This past week I was a guest at the Beverly Hills Country Club. It just so happened that the temperature in Los Angeles was 110 Degrees. The person who invited me was 15 years my junior and she was the fastest girl I’ve ever played. I really think had she started younger she could be on the women’s tour.

The Beverly Hills Country Club is still gorgeous even at 110 Degrees

She was questioning my sanity for wanting to play, but since I was traveling it was the only time I had, so I didn’t hesitate a bit. (I did look around for some indoor courts, but apparently they don’t exist in Los Angeles. If anyone knows of any, please let me know.)

I’m a voracious water drinker so just like every day, the day before I was pumping in water and I actually drank more than usual knowing it was going to be very hot the next day. You see you can’t really hydrate the day you play. You are actually maintaining hydration.

That morning I pumped in water. When I got to the court it was scorching hot. Maybe 120 on the court. There was one little sliver of shade on one side of the court so, being the gentleman that I am I gave that side to her.

We started rallying and I saw how lighting fast she was and she had told me she liked to run. So being the gentleman that I am I obliged her. I’d hit short to bring her into the net, then either pass her or lob her. On the base line I’d run her back and forth.

It wasn’t ten minutes before I could see she was having extreme trouble with the heat. Now this is a girl that probably weighed dripping wet all of 115 pounds and didn’t have an ounce of fat on her.  She had told me beforehand that she could play for hours, but that the heat really got to her. She was asking for breaks for water and basically falling apart before my very eyes.

I went to half speed so we could stay out longer, but I could see if I didn’t stop this, she was about to faint which she later admitted that she was going to faint if we didn’t stop.

She told me afterward that she went home. Was exhausted for the next two days and drank so much water she felt she would float away.

Ahhhhh. There’s the ticket. When I told her how much I had hydrated she said she hadn’t had anything to drink all day until the first break. She hadn’t had much water the day before either.

So let’s look at this. I weighed about 310 pounds the day we played. She was nearly 200 pounds less than me with no fat on her and she fell apart within minutes.

What’s the lesson? When I tell you to hydrate…..HYDRATE!