The Drop Shot

I had an epiphany! Actually, it was more of a sad realization. Sixty is not young. No matter what spin you apply, you are aged beef and it ain't prime, or choice for that matter! This was abundantly obvious watching Aussie doubles this week.

It's a familiar feeling. We all think we move like that, fast and athletic. It feels like you are motoring on the court, but by sixty those muscle fibers are hardly twitching fast. More like the sporadic twitch you get in your eye when you haven't had enough sleep because you were up all night after eating beans. Not to mention the synapses firing in a young brain. Those 19 year old phenoms go from 0 to 60 in 2 seconds; they are turbo charged Ferraris to our VW Bus.

What to do? Well there's no harm in keeping up the cardio. We can cling onto a modest display of speed. Juggling, I'm told, is a good way to maintain eye hand coordination. Reaction speed can be improved by playing Call of Duty! Sounds like fun, other than the cardio.

We have to get very good at anticipating, and we have to be very smart! These 19 year olds might be able to fly around the court, but their brains aren't fully developed yet. We, on the other hand can crush the daily crossword in under twenty minutes and recite the original cast of General Hospital, or Coronation Street, if you want to get British. Not that useful perhaps, but we have learned. We have been learning a lot longer than these young fillys. We've got forty years of learning on these whippersnappers. And so we enter the golden age of the wily 60 year old! Ooooh! Sweet revenge when we wind up our forehand and drop the ball just over the net. Suck on that sweetie, when we face one way and volley the other. Let me take that crushing two handed backhand of yours and float it over your partner for a humiliating lob!!

I don't mind being older. We still have stuff we can do. Some stuff we do better than any age. We just need to keep at it!!