Who am I?
My name is Floor van Oosten, I’m 20 years old and I’m studying Occupational Therapy at HVA.
I live with my parents in Koog aan de Zaan, a place in North-Holland. I live 5 minutes walking from the train station and 10 minutes cycling from the Zaanse Schans.
14 years ago I started tennis and it’s still my hobby. I’m not going to lie, sometimes I did stop for a while because I have a knee injury and I’ve had multiple knee surgeries. Which is why I needed to take a break sometimes, but every time that I recovered I started playing tennis again.
When I was a child, my father and grandfather used to play tennis and I used to watch them play every once in a while. This is how my passion for tennis started and why I became member of a tennis club. My father and grandfather are very good at it, and I wanted to be as good as they were because they were (and still are) my role models.
Where am I?
I play tennis every Monday evening at 9 PM at the tennis club from Jeroen Hoevenberg. This tennis club only has fields outside, that’s why we train outside every season.
Activity
Right now it becomes dark outside very early in the day, this is the reason why I go to the tennis club by car. I play with my teammates at 9 PM. We usually play a match. After the short match that we play we’re getting training from our trainer. What he’ll teach us is different every week, it depends on what our trainer thinks we need at that moment. But usually it’s running after the ball and trying to hit it the right way. This could be the Forehand or the Backhand for example.
My barriers when playing tennis could be:
• Bad weather forecasts: when my trainer sees that the weather forecast for that evening is bad, he usually cancels the training.
• A barrier for myself is my knee injury and that I always have to wear a brace during my training. Sometimes I have more pain from my knee injury than other times.
Playing tennis for me is my outlet. When I had a hard or stressful day (at school) I always play tennis to clear my mind or when I have to much energy.
Meaningful
Playing tennis is important for me for my social contacts and to relax. My grandfather used to play tennis at the same club but he passed away. I like tennis because I see my progress and it makes me feel relaxed and calm after.
