Chapter 7

“So I got this one just for you this morning.” Peter was grinning as he opened his bag of ‘acquired’ racquets and pulled one out. “Since I’ve got to figure you’re not a fan of Wilson, considering you destroyed the last Wilson I lent you.” Peter chuckled, “how about Babolat?” The racket he handed to Dan was a predominately bright blue frame, with black stripes across it. The black grip on the racquet, just like the others Peter had, looked well worn. Whoever this racquet had belonged to, had put a lot of time and use into it.

“This morning?” Dan took the racquet hesitantly. It was as if he could feel the amount of time and effort the original owner had put into it. And now, it was taken from its owner by Peter, and given to Dan for his beginning tennis career.

Babolat Pure Drive 110: +1 ??? per 10, +1 ??? per 10. Dan tried his best to ignore the message as it popped up, though it definitely intrigued him. Was it possible his tennis equipment would be able to adjust his stats?

“Yeah, what do you think I was doing before you ran into me?” Dan distinctly remembered Peter’s somewhat disheveled look, as if he’d been playing tennis in his school uniform. Apparently, that had been the case.

“I’m surprised people still play against you with their racquets on the line.” Honestly, if Peter was as good as he claimed to be, who in their right mind would willingly play against the Senior? Especially with their precious racquet on the line?

“There’s a bounty on my head.” The senior shrugged, his eyes sparkling. “First person to beat me gets 1,000 dollars, my personal racquet, and bragging rights.” He chuckled. “And of course, if that isn’t enough to tempt them, I offer to play with my non dominate hand.” Peter pulled out his own racquet, a Wilson judging by the name in text along the side. It was a striking selection of colors, a crimson red and a bright cyan, and as Dan focused on it, he could see Peter’s name actually engraved on it. That, was definitely a custom racquet.

“Though,” Peter did a quick test swing with his racquet in his right hand, then switched it to his left hand, and did a similar swing. Both motions seemed extremely effortless and smooth. “I suppose the poor kids don’t realize I’m ambidextrous.” That’s kind of a dick move. Dan made a mental note to figure out who the racquet belonged to. Maybe someday he could pay that poor kid back.

+1 Compassion (59) +1 Ambition (49)

Peter pulled out a container of what looked to be three tennis balls, removing the black lid from the top. Beneath that lid Dan saw the flash of aluminum, and he was surprised to see the balls appeared to be sealed in a pressurized container of sorts. As Peter peeled the metal top off, it made a loud popping sound, and the Senior made a very distinct sniffing sound.

“Man, opening a fresh set of balls never loses its appeal.” He pocketed two of the balls and motioned for Dan to follow him out onto the court.

Dan followed with his racquet in his right hand. He really wasn’t sure how he was supposed to hold the racquet, noticing that the handle, which from a distance may have appeared perfectly round, was actually octagonal. He could distinctly feel the edges of each portion of the handle, and noticed a very worn portion on one side of it.

“Alright just to confirm.” Peter had led him to one of the distinctive back lines on the court. The tennis court, Dan had noticed, was shaped like a rectangle. A set of wide white lines ran around the perimeter of the rectangle, with additional lines running within the rectangle at differing positions. “You’ve never played tennis before, correct?”

“That’s right.” Dan replied. He vaguely knew about the sport, but he’d never held a racquet in his life. Nor had he ever seen a tennis match played. It had never appealed to him before.

“Cool, so we getta start you off fresh.” Peter grinned and pointed to the line they were standing by. They were on the far end of the court, the outermost line on one of the short sides of the rectangle. “This is called the baseline. You serve from back here, and a lot of play happens at the baseline, depending on the type of player you become, and your opponent.” His racquet moved to the center of the baseline, where a small, perhaps couple inches long white line started, heading into the court. “You use that to tell which side of the court you are on. It’s important for serving, and doubles. Which,” Peter winked at him, “you’ll want to get good at, if you want to get with Sophia.”

“Baseline, got it.” Dan didn’t really get it. But he was going to just pay attention, and try to absorb everything he could.

“Everything in here, before that next set of white,” Peter motioned towards the inside of the court. Outside of the perimeter of the tennis court, the cement was a green color, but within, it was a dark blue. “Is no man’s land. I’ll bully you later on that.”

