Onomatopoeia: the word for a word that sounds like what it means. For example, swoosh. This is the sound of my tennis racket whipping through the air – making nocontact with an oncoming, swirling tennis ball. Swoosh. What is the word for the sound a tennis ball makes when it hits the sweet spot of my borrowed racquet? Ping? I am not sure; I’ll tell you when I hear it.
I could see on Dad’s face his reluctance to pop open a brand new can of bright yellow Dunlap 1 tennis balls. But he did, to hit the ball with me, because he is my dad. We haven’t played together in over twenty years, and he remembers that I was never that good even then. I approached the courts with a low expectation of my current playing ability. Over the course of an hour, I improved from horrible to bad. My goal is to move from bad to moderatly embarrassing.
Dad is 72 and playing tennis three times a week. He claims that the secret to staying competitive is perfecting the art of a well placed ball. It does not matter how hard your opponent can swing the racket if he can’t get to the ball in time. I am inspired to find Jack’s unused, pristine tennis racket and pound a backboard. I’ll never be a great player, but hearing “ping” instead of “swoosh”, well; it is gratification enough for me.
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