If you're a quadriplegic and you want to play wheelchair tennis, you tape your racquet onto your hand.
This gives you one grip for backhand, forehand and serving. You find your zone so that you can hit each shot to the best of your ability. This can mean making some compromises, but so be it.
It works surprisingly well using sports tape. However, there is one issue that comes up whenever I tape my racquet on: dealing with the reality that, because it is difficult for me to tape myself, the racquet is not on at the angle I want when I'm done taping. It moves and shifts around as I'm trying to tape it because I do not have the grip and the hand movement to hold it in position.
If you're not an avid tennis player, this probably seems like a minor problem. After all, you just go out there, hit the ball and be done with it, right? Not really. I spent years playing with a glove on my racket hand and a racquet duct taped onto it. The good thing with that arrangement was I could tweak it a bit ; however, I don't have enough grip to make that really work. But I know where I "like" and "want" the racquet to be.
So there I sat yesterday with a half roll to three quarters of a roll of sports tape on my hand and the racquet taped on - but not where I wanted it. It happened not once, but twice. My coach was helping me and we both miscalculated where the racquet should be. It was frustrating. It reminded me that I depend on adaptations to play the sport.
I know what the reality is. I realize that I'm lucky to be playing tennis at all. And I realized , after I simmered down yesterday, that I am very grateful I can play.
As frustrated as I might get by the adaptations, I have those times when I get it right - the racquet is taped on decently and I can play tennis in the zone. Everything comes together and I reach for the ball and it sails off my racquet the same way it does for any other tennis player.
Those are the moments, I've learned, that I need to remind myself about when the taping goes wrong. Those are the times I need to savor.
The rest simply doesn't matter.
2 comments:
I would love to see you play on one of your good days. I imagine you're a sight to behold.
As for your bad days, don't all athletes have them? Your frustration is not surprising. It just shows you're a competitor. Maybe you need to put your inventor's cap on and come up with a better system? Some way to mark the sweet spot?
You know what - that's what I said to my coach! We've tried to pinpoint it and we can't make a permanent mark on the handle itself because there's tape etc but I'm thinking maybe I could get a notch on the racquet somewhere as a marker. Thanks!
Post a Comment