Real Tennis outdoors with balls

Inspired by hours of Wii tennis in our lounge Stephen and I had this wild idea about playing the real, outdoor version on a proper court - just like people played during 19th and 20th centuries before games consoles were invented.

We cycled into the high-street and located a sports store, similar to the Wii games store but with a much bigger selection of bats, rackets and balls - none of which look exactly like a games console controller. The staff seemed a little confused by our desire to play "real outdoor tennis like they used to" but I think they were history majors because they figured out what we needed and we left with two rackets and a quiver of balls.

If you are familiar with a Wii remote you will need to understand that these rackets are almost, but not quite, unlike the white wand shaped remote that fits so well in your hand. Firstly the safety wrist strap on each racket is missing (what were they thinking?) as are any additional buttons at all. This should be obvious when you realise that they did NOT have electricity when these rackets were popular.

We located the court - they are much larger than they appear on our 37inch TV screen. We played for a couple of hours. It is nothing like Wii tennis, and the differences extend to more than just the proximity to the fridge.

You are probably asking which I enjoyed the most. Well both forms have pros and cons.

The downside of racket tennis

• The balls are the same colour as the court and indeed the surrounding foliage (seems like bad design to me)
• The balls tend to leak through the fence and one has to risk stinging nettles to get them back.
• Missed balls have to retrieved, sometimes from several courts away, - they don't just appear in your hand
• You get wet when it rains
• The court is slippery when it rains
• It gets hard to see when it gets dark
• The sound effects are a little unrealistic - no crowd cheers for example and a duller "thunk" on contact with the ball.
  
• If the sun shone you could get skin cancer
  

The upside of this form of tennis

• Great feedback in the racket (you really feel the ball striking the strings)
• I think it is little more tiring and hence a slightly better workout than the more common Wii sport
  
• It's cool to be able to tell people - "I played tennis - outdoors with balls"

A word of warning though. The lack of a wrist strap on the racket suggests that children should not be playing this version. Keep them indoors and in front of the TV.

Our next experiment is going to involve cooking like in the old times using the same techniques used in Wii's "Mamas cooking". We must get a fire extinguisher first though because this can be really dangerous.