Tennis lesson was switched from Sunday 7-8am to Saturday 8-9am! OF course I appreciate the extra hour of sleep-in time, was a little nervous because I was planning to find out where Bangsar Sports Complex was on Saturday itself… To ensure that I didn’t get lost and screw up my first lesson, I duly left my house at 7:20am (drive to Bangsar only takes 20 – 25 minutes). THANKS A LOT FOR THE POLICE BLOCK LA. Ended up 10 minutes late. T_____T
What can I say about the lesson…. it was FCUKING AWESOME!! I love it so muchhhhh!!! I love tennis sooooooo much! Hehehe!! Well, it was quite tragic for me at first, because I supposedly “learned” tennis back in high school for three years, but I didn’t learn anything worthwhile there. What I learned back in high school:
+ must grip racket firmly so that you don’t injure your wrist returning the ball;
+ how to return a volley;
+ how to serve;
…
To be REALLY honest, there’s not much you could’ve learned then, because there was about 25 – 30+ students learning at the SAME time. Well, how much bang for your buck can you get for RM75 a year anyway? The students who were really good (i.e already knew how to play tennis) would have matches in a court to themselves, while everyone else lined up to play half-court tennis. What happens is that the “coach” (which is a high school student whose help is enlisted by the main coach) would serve us three balls each. If you want to play longer in the half-court, then you better keep returning his balls!! If you can’t even hit the ball out of the net, you would find that you spend more time lining up than playing tennis. This kinda “encouraged” us to play properly so that we could maximise the time playing half-court. 
That was then.
Today morning, the coach Mr G asked me about my background in tennis. After telling him about the 25-30 students per class, he was already doubtful about how much I actually learned. He said, “Er… let me just serve you a few balls, I’ll see how you return them to gauge your level…” So he gave me two for my forehand and one backhand. I was pretty happy because I managed to return all (the backhand actually grazed the top of the net, but passed through). Imagine my chagrin when he said, “Hmm ok I think I’ll start you at the foundation level.” T_____T
Well, I don’t really mind la! Cos I knew that I’m not *that* good, and til today I don’t know how to count matchpoints and all that. I just like the game in general because it’s fast paced, needs stamina & skills & STRENGTH. You might say most sports require those anyway… well I don’t know why I don’t really like badminton but I like tennis loads! It’s the darn memories and nostalgia attached to my old tennis classes in high school, damnit.
Back to the tennis lesson… found out that the racket I purchased was also not suitable for me because apparently I’m going to outgrow the racket level pretty quickly (Mr G has such confidence in me / his coaching). He gave me his Head racket to use instead and I’m loving it. The cost? RM999. T_____T Don’t think I’m going to buy such an expensive racket EVER. He started teaching me the correct way to return a serve… damn it’s even difficult to get the correct positioning and all that. There’s some kinda twist & swing involved, works not only your forehand muscles but also your obliques! HEHEHE. Well, I don’t have it down pat yet, but Mr G says that I picked it up quickly, returning the shots to the baseline from the half-court (this is a huge improvement from before as during the 3-shot-test, I only returned half-court serves back to half-court, not base line). He also said it was generally accurate as I started aiming towards the center of the court and that I have good “timing & anticipation for the ball”. WAH!!! *proud* Also, out of each basket of tennis balls, I only missed 2-3 balls, supposedly quite a good percentage of accuracy. =) *beams*
My arm doesn’t feel so tired either, because with the new and CORRECT way of returning balls, more power is generated from your body than purely from the arm. After learning the footwork and serving techniques, we did walk & return and then running & returning the ball. All the while, maintaining the correct footwork. It’s more difficult than it sounds ok! Anyway, that’s all for Lesson #1, next week we will be working on the backhand instead. Other tips picked up for today : the grip (nothing wrong with the grip I learned back in high school), how to choose a racket and how to generate more power in each return. Muwahhaha….
Mr G also said that after learing tennis, I’ll find going to the gym boring! I hope not… I still have another 2+ more years to go…
Damn I really like tennis now. The foundation lesson takes 6 classes (to cover all basics), but that’s just Level 1. There’s another 3 more levels, and to cover all 4 levels, it can take up to a year. Well, I wish I was dead rich and free so that I could go for tennis lessons daily! *sigh* Don’t even mind waking up so fcuking early on a weekday to play tennis. Bangsar Sports Complex is also really nice and in a really picturesque area.
On a less estatic note, I bought a transformer to change the 240V current to 120V current to charge a DVD player that Simon bought for me. But I think that I blew a fuse for the DVD player or somehow spoiled it when I bimbo-ishly tried to charge it with 240V current without looking at the instruction manual first. T____T I really don’t think the transformer is spoiled because I tested it in the hardware store before buying it… sigh, more money flowing out of my bank account…
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