Thrown for a Loop … Lefties Play With Lefty Racquets
One of my favorite lessons is with Leslie. She is about 50-years-old, though she looks like she is 40, and she acts like she is 30 … a bubbly, fun personality and a great spirit to spend an hour on the tennis court with. We play once a week, indoors, early in the morning.
Leslie is a physical therapist by trade. She is very athletic and she uses our lesson to get a good aerobic workout, as well as to pick up a few tips on her tennis game. We often have intense baseline exchanges where I make her run from corner to corner. This occasion is no different. I play like I have the ball on a string and send her back and forth. I do not feel bad about this treatment since she takes great pride in chasing down all my shots. Sometimes, she even counters me and catches me wrong-footed. I will forfeit a winning shot to her, and she will just glow.
At the end of our lesson, we usually play some points out. In a recent lesson, we saved the best for last. The very last point of the day was a classic … an extended rally that had us both cover the entire court multiple times. When I was ready to end the point, I fired a running forehand shot towards her backhand corner. I am a lefty, and I struck the ball hard and solid, and it was placed sharply into the corner. I thought for sure that it would be a winning shot. However, Leslie did not give up, she chased it, reached for it, and with an ultimate effort, switched hands, and returned the ball over the net with her left hand (she is a righty with a double-handed backhand).
“No,” I screamed out in disbelief, and then added, “That’s illegal!”
“It is?” Leslie replied. “It was an amazing shot, no? Is it really not allowed?”
“It is highly illegal,” I continued. “You don’t even have a lefty racquet!”
“A lefty racquet?” she asked. “I didn’t even know there was such a thing.”
“Sure, here, look at mine, it is a lefty racquet,” I said. “Because I am a lefty.”
Leslie studied the racquet, couldn’t really tell the difference and was stumped. She had been playing tennis for 20 years and never knew that.
Yes, I let her go home thinking this, and yes, I feel bad about it.
And yes, I will grow up … eventually!
