Hello Duke Tennis Fans!
Day 2 in Hawaii started off with an early wake up call,
courtesy of the band playing on the street outside of our hotel. That was
followed by breakfast, where we dug into the scrumptious pineapple that Hawaii
is famous for. After breakfast, we headed to the courts at the University of
Hawaii and had our first day of practice. It was our first time playing
outdoors since November, which made practice a little trickier than we
anticipated. The wind really picked up when we started practicing, and we found
ourselves awkwardly chasing after balls that were being blown away in every
direction. Nonetheless, we got through our practice without getting too
frustrated or breaking any rackets.
After lunch, we headed to Diamond Head State Monument to
hike up to the summit of Le’ahi, which is the Hawaiian name for the Diamond
Head Crater. For the majority of the hike, we remained in front of the coaches
and ended up beating them to the summit (without breaking much of a sweat). The
hike wasn’t so steep as it was rocky and uneven, making it challenging for us
to keep ourselves from spraining our ankles. Thankfully, however, we managed to
each get out in one piece without any injuries (I’m sure that our coaches are
relieved). The view from the summit was breathtaking: clear, blue water and the
city of Honolulu greeted us when we arrived at the peak and of course, we took
many pictures to document the beautiful scenery.
When everybody had hiked back down, we had a great meeting
with our sports psychologist, Greg Dale. The first three topics consisted of
sharing our proudest moment, most embarrassing moment, and the one person who
has impacted our lives the most. The fourth topic was the most emotional for
all of us, because we had to list reasons why we trust each of our teammates
and coaches. I feel as though this exercise really made us realize how close we
are not just to each other, but to our coaches as well.
Tune in tomorrow to hear about the adventures for our third
day in Hawaii!
- Ester and all of DWT
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