This year I decided to branch off from playing soccer and join the tennis team. At first, I was nervous because the only experience I had was playing for fun with my family and friends. One of my best friends decided to join with me and I ended up having a lot of fun and learning about myself and life.

Teamwork was something that I knew was important but didn’t appreciate or understand completely. I play doubles, so it’s you and your partner vs. the two girls on the other team. The first time I realized that the level of impact working together could have was my first loss at my first match. We lost to doubles partners who weren’t necessarily superior in skill, but had solid strategy and athletic chemistry. Each knew what the other was thinking and how to move in order to support the other person.

Playing doubles also taught me that even if someone is your best friend or close friend, it doesn’t mean that you’ll work well together as partners. I was so excited that I got to play with one of my close friends at my last match, but it turns out we laughed too much and it put us off our game. Long story short, we walked off the court with 16 sets of losses.

Although it seems to the average observer like you don’t have to move or run that much in tennis, serve after serve and hit after hit makes your arms sore and exhausted. The day I forgot water was a bad bad day. Even a small error in the movement of the racket can cause the ball to hit the rim and then it most likely won’t make it over the net. It’s kind of like life in that decisions you make and paths you chose affects the events that follow.

There is also quite a bit of waiting in tennis. You usually end up playing one or two matches so you have to sit until a court is open. It definitely was beneficial for me to work on my patience because that tends to be something I can struggle with.

Tennis is one of the only times where love is bad (get it?? Haha). But it taught me about myself, my surroundings, and the crucial aspect of teamwork and strategy to athletic accomplishment.