We've played a lot of sports here through the past 5 years or so. The boys started with baseball. They played basketball. They played soccer. They ran track.
And they were okay at them. Derek's a big hitter in baseball. Joshua throws well. Derek was an excellent defender in soccer, Joshua ran like the wind on offense.
But they never loved them. Not in the way that you see other kids love them - eat, sleep, breathe them.
Tennis has been an entirely different thing altogether. Determination - focus - dedication - drive - desire - begging and pleading...from both of them. And IT'S SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH! I love seeing them so pumped up about it - so eager to get out and play. Very few mornings go by without one of them asking if I've booked a court for that day, and if it's raining, they go upstairs and hit the ball against the wall I let them use.
Yes.
I let them play tennis in the house. It's a special ball. Really.
Anyway. This morning, Joshua was telling me about his experience playing touch football a couple of weeks ago. It was one of those conversations that makes it clear that tennis really is his game...
Joshua: I really don't know anything about football. I've never actually played it. It's kind of confusing.
Me: Why is it confusing?
Joshua: Well, we were playing and this guy started to try and tackle me or something, and I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE BALL!
Me: Well, honey, he was probably blocking you.
Joshua: Okay - but he was going to touch me or tackle me or something. You can't do that when you're blocking. (Obviously, he's getting this from basketball and soccer)
Me: Actually - in football, you can knock the other guys down if you're trying to block them.
Joshua: Seriously? I mean, the guy was coming at me with his hands all up in my face and that's legal? That's crazy.
Me: Well, I hope you don't mind, because we signed you up for football this month. You start today. We figure tennis can wait until fall.
Joshua: Oh, I don't think so, Woman. (Okay, he didn't say that, but the look he gave me did.)
Me: What? You don't want to? Okay. I guess we'll go to tennis lessons this morning instead.
Joshua: Yippee!!
So endeth the dreams of my father, who was hoping for a couple of University of Alabama linebackers.
Sorry, Papa. We'll try and get you seats at Wimbledon...
but the length of their career will be so much longer as tennis players!
ReplyDeleteI hope all your family came through the storms unscathed. We did, but each family member here in Alabama was in the path of at least one tornado! crazy.
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