Chapter 58

“Alrighty then buddy, one last thing for the day, then we can call it quits.” They’d been at it for over two hours now, and all of the other players, both boys and girls teams, had already ended their practices. But thanks in part to Dan’s impressive Stamina…courtesy of taking the occasional 10-minute short rest during his time with Peter to keep his Stamina from dropping to dangerous levels, they were still going. Peter, after all, was a beast physically, and Dan was certain the Senior could outlast him under normal circumstances. Considering it was Dan doing most of the work, that meant Peter was, in this current environment, never going to run out of Stamina. Meaning, Dan was stuck there until Peter deemed, he was done for the day.

“If I had a dollar for every time you said that.” Dan said, cracking a grin towards Peter as the Senior flashed him a smile of his own. It was good to be back on the court with Peter. Dan loved the soccer field, he’d loved playing with the others, and spending time under Sam’s tutelage. However, these sessions with Peter just felt different. Sure, it was intense, but it was always so, relaxed per say? And just felt like spending time with a friend.

“This time I promise.” Peter said. “Ben looks like he’s going to have a conniption if we keep going. And honestly, I probably shouldn’t eat up his Saturday too much.”

Ben, who had been standing back in the corner trying to practice bouncing the ball repeatedly on the frame of his racquet, something Peter did occasionally when he was bored, looked up immediately at that, tennis ball dropping away.

“I’m fine.” Ben said quickly. “Really, I’m learning a lot.” The varsity player had done a complete 180 with regards to how he was acting towards Dan. Something Dan figured was being affected majorly by his Charisma stats. That being said, Ben had been listening to everything Peter was saying, and watching intently. It was quite clear, Ben was using this punishment to try and learn as much as he could from Peter’s teachings. Even if Peter was still working Dan through all the basic skills, Peter’s attention to detail was impressive, and he was catching small things Dan had never realized he was doing. Which were all things he figured Ben was assessing regarding his own skills.

“You say that,” Peter picked up a tennis ball and began bouncing it off his frame, in a much more practiced and fluid manner than Ben. “But really, you’d been grumbling the most when I mentioned this practice. Something about a hot date or whatnot.”

“I, er,” Ben shifted about, and Dan knew Peter had him pegged. “I can cancel that.” Ben muttered softly.

Peter laughed, hit the ball up higher than he had been, and with a fluid motion sent it flying towards the basket Ben was standing by. The ball curved through the air and landed into it, sending balls flying in all different directions.

“No need Ben. You’ve already served plenty of punishment today. I’m not going to take your personal life from you.”

He looked back towards Dan. “Now, the last thing we’re going to cover today, is a slice serve.” He picked up another ball, tossed it easily in the air, and repeated the action he’d done a moment before. With crazy accuracy the ball flew through the air, curved, and dipped into the ball basket. Dan could see from Ben’s reaction that the varsity player was both irked at the sudden mess of balls, but also, impressed and envious of Peter’s skill.

“Obviously, when it comes to serving, a powerful flat serve is your friend.” Peter picked up another ball, turned towards the court, and executed a flawless flat serve that had to have been at least 100 miles per hour.

“But, when it comes to your second serve, as I’ve already mentioned to you, players like to choose something that has a little more safety. Because the flat serve, being flat, requires you to be more precise. Whereas something such as a kick serve or slice serve, have more spin to them, and can clear the net better while still landing in the service box.”

“Kick serves,” Peter continued as he picked up the ball, “are probably your safest serve type, but they’re going to take you more practice to work on. Because until you get the right power and form with them, they’re stupid easy to return.”

Peter motioned towards Ben, who’d been picking up the scattered balls. The varsity player began pushing the ball court towards them.

“Slice serves, on the other hand, are a good middle ground. You can get good speed and power with them and depending on how you hit them, you can adjust the amount they actually curve.”

The senior grabbed two balls from the ball cart as Ben arrived beside them, and pointed towards the service box adjacent to them. Currently, they were standing on the right side of the court, or Deuce Side, as Peter commonly referred to it. Otherwise known as the forehand side.

“If your opponent is right-handed, a slice serve from this angle is going to go to their forehand. Which, for the most part, is going to be their stronger side. So, you either have to apply a lot of spin to it, and aim for an angle, or you can apply some extra speed to it, and try and get a good body shot off the serve to mess them up.”

He tossed the ball up into the air, his right arm with the racquet in hand going through his normal service motion. As it came up to connect with the ball though, Dan saw Peter, instead of coming down on it on top and pronating, as he normally did with a flat serve, instead sliced at it from the right side. His racquet cut across the right side of the tennis ball, and it was sent curving through the air, seeming to almost warp as it flew in a wide arc. The ball hit the back left hand corner of hard-court service box, and bounced, jumping wide and to their left.

“Doing that, is going to pull the player far out to the side, so even if they do return it with a strong forehand, you’ve got the opportunity to really make them run by hitting a solid shot down the line or targeting the righthand side of the court.” Peter pointed towards the back right side of the court. “I don’t care how fast they are, if you immediately follow a serve like I just did, with a powerful shot there, you’re either winning the point instantly, or their return from it is going to set you up to win the point.”

“If you don’t want to serve to their forehand, or you can’t pull them out quite as much as you’d like, a body shot with a slice is fine.” Dan tossed the ball up but adjusted the angle of his slice this time. Instead of cutting the side of it, his angled his racquet even more, so most of his slice was over the top of the ball, but still on the right of it. This time, the ball flew somewhat straight, but curved just enough to hit just inside the service box on the left, dangerously close to the center line. Dan noticed it had a little more power to it than the previous one, traveling slightly faster and lower, though still with plenty of net clearance. As it hit, it only cut slightly towards the left. From what Dan had seen in tennis, that shot would have gone towards the body of the other player, forcing them to have to suddenly reposition to get either a good forehand or backhand shot off. Either way, it wouldn’t be a powerful return if they weren’t ready for it.

“The glory of serving up a nice slice serve, is depending on how you position it, as well as how you tweak it, you can keep them off guard. What you lose in speed, from switching away from your flat serve, you can make up for in positioning and mind games.” Peter chuckled as he glanced between Ben, and Dan. “And, as we all know, if you can break their mental state, the rest of the game becomes much easier to play.

“Noted.” Dan said, glancing apprehensively towards the basket of balls. He knew what was going to come next, and while he welcomed the practice, as well as the work on a new skill, he was also, more than a little self-conscious. He was all too aware of how badly skills executed at level 1.

“Alrighty then,” Peter stepped back and motioned for Dan to take up a position. “Give it a go, and I’ll coach you from there.”

Dan sighed, grabbed a ball, and did his best not to look Ben in the eyes. He tossed the ball up, focusing on it, and tried to mimic what Peter had done.

Laughter, and a whistling from Ben as the ball flew over the fence as Dan hit the tennis ball with the from of his racquet instead of slicing it with the strings, followed as he failed his first attempt at a Slice Serve. Along with it though, was the mental prompt that he had gained a new Tennis Skill, at, of course, level 1.

“I know people pay for the frame Danny Boy.” Peter said mid-laugh. “But next time, try to use the strings, yeah?”

It was going to be a long day.