Every time I sit down to watch a tennis match with my family, I always admire the flawless movements of tennis players on screen. Captivated by the beauty and effortlessness of their strokes, I thought that tennis would be a piece of cake, but, as with a lot of things, I was proven wrong.
Two weeks ago, I participated in one of LASA’s Junior Varsity (JV) tennis practices and got further insight and first-hand experience in the sport I had originally perceived as easy. I immediately learned that the seemingly simple movements of tennis players serving and hitting the ball on TV were far harder to replicate than I thought.
Practice officially started when everyone started warming up by doing high knees, half-vines, and jogging halfway across the tennis court. The most challenging part for me came when we started serving balls across the court by ourselves. At first, I really struggled with getting the motion of serving right while being in the correct position. The movement consisted of pulling my right hand all the way behind my back while throwing the tennis ball as high as possible with my left arm, which was scary at first because it felt like the ball could hit me at any moment. Sophomore Lexi Chavarria, a member of the girl’s JV team, was really welcoming and helped teach me the basics of serving. She also gave me a great pointer when it came to serving, which was to always keep both my feet pointing inward to the pole that was holding the tennis net to stabilize my form. After I had practiced the movement a few more times, I started to get more comfortable with it and finally decided to try the skill on my own.
Later on, we also practiced hitting groundstrokes, which consists of the forehand and backhand. I found that I still struggled, especially with making contact with a ball barreling at me. It was further into practice when Coach Vizcaino noticed me struggling and helped me adjust my grip on the tennis racket by aligning my knuckles to the far left edge of the handle. This gave me a stronger grip and facilitated my ability to slide my hands into different positions in response to the direction of the ball, making it easier for me to hit it. I also adjusted my stance by keeping both my feet steady on the ground and twisting my shoulder to extend my racket toward the ball. By only moving my shoulder instead of my whole body, I was able to hit the ball more efficiently and without exerting too much energy.
I’m proud to say that by the end of practice, I was able to serve once and hit the ball twice during my rounds of hitting the ball back and forth with the other players. Overall, I really enjoyed playing tennis with the rest of the JV team’s girls. I came to understand that there must have been a lot of determination, hard work, and repetitive practice that gave these players the ability to perform those impeccable movements. The experience has definitely made me appreciate the sport a lot more.
Personally, I would play tennis at LASA again because of the welcoming community. The team really created an atmosphere for me where I felt safe and confident that I could develop my skills without judgment despite my lack of knowledge on the sport and poor skills. I always like trying new things and joining extracurriculars, and the tennis community’s clear interest in what they were doing stirred me to want to play with them again. I want to thank LASA’s JV team for having me and wish them, along with the varsity team, the best of luck in their upcoming tournaments. Go Raptors!
