Not everyone has a wheelchair tennis doubles partner.
I realize that those of you who aren't fortunate enough to have ever played wheelchair tennis doubles with someone have lost out on this special relationship. It's too bad really.
Because when I played wheelchair tennis doubles with the same partner for three years, we formed a very special bond. There's something about chasing down a small tennis ball in a wheelchair with not one, but two people rolling around (and possibly straight into each other) that forces you to develop exquisitely good communication.
Together we experienced absolutely inconsolable moments of loss and glorious victories. I remember one match at USTA Center in Flushing NY when we played in 100 degree temperatures with planes flying overhead (that's part of the charm of that venue) and, by the third set, I was overheating terribly, quadriplegic that I am. I went to the side and chugged water. My partner asked me if I could go on with the match.
I looked at her and said "I can't not go on with this match." At the next break, she asked me again. I replied "I am not retiring from this match." When we won the match with a close score, she hugged me and said "I thought you weren't going to make it." When I told her that I was determined to finish the match, she replied "No, I thought you were going to die out there!" I laughed and said "We won, didn't we?"
Ha. That was the last time she ever asked me if I could go on with the match.
In the end what I was left with was a person who understood me and how I reacted in adversity as well as when I was accepting a trophy.
So now when I talk to my wheelchair tennis doubles partner, she is an invaluable resource. There is no getting around the fact that she knows me better than ninety nine per cent of the rest of the world ever will.
2 comments:
I'm curious, Ruth. Were you that tough a competitor before the accident? Or is this a product of living as you are today? And a very positive product I hastily add? You have a lot more guts than I would even think of having, Lady!!!
It's a combination of factors, I think, that gave me toughness. Its a form of resiliency I also learned from a few friends with disabilities who let nothing stop them - and creatively go around to find solutions. That optimism is appealing as a trait - and one that I am grateful to them for having discovered - when I can keep a positive attitude. No one is perkeft. LOL
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