Peter started walking from the baseline, through the blue of no mans land, to the next set of white lines. These lines, running parallel to the baseline, and the net that cut across the middle of the court’s width, where white as well. And they were split down the middle by a long white line that crossed under the net onto the other side as well. Essentially, these lines connected and split to create two smaller rectangles within the rectangle of the tennis court.

“This line is the service line. The line down the middle, again splits the two sides, and creates what we call the service box. Your serves have to land in these boxes, when we get to those, and generally your play style will change when you are this close to the net.”

Peter motioned to either side of the service box, where a long white line on either side, running perpendicular to the net, service line, and baseline, seemed to create two long and narrow rectangles. “Everything in there, is only important for doubles. It’s called doubles alley. The smaller court size is for single play, and doubles alley only counts as playable court when you are playing doubles. Again, we will cover that later on.”

Dan’s head was swimming with everything being thrown at him. Seriously, he had a feeling this sport was going to be a lot more difficult for him to learn than he’d expected.

“Any questions yet buddy?” Peter didn’t even give him a chance to respond. Something the Senior, and Syn, seemed to have in common. Dan really was getting tired of people not letting him ask questions.

“Good. So, today we are going to teach you the proper way to hold your racquet for a good forehand swing, and get you some practice with that.” Peter stepped away from Dan a little and held his racquet loosely out towards Dan. “As I’m sure you can tell, the racquet’s grip is split into 8 portions.”

Dan had noticed that, and he nodded.

“Those portions on the grip are used to determine what type of grip you are using. Tennis has a lot of different types of grips, and players will normally change their grips depending on the type of stroke they are using, and what they want to do.”

Peter wrapped his hand around the racquet and held it straight out, with the edges of the frame perpendicular to the ground. He made a few motions, as if he were using the frame of the racquet like the head of a hammer.

“This is called the continental grip. Normally, we teach it to brand new players and younger players, as it’s easy to use, and easy to remember. Mainly, because you are holding the racquet like a hammer. Your knuckle on your index finger should be on the second section of your grip, which we call number two.” He lifted his fingers again to show Dan.

“This is position 1,” He pointed to the middle line on the grip that ran in line perfectly with the frame of the hammer. “We count clockwise to the right, and label each portion of the grip as a new number.” He moved his finger along it, ”1, 2, 3, and so on.”

“Alright, makes sense so far.” It really didn’t, but being able to watch was at least somewhat helpful.

“Today, I’m going to teach you something a little different. We’ll get back to the continental grip later, but I’m going to teach you the grip you’ll probably use the most when it comes to your time at St. Arthurs.” He shifted his grip slightly so that he was holding the racquet angled.

“For this grip, your knuckle needs to be on the fourth portion of the grip, so your racquet is canted this way.” He held it out, showing that rotation to Dan. “This, is called the Semi-Western Grip.”

Dan couldn’t help but wonder where the naming for these grips had come up with. He was also having trouble visualizing how holding the racquet twisted as Peter was, would work for hitting the ball straight.

“The Semi-Western Grip gives you great topspin, and allows you to change grip easily when you need to.” Peter did a few practice swings with his racquet. “If you master this, trust me, you’ll be well on your way towards being a good tennis player.”

“Okay.” Dan twisted the racquet in his hand, trying to mimic how Peter was holding it. As he did, he found when his knuckle was in the appropriate position, on number 4 of the grip, he realized it matched perfectly with the worn portion of the grip. So, the user of this racquet before Dan had been using a Semi-Western Grip as well. “What next?” Dan asked with the racquet in hand. He could feel his eagerness growing, forcing his confusion away. Part of his excitement, was because he really was excited to learn how to play the sport. Especially if it meant getting closer to Sophia. At the same time though, something had caught his attention in the corner of his eye, and had made him even more excited.

Tennis Trait Unlocked

Forehand (Semi-Western) (Tennis) Unlocked

“Well, now that you’ve got a racquet in hand…and are holding it mostly right.” He stepped up and tipped Dan’s wrist ever so slightly, so the racquet was angled gently away from him, “it’s time for you to start crawling.”