My Time in Tennis in No Time
Sep 28, 2020
Written by Conrad Navarro, Copywriter Extraordinaire and TNT participant.
When I first got the news that I’d be participating in Tennis in No Time, I was nervous. Barring Mario Tennis on the N64, my experience began and ended with the compulsory tennis section of high school gym class. I had no chops at all; surely I’d need more time than “No Time” to learn tennis, right?
So, with zero tennis skills and lots of questions about why tennis scoring is the way it is, I headed to Tennis in No Time.
They tell you right off the bat (off the racquet?) that all you need to bring is workout clothes and they’ll lend you the gear, which is great because I don’t own anything close to a tennis racquet. And, even though I assumed the “loaner” gear would be some beat-up hand-me-downs, I was happy for anything. I was very wrong to assume.
It might have been a “loaner” racquet, but it felt the kind of loaner racquet that Serena Williams might give you when she invites you to a secret one-on-one game on her private court on the moon. Even holding it made me feel better at tennis, like it was the Excalibur of sports gear.
The loaner tennis racquets are really nice.
The beginning of class was like any other. We went around the circle, introduced ourselves, and talked a little bit about our experience levels with tennis. When I saw I wasn’t the only person with zero experience, a little bit more of my anxiety melted away. Not to mention our coach was extremely welcoming and absolutely non judgemental.
First, we played a few warm up games to get us acquainted with the racquets and balls. We had to bounce the ball off the racquet and have it hit as close as possible to a little dot on the ground, kind of like dribbling. Tough at first, but easy enough to get the hang of in just a few minutes
From there, we partnered up and had to bounce the ball back and forth, hitting the same rubber dot before you returned it to your partner. It went from a little tough to relatively easy as we learned a new layer.
This is how it went for exercise after exercise; every time we got the hang of one, it got a little bit harder. Skills we learned in one activity were built upon in the next, until the next thing I know the class has been split up on either side of the court, and we’re playing actual games with ease.
In one hour, we went from minimal tennis skills to playing games and having a blast. In our group games, the volleys went on longer, the serves were more pinpoint, the coach went from critiquing our technique to cheering us on with minimal notes, and we all just felt more at home on the court.
I even surprised myself with a few killer serves and volleys, and it wasn’t the awesome racquet doing the work—I actually got better. Yes, in no time.
The other surprising part? How fast my heart was racing. Between all the ball chasing, side changing, and court running we were doing, we were getting a fantastic cardio workout. Turns out tennis courts are bigger than I thought, especially when you’re running all around them.
All in all, Tennis in No Time lives up to its name, and I can’t wait for class two. I still don’t know why tennis scoring is like that, though.