Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Turning on a dime

My friend Mary often says, "Life can turn on a dime." I agree. Things can change quickly, in any direction.

But the dime itself, how often do you think about it?

At my tennis lesson today, Tom had me practice my serves. Which I needed lots of work on — they were terrible on Saturday. ("What's with the Zembinski arm?" my friends asked. "Really?" Dianne said after I double-faulted for the zillionth time. The serves were not good.)

So Tom walked away and came back with...

A dime.

He put it under the tip of my ring finger while I held my racquet. My fingers had been flying off the grip when I served.

Not anymore! My serve has turned on a dime. (And with a dime.)

Sure, I could bend my legs more and swing harder and control the toss better. But hanging on to the racquet is a good start.

Thanks, Tom!

2 comments:

Jean Katherine Baldridge said...

Oh--I loved that! First, it is simply a great expression, "turning on a dime". Second, what a clever teacher you have! That was really inventive. Third, OUR tennis teacher used to finish all of our lessons by giving us each a dime for the Coke machine back at the tennis shop. That was great motivation for attending lessons when I was a kid!

Love your writing! xox jean

Naomi said...

Jean, thank you! He is really inventive (and observant). But, a Coke after every lesson? Now that sounds fun!