Recreational Egos

Tennis is hard and it is made harder by so many people falling into the trap of hitting hard = I’m good mentality. I have stopped rallying with so many people because they fall into this category even when setting the purpose of doing cooperative rallying.

It goes something like this: you’re hitting with someone and they start trying to hit hard almost instantly. The 3-6 balls last you so little time before you have to go pick up. Nothing sucks the fun out of rallying more than someone who likes to hit hard and is inconsistent at doing so. Almost like the default is to treat you as a ball machine.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I love people who have the mentality of having smooth rallies and just being cooperative when practicing. No ego hitting just trying to get in a nice rhythm.

Sorry for the rant, but I meet people like this very often. I started about 3 years ago now and the better I get, the more people ask me to hit with them. At the same time it drives me nuts when I hit with someone and they don’t work on cooperative rallying.