Not Warming Up To The Idea

This might come off a little bit “Seinfeld-ian,” but have you ever wondered how in the blue hell 2 opposing tennis players are able to warm up together prior to a match? I was watching parts of the beginning of the Marion Bartoli-Maria Sharapova match yesterday at the gym, and I couldn’t help but wonder...I know tennis is traditionally known as the “gentleman’s game,” but it’s always struck me as truly bizarre. Maybe it really is that gentlemanly, or maybe the culture of individual sports are just different than team sports in that they force that kind of interaction occasionally.

Yep...definitely different.

Can you imagine 2 opposing basketball teams running layup lines at the same basket or 2 baseball teams taking batting practice at the same time though? Hell, if 2 football teams even stretch too close to one another during warm-ups, f***ing Armageddon is likely to break out at midfield. And what is each player thinking as they hit back and forth to one another? Players don’t have to hate each other…in fact, I’m sure most of them respect one another at the very least. Some probably even like one another or, in the case of sibling matchups, love each other. But at the same time, they are competitors…their mindset going into a match no matter what has to be that they want to destroy the person on the other side of the net.

"Hey buddy, f*** you!"

So, as you’re getting loose, do you wimpily try to block every shot back so as not to give away anything in terms of strategy? Do you try to take the other guy’s head off with every f***ing stroke as an act of intimidation? Do you just pretend the other person is some autonomous hitting partner and go ahead practicing shots you would normally take during the game? To anyone that’s ever played tennis, this probably isn’t an issue at all, and I’m making something out of nothing. To someone who has only played if you consider “playing” trying to not clumsily hit the ball into the net or beyond the court fences, then, yes, it’s insane…because of which, maybe we should add tennis players to that “different breed” I talked about before.

Yea, I don't really get it either.