I wrote about receiving a copy of the tennis instructional classic “Watch the Ball, Bend your knees, That’ll be $20 please!” as a birthday gift (sort of) from the Trophy Husband in 2020. I now have a second copy in my possession courtesy of a recent fruitless search for a golf ball in my baby brother’s bedroom at our childhood home.
In the original post, I observed that the evolutionary cost of a tennis lesson in the book’s title had evolved throughout the years. More evidence of inflation is provided in this latest find. Despite the fact that the two copies in my possession have identical titles, the books are not exactly the same. For one thing, the illustrations on the cover are different. Additionally, the copy from my childhood home was priced at $5.95 while the one that I received in 2020 cost $6.95. Frustratingly, neither book discloses the actual date of reprint.
In celebration of this recent find, and due to the fact that I was unable to complete the book I originally planned to write about this week, I am re-running a slightly updated version of my original essay. Enjoy!
The Trophy Husband gave me a very thoughtful birthday gift this year. Per the usual, I asked him if he wanted to know what he was getting me in advance of the date or if he preferred to be surprised this year. It is a very workable solution for the apparent fact that I am hard to shop for.
In “Tennis Literary Time Machine,” I wrote about a list of tennis books that were available for purchase from the USTA in 1980. I waxed nostalgic over Watch the ball, Bend your knees, That’ll be $20 please! by Ed Collins. That essay sparked a quest to find a copy of that book. Thus it became a very thoughtful birthday gift.
Usually, when I write about a book each Thursday, I include a link to amazon where it can be purchased. This post is absent that information. The simple fact of the matter is that Watch the ball, Bend your knees, That’ll be $20 please! has been out of print for a long time. Additionally, used copies are somewhat hard to find in the secondary market. There isn’t a stable amazon link to provide.
My long and protracted quest for the book sparked a realization that there have been multiple revisions of this title. This was reflected in a change associated with each update that traces the evolutionary history of the price of a tennis lesson. For example, the price reflected on the cover of the book originally was $5. If this book was to be revised for the current era — and I wholeheartedly endorse the idea that it should — the last part of the title would be at least “$80 please.”
Ed Collins was a noted tennis teacher and author. He wrote a nationally syndicated tennis column, First One In, back in the seventies. It is astonishing in the current era to recall that in recent history there were newspaper columns on tennis. While printed newspapers are clearly going by the wayside, we need to bring the equivalent content back on digital platforms.
Watch the ball, Bend your knees, That’ll be $20 please! is organized as a series of tennis lessons. Each one of those is succinctly and conveniently presented on facing pages. There are 100 total lessons in the book. I actually counted them out before flipping back over to the cover to remember that the number is directly printed there. I am like that sometimes.
In my initial scan of the lessons, I believe that most of the content is still relevant and applicable in the current era. More critically, the humor and entertainment value of the book still works in the modern context. I am delighted to have a copy in my hands again.
Even though I now have my own copy safely secured in my possession, I have a heightened awareness of the scarcity of this title. I continue to be on the lookout for copies at second-hand bookstores. I suggest that every serious student of the game or tennis memorabilia collector should do the same.
