A Ball And A Wall ...That’s All!

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, people used to play tennis outside at their neighborhood park. Before Northwest Racquet and Swim Club provided us with all those beautiful indoor tennis courts, we played tennis outdoors from May until the snow started to fly. Tournaments and lessons were held at Nicollet Tennis Center and before and after the matches we used to walk up to Curran's drive-in a block away for a burger and fries. We bought our tennis rackets from Norm McDonald, aka "Mr. Tennis" out of his home in South Minneapolis. It was a very uncomplicated, innocent, wholesome, fun life almost unrecognizable from the fast paced and sophisticated life of tennis in 2020! My Mom grew up playing tennis at Minneapolis's Powderhorn Park in the 1940s. When I was a little girl, she would often tell me the story of how she and her friends would bring their own nets to put up at the court and play for hours. I learned to play tennis by hitting the ball on the outside of our garage door, all I needed was my racket and a ball. I used to hit for hours and it's honestly where I honed my skills. I was able to build reliable strokes, develop patience and learn to understand the discipline of the game. I also loved being outside! The beauty of the wall is it never misses. Here is a 30 minute tennis work out you can do on the backboard: 5 minutes of forehand ground strokes 5 minutes of backhand ground strokes 5 minutes of forehand slice 5 minutes of backhand slice 5 minutes of serving 5 minutes of volleys When you practice your volleys, stand 4 feet back from the wall and make sure you hit the ball in the air before it bounces. I used to hit forehand volleys first, then backhand volleys and then alternate between backhand and forehand volleys. There are still tennis backboards at many of the city parks, I know that Linden Hills on 42nd and Zenith has a great backboard just waiting for you! Trust me, tennis doesn't have to be that complicated and this is the perfect time to bring it back to the basics. Have fun! Here's a photo of my mom on her way to the court!