Have fun at the training camp~

Today is about a sport my son has belong and played almost everyday except for Mondays.
It is a soft tennis and very minor sport in the world.
Normal tennis is more familiar than a soft tennis, but there are many people in japan enjoying it, especially junior high school students.


Please take a look at the following video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzftdHB6xvg



The difference between (hard) tennis and soft tennis is mainly 4 points.
1. ball

   As you can guess, they use only soft tennis balls.

2. racket
    Soft tennis rackets are different from normal tennis ones, a little smaller than normal racket. And we use the same side for both forehand and backhand.

3. used to be pair tournaments
    Soft tennis had only pair tournaments before, but there are recently single ones too.

4. used to have specialty
    In soft tennis, a forward player played only forward, a back one only back before. But this is also changed recently.

Since I had played it when I was a junior high school and university student, I could understand why he has been fascinated with the sport.

He goes to school and his club activity almost everyday, and even weekends he leaves home from very early morning to the evening. He isn't at home very much.

And he attended the club training camp from yesterday, for 2 nights.
He is in charge of taking care of the members as a manager, too. The most annoying work is to do the laundry alone for all of them according to him.
He has to do the laundry after hard training during the camp, fold clean clothes and bring to one by one.
He bought the detergent at his own expense before the camp.
I thought it was not fair... But I said nothing to him. His club makes him very organized, I think.

He will get sunburned a lot and be back home after the camp.



今日は息子の話。
息子は高校で軟式テニス部に入っていて、普段も、辛うじて週に一回のオフが月曜日の放課後にあるだけで、土日も含めて朝から晩まで家にいません。土日なんて、朝８時までに家を出たなって思ったら、帰りは夜・・・。

で、その息子が昨日から、二泊三日のテニス合宿に行きました。
朝から夕方までみっちりテニスをして、朝の一時間だけ宿題をするために、勉強時間が与えられているそうです。相変わらず、大変厳しいクラブだなあ。

だから、まあ、見事に真っ黒クロスケ。
でもテニスウエア焼けをしているので、見えてる部分だけ真っ黒で、後は地肌の色白で、見事にツートンカラーに焼けています。

クラブの役職は、マネージャーらしく、色々と雑用もあるそうです。
この合宿中も、ハードなメニューをこなした後、全員の分の洗濯を一人でするそうです。しかもその洗剤は自費で自分が買って来ないといけないらしい・・・。
なんかこのシステム、おかしいと思いませんか？
みんなが寛いでる中、黙々と一人洗濯をして、さらに畳んで本人に返してるって。それも合宿中毎日。
軟式テニスには、女子のマネージャー希望も来ないらしく、なんか冴えないスポーツですね。

で、私もそんな軟式テニスを中学と大学四年間、ずっとやっていたので、息子が軟式テニスに魅かれるのは、何となく分かります。
今日はその軟式テニスのことについて、紹介しました。