You didn't ask me how tennis went yesterday!

It's October 2003, and I'm driving six-year-old Ethan to school and he says, apropros of nothing: "You didn't ask how tennis went yesterday." 

I laugh. He's dead serious. So I ask him: "How did tennis go yesterday?" 

He starts telling me, a little incoherant. I'm driving. He says something about doing "flip-flops." I gather he means bouncing the ball on the racket and flipping the racket. 

"It's hard," he says. He asks if I know what "edgies" are.

"Hitting the ball with the edge of the paddle?" I ask, slipping into ping pong terminology.  I repeat and correct, since he doesn't seem to have understood: "Hitting with the edge of the racket?"

He agrees. I can't somehow imagine that is teacher is asking them to bounce the ball on the rim of the racket, so I ask him again, but that's what he maintains. 

So I check this with the wife later. She confirms: yes, indeed, Ethan does 'edgies'. He has to bounce the ball on the edge, on one surface, then on two...flipping the racket...coordination stuff. They are supposed to count their hits while the teacher times them. For a six-year-old, it sounds brutal. No wonder he wanted to be asked about it.