One of my tennis partners blew up at a coach from the court next to ours. I had arrived early — along with the coach who would be teaching on the adjoining court. The coach asked me (since I got there first) if he could put some of his gear on half of our bench since he would be moving to our court when we were done, more than an hour and a half later.
That was fine by me. But when my partner arrived a few minutes later he demanded that the coach move his gear even though I had said it was Ok. Eventually, things calmed down and we finished hitting, mostly in silence. As I walked off court I handed the coach my business card and asked him to text me when he had a minute. I wanted to apologize for my partner again. As we approached our cars my partner demanded to know why I gave the coach my card. I told him he failed to show respect to me — since I had granted the coach permission and failed to show respect for the coach — who was trying to earn his living and to the student who was actually paying for her coach’s time. My partner got in his car and drove off. Fin.
Local hitting partners have been hard to come by. Tomorrow I’m going to post a Looking for Hitting Partner sign at my nearby park. I’m not likely to find anyone worse. My departed partner’s behavior had worsened over time. He always trended toward the irascible but I was usually able to beat him back into line with a little chiding humor.
The penultimate time we hit my partner uttered a racial slur loudly enough to make me cringe. That was unsettling enough but yesterday was more worrying since his anger was directed at the unfortunate coach. And, I did expect, or at least hope my partner could have admitted — for his own sake — that he had been out of line.
It’s a bummer when someone brings their bad day onto the court — the exact place and time I look to make a good day even better.
Tennis thing 
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