Tennis anyone?

Come here, kids. Good shot. Good shot. Aw…bad shot. That’s OK. Keep it up. Good shot.

Over and over again, “Dave” comments on his students’ efforts. Positive reinforcement. It really goes a long way when working with students.

So there I was. The oldest person on the court.

There is nothing graceful about a zaftig, unathletic (non-athletic!) 37 year old chasing a fuzzy yellow ball.

Dave tries to be helpful by relating tennis to real life.

If you hit the ball at the top, it’s going to go straight down. Just simple physics.

While that might be true…probably is true…relating it to physics just doesn’t help me in the slightest. I never took physics.

I step up to the baseline and get into position.

Good one. That’s right. Don’t give up. Please don’t give up. 80% of people quit because they get so frustrated trying to hit that little fuzzy thing. You’re doing great.

If by “doing great” Dave meant that I hadn’t tripped over my own feet and ended up in the ER, then yes, I was in fact doing great. Trying to keep my hand at a 90-degree angle while trying to make contact with the ball WITHOUT getting smacked upside the head, falling, or hurting anyone took a tremendous amount of concentration and focus.

Think of the ball as a clock. 12 at the top, 3 on the right, 6 at the bottom, and 9 on the left. You want to hit the ball at about 6:45. It’s simple geometry.
“Simple” and “geometry” DO NOT belong in the same sentence. Dave’s attempts to make tennis relevant just weren’t working. As if the physics reference wasn’t bad enough, he then uses math. My WORST subject. And I took it twice.

Isn’t there some metaphor from the humanities that he could use??