LOVING TENNIS

Doug Dunn


Photo credit - D Dunn: Pre Corona tennis at Avon Vale Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club


l love playing tennis at my local club. It is small, friendly and quite intimate with the same regular crew returning each week, normally three times a week in the summer. Until this summer. No more tennis and no more post-tennis coffee conversations putting our Devon worlds to right.

Now 'the advice' is that singles is allowed but not doubles. And to follow the guidelines posted on the LTA website. Eventually I worked out how to play with my own set of marked tennis balls, serving with my own set and never actually touching my opponent's set with my hands. So now I am playing singles regularly and with different people. Last time, when I was playing against a lady club member I had my usual thoughts of how to win by being more aggressive or going more to the net. My latest thought was to keep count of unforced errors in each game which seemed to work but it felt a bit like having my own personal commentator!

But then I remembered something I promised myself this year; to explore the practice of love in my relationships and communications. How could I bring love to the game of tennis?

One area where I am practicing love is on phone calls. Now mostly video calls. In fact last night on one of these wine sharing calls, I mentioned my interest in writing and about this very blog. My friend on the screen said she liked the idea of practicing love while playing tennis! She also said, when I started suggesting an intention for our next video call, 'there is no next call. All there is is now'.

It took me a while to fully appreciate what my wise video friend was saying. She is right. All there is is now! I oftern played tennis with a built in agenda, in order to become more related and create love in my life. What if I could create love on the court! When I had that thought the game transformed. Instead of a comentary about self-improvement it became a dialog of small and intimate communications. Each acknowledging good shots and smiling at the bad ones sometimes with accompanying screams. Why do women players do that? I tend to refrain from all that but why? They are just expressing their love of the game and so can I.

Thank you lockdown for stopping the chatter and freeing me up.


Doug Dunn has a Software Training background having worked for 30 years in London. Now living in South Devon, he devotes time to writing, astronomy and  tennis. He wrote Being on the Moon in 2012 and enjoyed collaborating with the authors of Human Crossings – 9 stories about refugees published in 2019. This year he published a report in Landmark Worldwide’s Conference for Global Transformation Journal highlighting the benefits of writers working together. You can email Doug on dgdun@aol.com.


This blog post and its content is copyright of Doug Dunn, 2020. (c) All rights reserved.

Comments

  1. Cláir Ní AMay 29, 2020 at 8:59 AM

    I really liked this piece Doug. It brought me back to the original meaning of the word 'amateur' - someone who does something for the love of it, which is often forgotten in the frenzy of competition and winning. As for being the source of love on the tennis court, I think that's an ace idea!

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  2. Noha NasserJune 1, 2020 at 11:47 AM

    At first, I wondered what would bringing love to the tennis court actually be like? From what your wrote, it sounds like accepting the good and bad shots, but also screaming! LOL. Overall, you seem much more relaxed about the whole thing and I can tell there is more joy by being in the now. Thanks for taking love to unexpected places!

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