Tennis redux

A couple months ago, I wrote about how I was interested in starting to play tennis. Someone saw that post and responded to it. So now today we’re playing tennis for the second time. 
I was raised on tennis.  It was one of a few sports that my parents made sure I got a healthy diet of. Some of the others being soccer, softball and bowling. I played from my formative years all the way until my late teens, when I left the house, and the attached affiliation with the tennis club, to pursue my young, independent life. 
One of the things that I didn’t appreciate about the sport was its strong emphasis on one side of the body. The right side, in my case. Serve, forehand, backhand, forehand, repeat. All on one side. Once I became aware of this, I was concerned about overdevelopment of one side over the other.   This is one of the main reasons I turned my back on all of the racquet sports in favor of others like wrestling and swimming, and why later in life I turned more towards dancing, martial arts, yoga and calisthenics for exercise with more full-body involvement. 
Now, many years later, I return to tennis for the very same reason I left it in the first place.  (Is that irony?)  I need to rebuild my right side so that it can catch up to the left. I need to regain the strength and stability it had two years ago; before the injury. 
Well now I’m back at it, and it’s a blast! So, it’s not exactly like riding a bicycle, but it does seem to be coming back pretty quickly.  When I was in my prime, at the age of 13-17, I played in tournaments all season and played a few times per week in the off season. So I don’t know how much of that is coming back to me, but I certainly do feel comfortable on the court. 


This is the first time I’ve played on clay, which is interesting. I like the feel, compared to the unforgiving asphalt I’m used to. But it’s kind of a mess. 
The country club is a bit expensive.  I’d love to know of a cheaper option because I’m interested in playing more, but at these rates, I’m afraid it’s going to be more of a luxury than a lifestyle. 

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