Recently, because the animated film of Japan’s Slam Dunk was released, what friends around me talk about is all youthful memories. But perhaps because I never had much feeling for basketball since childhood (once, from mid-court, I made 7 out of 10 shots), this manga, to me, is just a work I’ve casually read.
If I really had to say, another manga from the same period, Soccer Boy, is the masterpiece that could better ignite my youthful passion (though for many people it’s probably quite obscure).
In my mind, soccer is the king among ball sports, and the queen is tennis. But since I never had much occasion to formally play soccer as a child, even my favorite ball sport could only be transformed into my favorite sport to watch.
Tennis, on the other hand, after I came into contact with it during my student days, was simply astonishingly fun — I was almost obsessed with it for quite a while, carrying a tennis ball around to play with. Even at high noon in summer vacation, after summer classes ended, I could carry my gear alone to the court and practice against the wall, and I could even think up ways to vary all kinds of fancy training techniques.
Although I didn’t join any club because I hated participating in them (where seniors hit on junior girls), and never took part in any formal competition with the seniors, at least I could trade wins and losses back and forth with a player who was then ranked seventh in the college cup in the club — so I can at least say I have some foundation.
I remember that my biggest eighth-grade fantasy at the time was to take my racket and wander off to England, secretly entering the Wimbledon Open (you can register on-site).
For people who like British culture, I actually sincerely think that learning tennis well 🎾 can also become a traveler’s social tool.
In Mizuc’s own experience, there have already been many times while traveling in Anglophone countries when I had the chance to spar a few games of tennis with locals — through the sport of tennis, you can quickly close the distance between each other!
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