Two Chippers try each other’s sports for a day

ing a random neighborhood field for this swap. When Ella arrived, she brought out a few balls and we got ready to pass. Inside, I sighed a breath of relief knowing I wouldn’t be running a long warm up. Luckily, my right hand catching and passing was what I considered semi-decent. To my surprise, I was able to catch a slight majority of the balls she passed gently toward me, but my technique wasn’t great.

Ella’s tennis practice

After worrying extensively about the practice, I breathed a sigh of relief when Julia took it rather easy on me and started with the very basics. She began by showing me the different grips tennis players use for different hits, which I didn’t even know existed. I couldn’t precisely remember the nuanced differences between them, but I nodded and followed Julia’s lead anyway.

To my surprise, we didn’t really do a warmup, and instead began the practice with learning different hits. I was grateful for the lesson—I didn’t have to hit balls back and forth from the get-go like I expected. Alas, my joy was short lived, because the teaching ends quickly, and the real practice begins.

practice I was familiar with: picking up all the loose balls! I was again bested by Julia, who collected them with ease using her novel ball bag, ball stand, and ball collecting contraption. Can’t win them all I suppose.

Julia’s lacrosse reflection

Although I most definitely lost the skills I had in middle school, trying lacrosse again was exciting and almost nostalgic. I learned various different techniques and practice drills and even got to hammer some balls across the field. Since tennis is not as much of a team sport as lacrosse is, I would love to join Ella’s team for a day to get a taste of the team spirit that tennis can sometimes lack.

ing—a few times a year at most—to improve my coordination and technique!

Ella’s tennis reflection

Though most of my experience was embarrassment and apologies for my performance, I had fun learning! I found the noise of balls hitting Julia’s racquet extremely satisfying and would love to continue practicing until I am able to make even one hit that sounds the same.

Ella demonstrated the motions of passing and catching, and I immediately saw huge differences in our abilities to catch. Even when I passed a bad ball, Ella was able to reach up and smoothly let the ball into her stick’s net, while I was dropping the balls she tossed ever so gently right to my stick. After right hand passing, Ella suggested we try some left hand passes. She threw one more ball to my right side, and I knew that would be the last ball I would be able to catch until we switched back to the right side.

After embarrassing myself and not catching a single ball on the left side, I was relieved to hear Ella suggest we try another drill. This time, we stood close together and passed quickly between our sticks. We even tried doing this while running, which was admittedly quite a bit harder; I definitely will not be catching balls while running during a game anytime soon.

Finally, Ella demonstrated a few techniques used on the field to pass the defenders. Although I probably won’t ever find myself on the field against a defender, it was interesting to watch her precise footing and stick movement. When I gave my attempts, my footing was not as precise and smooth, and I had to stop and reset quite a few times.

Thankfully, the passing was coming to an end, and I wouldn’t have to awkwardly run after any more balls. To end off, Ella demonstrated shooting, and we shot some balls across the field, which was surprisingly fun and almost therapeutic. I channeled my embarrassment and lack of coordination into my final shots, leaving them on the field as we made our way to the tennis courts.

Julia carefully demonstrated how to react to different hits—the technique of jumping and turning the body combined immediately confused me. The swings were easy enough to get down, but only before the ball was added.

I noticed immediately how weak my arms were in comparison to Julia’s. Every hit felt like I was just barely holding on to the racquet and certainly not hitting the ball with any intensity. While all of Julia’s demonstrative hits made a beautiful, springy “thwack,” arcing effortlessly over the net and into the opposing boxes, all of my hits sounded heavy and made a weak cracking noise before rolling lamely into my side of the net.

My respect for lacrosse players definitely increased, as I now understand the difficulty of maneuvering the stick as well as all the different strategies that are used on the field. While I would prefer not to pass left-handed ever again, I would love to continue practic-

After feeling the weakness in my arm and shoulder muscles, I have a much greater appreciation for tennis. I always thought the majority of the game was about quick reaction time, but now I also see how much strength is required. While I may not be the next greatest member of the tennis team—or a member at all—I might consider upping my tennis playing from three random afternoons per year to four, or even five!

The most humbling part of the practice by far, though, was learning the serve. I probably tossed up 10 balls and hit none of them. There’s nothing quite like swinging your racquet blindly over your head, only to be met with nothing but air as the ball falls at your feet.

Embarrassed, I quickly pick up more balls and try again, only to achieve the same results. Julia kindly explained the motions again, offering pointers with great patience. After one more weak hit that, surprisingly, barely cleared the net, Julia suggested we end on a positive note. I was wonderfully relieved. Then came the only part of