Playing Tennis Over Quarantine

     During the pandemic, everyone’s schools and sports have experienced drastic changes. Many classes are now online, but sports like basketball, tennis, and soccer cannot make that transition. After closing for three months, the outdoor tennis courts finally reopened, and tennis lessons resumed. However, these lessons are not the same as before.

    The biggest difference is that we can only play tennis outside now, while we used to play indoors. To control the pandemic, many activities cannot be held indoors anymore, including tennis. I don’t like playing tennis outside because it’s currently the summer and it’s really hot outside. I also have to put on sunscreen, which gets really sticky after I start sweating. Furthermore, if it rains, the outdoor tennis courts can’t be used, so tennis class gets canceled.

    Another difference is that there is a much larger emphasis on sanitation measures now. There is a large bottle of hand sanitizer in every tennis court. To prevent the spread of Covid, we have to clean our hands every time we take a break to drink water. I think these measures are very good and that we should continue to take them in the future, regardless of whether there is a pandemic.

    The last difference (it’s also my favorite one) is that the students don’t need to pick up the tennis balls anymore. Under normal circumstances, everyone works together to collect all of the stray tennis balls and put them back into their container. When picking up the balls, there’s a lot of contact between people. Furthermore, we use our hands to pick up the balls, which could easily spread germs. Now, in order to ensure the students’ safety, the teacher will pick up the tennis balls. Although this measure protects the students, it also means that the teacher is doing a lot more work than before.

    My tennis lessons have undergone many changes. It is very inconvenient and tiring to play tennis outside. I hope that the pandemic will get better soon, so that things will return to normal.