play mini-tennis for two hours. I must have made him do that yesterday for 40-50 minutes. 

Today I said I would skip mini-tennis, because it wasn’t helping my full court rally. I insisted on starting full court. I said, you’re a lot better than I am, so you don’t need that.  After twenty minutes he complained that he wasn’t warmed up. I said it didn’t seem to affect his tendency to start rallies with the ball flying far to either side of me. I offered to stand in the ad court if he’d hit there. (If he saw that as a cruel remark, he didn’t let on). Eventually I relented and we played some mini-tennis.

We each stood 8-10’ from the net and volleyed. After a few exchanges, he asked, “is this supposed to be aggressive?” Me: “it would appear that way if you sit on your heels and don’t split step. I’m just hitting volleys." 

I blandly suggested that he take lessons to at least learn to start a rally from the baseline. He doesn’t want to pay for lessons. I can teach him to do that by using his ability to start rallies from the service line and move him back five feet at a time.