When I was younger, I used to play wall ball. Its not really a well defined game. Its a tennis ball, a brick wall and lots of free time at recess. Everyone I know played some version of it and when I couldn't find anyone to play catch with, I'd practice for softball doing the same thing. Apparently, years ago, someone got overwhelmed by recess nostalgia and created an honest-to-goodness sport out of throwing a ball at a wall.
My friend Louis plays handball quite a bit so he offered to teach me how to play on one evening after work. I showed up at the gym expecting to rock the pants off of handball. Hmm. In retrospect, that sentence had way to many entendres for my taste. The point is, despite not having done the spot, I figured this new experience would be right up my alley, against my brick wall and back into my hand. Ok. Again. That sentence was much dirtier than I intended.
So yeah. Hi Louis.
I politely listened while Louis explained the rules, nodded knowingly and waited for him to hand over the gloves and ball for me to take my shot. Granted there were some movements I had to learn that were a little different, but pretty much every sport I ever did involved balls so I was used to it. Oh, come on. Really? Fine. Ok. Since the naughty jokes just want to keep on coming, let's just get this out of the way.
No glove, no love.
There. Happy, universe? On with the entry.
So. Handball was a lot harder than I thought it would be. First of all, the ball is a lot bouncier than a tennis ball. It is also smaller and significantly more painful.
Significantly.
That red mark is a the result of a pelting, which was the result of me missing, which was the direct result of my cockiness going into the sport. I absolutely loved handball, but I was a lot more tired and a lot less good than I expected to be. Oddly enough, being "new" at something has started to get, well, old. I thought that despite fulfilling the technical requirements of my project, it would be a nice change of pace to feel like I already knew how to do something.
No such luck. By the end of the night I felt as though I'd discovered something newer than I realized and relearned the importance of respecting the things you don't know. What I mean by that is that I assumed, since it was similar to wall ball, that learning handball would be a copout. It was spectacularly different and harder than I expected. It was, as annoying as this is to admit, humbling. That being said, I do plan on doing it again at some point. It was great exercise and it was more fun than just running on a treadmill.
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