Recently I spent a ridiculous amount of money on a new pair of good tennis shoes.  They are high-tech with gel insoles and are a nifty- grape color.  However, they are not nearly as good as the plain-jane all-white pair I had when I first started playing regularly some 13 years ago.

When I first started playing I didn’t realize that good shoes are essential.  After a couple of truly disgusting toenail related injuries, I invested in a good (expensive) pair of shoes.  I wore my new shoes while I took many drills and lessons with my new tennis friends.  I wore them to a tennis camp.  I did not wear them during my frequent off-court workouts.   I wore those shoes as I won enough matches to rise several USTA levels (for club players): chasing down every ball and winning singles matches against much younger players.  Those shoes were great!!!  

I would buy a new pair every year or two, and started noticing that the quality of the shoes was declining about the same time I started playing in senior leagues.  That also happened to be about the time I quit doing off-court workouts regularly and quit taking lessons.  Somehow the traction on the shoes wasn’t quite as good and the shoes became heavier: and I found it harder to chase down the balls.

I have tried a few different brands of shoes, but simply haven’t been able to recreate the magic of that first good pair of shoes!  I had a particularly bad pair of shoes the year I injured my knee– those suckers couldn’t run worth a damn.

They just don’t make shoes like they used to.