Soft Tennis Lesson

Yesterday Shoji gave me my first lesson in soft tennis. According to Shoji, soft tennis is a minor sport, and not very widely known outside of Asia. The ball used in soft tennis is, well, a lot softer than the yellow ball used in hard tennis. The ball is also white, and the players use air pumps before each practice to make sure the balls are filled with air to the point at which they are firm enough to use for playing. The racket used for soft tennis is smaller and lighter than the racket used for hard tennis, and the court net is taller. Soft tennis is played exclusively on clay courts, and players play in pairs, not singles. One of the teammates will play up closer to the net, and the other teammate will play closer to the serving line at the back of the court.

I observed the last twenty minutes or so of Shoji's practice, and then he gathered up a few teammates to play one game as a short demonstration for me. The scoring works almost the same way as hard tennis, with 0, 15, 30 (maybe 45, not 40), and then game. There are also deuces and advantages as well. After Shoji's group finished practicing, he invited me onto the court and taught me a few of the basic techniques. First I just worked on hitting the ball against the wall to get the feel of how to swing the racket and hit the ball with the correct amount of power. Then, he taught me how to serve (it was very difficult to coordinate the ball toss and hitting the ball at the right time). He also taught me two different strokes, one of which I don't really know how to say in English, but it's either "bare-" or "bore-" with the Japanese pronunciation. This stroke was easier to learn than the serve, and it involves stepping slightly forward with your right foot while slightly moving your racket hand forward with the racket facing directly at your opponent's side of the court to stop the ball from moving deeper onto your side of the court and to send it back to the opposite half of the court. Finally, I learned how to do a smash, which is like a serve, and it sends the ball crashing quickly downward onto the opponent's side of the court. This move, like the serve, was really difficult, and finding the right position in relation to the ball in order to hit it was tricky. But Shoji is a very patient teacher, and he answered all my questions about how to swing the racket or position and move my body. He was also very encouraging, both when I made good shots and when I made mistakes, leaving me very pleased with my first soft tennis lesson when I walked off the court.