Around the age of 6, I was encouraged by my parents to take up my first sport: swimming. The incentive was primarily so that I could learn to swim and save myself in any aquatic situation. This is the first sport I remember playing. The next memories are of discouraged attempts to fit into some sport at school: volleyball, basketball, physical education, ballet, jazz, tennis, badminton... I didn't engage in anything. Everything seemed very boring to me! I did it just to do it. When I was 14, I managed to convince my parents to take up judo, which in the sexist culture in which I was inserted, seemed like a “men's sport”. But, I did it and I really enjoyed it! I finally found a sport there that I identified with! It was individual, had a lot of technique and left me almost in a meditative state of seriousness to think about the next strategies. However, the joy didn't last long and at the age of 15 I was seriously injured in a championship, to the point of having to have surgery on my collarbone which cost me 6 platinum pins, removed 3 years later. At that point, my heart was torn apart. Wow! Just when I had fallen in love with some physical activity, this happened to me. There I stopped, and I remained in a, not at all excited, discouraged bodybuilding practice until I was 18 years old.
I was always a child and teenager who fought a lot with the scales. Throughout this entire phase I suffered from the accordion effect, which naturally required a lot of physical activity to, perhaps, stabilize my weight. When I turned 18, I started serious bodybuilding, with the help of a Personal Trainer. Since then, I have never stopped practicing the sport. Truly, the practice helped me a lot to stabilize my weight and, mainly: it helped me to strengthen my muscles to the point that until then, I never had any physical injuries.
But something was missing in me: practicing a sport that challenged me, made me socialize, had fun, relaxed me and, on top of that, helped my health even more! It was when, at a gym where I already trained, they offered beach tennis classes, and even though I was scared, I challenged myself. The practice was super popular in my city, post-pandemic, and of course I was curious to know why people liked it so much and dedicated so many hours to the practice. I started classes, still shy and with the belief that I wasn't suitable for team sports, I decided that I needed to open myself up to new things and that even though I made a lot of mistakes at the beginning, at some point I could become better. Very bold, after 2 months of classes, I signed up for a championship, right there in my gym, and came in last place. It was a fiasco! Haha There I had two options: stop and give up or persist with even more enthusiasm.
Since November 2022, then, I have been even happier playing beach tennis. I've evolved a lot, I've made a lot of fun friendships in the sport, I've burned countless calories and nowadays I'm one of those players who parades through airports, when I travel anywhere, with my racket bag on display, so everyone knows that there lives a proud athlete. ! It's worth mentioning that I'm one of those very vain athletes: I love being well dressed for training and playing with friends, always using sunscreen, lip balm and well-combed hair and eyebrows, because after all, beauty and protection count a lot in life. athlete's self-esteem here! Haha
I still don't know if I will challenge myself again for a championship, but my greatest joy was breaking the fear that I would never be able to do a team sport and even less, able to learn a racket sport as quickly as I did. Beach tennis is very democratic and invites anyone who is curious to have moments of leisure and, at the same time, active meditation, as we must always be aware of that little ball that goes back and forth at different heights and speeds, which requires a lot of reflex and intuition. of each player.
I only have one thing to say: living is too good. And living with the healthy possibility of practicing sports is even more delicious! Allow yourself! Living is now! And may the most diverse new challenges in life come, because I feel ready!
