Tennis Anyone?

Well, I have to quickly write about Russell's first tennis lesson. I signed him up for some lessons at thru the city rec center. So far everything we have done thru the center has been good, so I thought this would stand a chance at being good too. I was only a little bit wrong – it was great!!! We have only had one lesson, but it was worth every penny just for that one hour. Russell enjoyed every second. He just smiled the entire hour, even when they had to pick up all the balls all over the court. What really made me happy was just witnessing the pure joy on his face, it was amazing. It has been a long time since I have really seen that. Probably not since this summer. It was really cold that night and he had on a knit ski cap and it totally reminded me of when we lived in OK and Russ was about 3, playing at the playground and loving life.

As far as the tennis skills, I think he did well for never picking up a tennis racquet before. There was one game that they held a cone upside down and they had to catch a ball after it bounced. Russ only caught like 1 ball out 25, but he never gave up and he just kept trying and smiling. But as far as hitting the ball, he did well. The coach was so positive and had so much energy – you could tell that tennis is his passion and coaching kids really energizes him. That guy said something positive after every swing, hit, miss, try, etc.

On the ride home, Russ was on cloud 9. He really liked it. And one thing he mentioned that surprised me a bit was that he thought tennis was good for him because he had to really focus on the ball and nothing else.