Jim and Me

Jim and Me

I was over at the tennis wall at the Biltmore yesterday, as I frequently am. My pal Jim was there, a retired tennis pro. He told me he had just turned 78 and was working on hitting his forehand from shoulder height; he liked to learn new things. He demonstrated the technique and indeed was hitting it quite nicely that way. He then showed me the same stroke on the backhand side, which is appreciably more difficult. It’s an important skill to have because the ball does not always obligingly come in at waist height, but it takes a lot of practice and strength building. I said I was still working on my left hand, as I have been for the last two years. I told him I’d just turned 75. Actually, my left hand has steadily improved, to the point that I can now hit forehands lefthanded fairly well. I then remarked that I had some pain in my right heel that was hampering my movement; this was caused by my skateboard hitting some vegetation on the road that made the wheels stop rotating and pitched me forward. My feet came down quite heavily and bruised the heel (it’s much better today). He gave me some advice on what to do about it. We carried on hitting.