Rip your face

I was walking past the tennis courts on campus today and seeing some people play made me a little nostalgic for a game I used to play when I took lessons.

The game was called "Rip your face (off)" or affectionately "RIP." It's a team game, so you need probably at least 6 people, but the more the better. There are two teams and they stand on opposite sides of the court in a line. One player from one team starts by hitting it over the net and then goes to the back of his/her line so that when the other team returns it, the next person in line hits the ball. It goes on like this until someone loses the point. Whoever was up for the team that lost the point, whether he/she made an error or got a winner hit on them, has to go sit on the service line. They can sit wherever they want but they can't move after they sit down.

This continues on so usually you'll get a couple people sitting down on each side in a short time. Here's the interesting part. There are two ways to win. The first is to get everyone on the other team out. The second, and much more fun, way is to hit one of the players sitting on the opposite service line. It doesn't matter if you graze their foot with a slice backhand or rocket a forehead off their dome (which I have done), a hit is a win.

Of course, leaving them defenseless does seem a bit sadistic, so sometimes we play with the rule that the players sitting down get to keep their rackets with them. If they return the ball successfully, they get to come back in, but if they make an error, then the person who was up is out and probably won't be too happy with them.

Anyway, it was just fun to reminisce and maybe someone out there will read this post and be inspired to play this game and spread the joy.