Thursday, March 05, 2009

I'm Screwed

I joined the USTA and signed up for my first tennis tournament today. On the last weekend of May, I'll be playing a level 3 tournament in Marietta where I fully expect to not even win a match, and yet I actually went and did a little wiggle-butt-tennis-serve dance for K after finalizing my entry submission for the tournament. Depending on how well my high school tennis teams do (I help coach and we're a perennial contender for the state final four), I may be playing another tournament earlier in May in Augusta.

Actually, after reading the descriptions for the levels on the USTA site, I think I may actually be a borderline level 4, but from my experience in high school, my performance on the court seems to have very little correlation to the quality of my form. The guy who gave me tennis lessons for a few years starting in 8th grade was always aghast that I wasn't starting on my high school team in the 9th and 10th grades. I was just too good on form for him to believe that I was losing to guys who'd never taken a single lesson. He just didn't realize that I have very little athletic ability. My sister stole most of my ability back when I was in Kindergarten and playing T-ball. She whined her way onto my team even though she was only 3 at the time. Ever since then she was the big jock on campus and I had to watch myself lose to guys who couldn't even hit a decent forehand but had at least twice my athleticism. I'm not sure how a three-year-old learned the black arts of Voodoo, but she did. That's the only reason I can think of to explain my lack of athletic scholarships going into college.

I eventually earned my spot as a doubles player on the starting squad on the best team in the southern half of Georgia when in high school, but I still suck at singles. I fully expect to go into this tournament, dominate a few points on my serve and then lose the match because of not being able to anticipate and track down enough shots.

I'm still oddly excited though. Maybe I'll get matched up against some guy who really sucks. I can probably beat someone who's really bad.

3 comments:

Julie said...

Congratulations! That's very exciting. I'm glad you took that step. I hope you kick butt. I'm rooting for you.

Mickey said...

You could probably beat me, although I can run down just about anything. You better bring that serve.

Anonymous said...

Good luck!

Your sister was playing on your T-ball team when she was 3?!? Damn. I probably couldn't pick up a bat when I was 3.