Taking Weekend Tennis Seriously

Last Friday morning, I drove into work while big flakes of snow were swirling down and powdering up the roads. I took the tollway with the logic that not having to brake and stop and turn on the treacherous pathways would be the best strategy for a safe drive. Not to mention it’d be the fastest route into the office.

I was wrong. Traffic slowed to a crawl as a two-car accident was being attended to by the cops on the left-most lane. As soon as I passed the wreckage, I vroomed back over to the passing lane. Other than the roads being wet, the snow didn’t appear to have much of an effect on the traveling conditions for this particular stretch of the tollway, and I figured it’d be an easy cruise the rest of the way into work with perhaps merely moments of the-car-is-slipping anxiousness that would ultimately prove innocuous…which I experienced earlier that week on my drive home from the office when it had sleeted and the roads were icy.

Suddenly, the white mini-SUV-jeep-looking vehicle in the right-most lane 30 yards in front of me lost control, turned 90 degrees to the left, drove straight into the rail, spun in place, and stopped in the middle of the left lane. That I was on.

Because I had just left the scene of a car accident and perhaps because of how fast I had been going, I had time to slow down and check behind me, veer into the middle lane without incident, and continue safely past the vehicle with its severely damaged front-end and its no-doubt traumatized passengers inside. And then I exited the tollway.

So that was my Friday, February 27th. How was yours?

The weather has been quite the hot topic of interest for the recreational tennis players of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area recently. Last week was the first week for several of the local community tennis leagues. Mother Nature could not have cared less. Or maybe she did care and she was purposefully screwing with everyone. However you want to look at it.

The real flurry of fun was the heated discussion of having to play during these conditions. Thursday, Feb. 26 was the first day for the weekday ladies section of the Tennis Competitors of Dallas (TCD) league, and it was the only day of the week when precipitation wasn’t in the forecast.

But it would be cold. Like in-the-30s-but-it-feels-like-it’s-in-the-20s cold. With 20 mph winds.

TCD doesn’t have a rule on not playing because of non-precipitous weather (cold, wind, heat). Like that’s the actual rule:

Page 35, under Section K. Weather Conditions, under item 2: “There are no provisions for extreme cold, heat, or wind.”

Which means you’re supposed to play.

Wouldn’t you know it, but this did not sit well with the grown women who can play recreational adult tennis on a weekday morning.

After quite the lengthy, mostly one-sided discussion on the TCD Facebook group page Tuesday night, the TCD Board issued a one-time-only exception to the rules and allowed teams to reschedule their matches, if need be.

I would not have known about this TCD-weather hoopla if people hadn’t alerted me. I’ve been trying to go to bed early and was under the covers before 10 pm counting sheep – I was so proud of myself – when the first notification came in. Next thing I know, it’s past midnight and I’ve just been refreshing a Facebook page for the last couple of hours, reading the latest comment from someone who doesn’t want to play in the extreme cold and wind and doesn’t understand what the TCD Board’s problem is.

I felt like I was gawking at a car chase on TV. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the real-life drama unfolding in front of me. How would it all end??

One of my TCD teammates – let’s call her Ringer. I do – kept randomly tagging my name in this very serious comment thread on Facebook and asking where was I in all this.

That impish trouble-maker. Baiting me to step in a bear trap. Naturally she’s who I’m frequently paired up with for TCD. 😀

I know Ringer knows exactly which side of the argument I come down on. When we played a practice doubles match together a few weeks ago that I organized, the forecast for that morning said it would be in the 30s. Ringer group texted the players the evening before and asked if we were still on. I group texted back yes. She said are we really. I said yes again. She said it’s going to be cold. I stopped responding and went to sleep. Too cold is not a reason why I don’t play tennis outside.

People dropping out of play dates at the last second because they don’t want to play in the cold, however, is. Which is why I shut up scheduling-tennis-practice-matches shop during the winter months (I didn’t realize February was a winter month. Now I do). It’s best for our tennis friendship if I leave you to hibernate. You’re welcome.

In case you’re wondering, yes, Ringer and the rest of us did play that morning. Running down balls because you’re partnered up with me will heat you up right quick. 😉

The thing I kept thinking about during this whole hubbub was what would happen if the TCD Board ultimately decided to make their players play? They did a really good thing from a customer service point of view by going out of their way to hold an emergency meeting the day before the season opener and coming up with this ruling that appeased what seems to have been the majority of their constituents.

But what if they hadn’t? What if they had said we are going to follow our rules until our next officially scheduled meeting and that’s all there is to it?

Besides the onslaught of angry emails from the players, what else would have happened? How many teams would have defaulted all four lines, taken the “warning to the captain” punishment, and set themselves severely back points-wise? How many teams would have protested the rest of the season and not played any matches this spring?

How many players would have not played TCD the following fall season? Next spring?

How many players would have sent their teenage kids to toilet paper the houses of the Board members?

Alas, we’ll never know.

The other thing I kept thinking about was…the people who are okay with playing tennis in cold weather and the people who aren’t okay with it will never see eye to eye on this one. As someone who sheds her layers by the end of the warm-up (I cannot play in long sleeves), I understand logically all the reasons for not playing in the cold…but I’m still going to play in the cold.

Valid points were made on Facebook for not playing on Thursday: the ball barely bounces and the wind blows the tennis ball every which way. This league is supposed to be about fun competition and playing in the cold doesn’t promote that. People are more susceptible to being injured by exposing themselves to these low temperatures.

Look. I’m not going to deny people’s feelings or scientific facts. They/You are just not speaking my language. I don’t have the same qualms regarding playing in the cold nor the same reactions when I have played in the cold (which include 3 tournament matches back-to-back-to-back the Saturday after this last Christmas when it was 35 degrees. I was so puzzled as to why my shots were not bouncing up the way I intended them to, heh. And of course, I’ll be playing the Cotton Bowl tournament again! …although I’m not totally sure my doubles partner will be joining me in the cold. 😉 ).

My enjoyment of playing tennis has little to do with the weather conditions, if any. I just want to play tennis and figure out how to win the match.

…aannndddd that’s why there’s a board to rule on these tough decisions. It really was super of them to take the feedback so well and respond in real-time. Thank you, TCD Board! To all you league players who were clamoring for just this type of resolution: be sure to support whatever end of the year social TCD puts on this spring, ya hear?

Back to me. Some of my tennis friends led by a certain someone tell me that when I get to be their age (I’m in my late twenties; they are…not in their twenties), I’ll finally be affected by the elements. I’ll finally understand where they’re coming from. And that they’re looking forward to my call when they’re knitting in the common area of the retirement home and I tell them they were right and so wise after all.

I actively fear that happening. I don’t ever want to not play tennis because it’s too cold, windy, or hot. This is one area where I don’t want to turn into my mother. 😯

Also…where are you guys on leggings under skirts? Good look or not a good look? GO.