Friday, March 7, 2008

The joys of club hopping :)

It has been sometime since V and I started playing on USTA leagues, in sometime we figured that our tennis matches could be in any of the sports club in the Northern Virginia, I am not sure about the 'any' part but my drive to a tennis match has been anywhere between 10 minutes to 45 minutes.
And I have to say I like this club hopping! It is like travelling; people travel to different places, different countries, to see a new place, experience a new culture. Trust me each club has its own way of working, each club has it own set of quirks when it comes to the tennis courts, some are blue, some are green, some are purely indoor while some have a bubble drapped over them during winter. Driving to a club for a match is like traveling for work, for a meeting, you feel important!
My club hopping experience talk wouldn't be complete without the mention of shopping, many clubs have their own little sports/tennis shop which can be a paradise for a tennis lover.
I may or may not visit a lot of countries but to umpteen sports club I will!

This was a first

Recently I had a chance to play a doubles match as a partner with a good teammate of mine 'C'. I like playing with her because she has a nice game, is fast and I love her punishing backhand which is so beautiful to watch when she hits a "down the line" .
But last time I played with her, at times her timing seemed off and she kept making double faults which was unusual of her. Although we managed to win the match, still there wasn't a punch in the winning. What I learned later not only stunned me but also put somethings about the match in place... she was in her 4th month of a pregnancy...
I was always under the impression (may be for lack of experience) that once a woman becomes pregnant she gives up all risky and strenuous physical activity until sometime after the pregnancy and tennis was definitely in the no-no list.
I still do not know what you can and what you cannot during the precious few months but definitely playing with a pregnant lady...now that was a first to me!