{throwing a tennis ball 101}

As many of you know...I am in school to become a Physical Education teacher. Last semester I had to pass off all the basic skills. You know: throwing, catching, jump rope, hoola hoop, frisbee, tinikling (some sort of foreign weird dance), lummi sticks (banging sticks to rhythm), speed minton, basic basketball, basic volleyball, hitting, striking with racquets...the list goes on and on.
The semester goes by and I pass everything in flying colors...naturally.
SIDE NOTE:
Meet Emily. Emily is from South Carolina and has the cutest southern drawl and of course, is BLONDE. A true steriotypical blonde. Me and one of my fellow classmates always say that if we could bottle her phrases up and then replay them randomly throughout the day, we would. She's on her own little spaceship and soars around and then sometimes will come back down to earth (the classroom) and give us her opinion or input...which usually has us all laughing. Then when we play games she skips around like a little kid. I love her.
Ok, so the last day of class rolls around and I am checking with the teacher to make sure that I have everything passed off. I look down the list:
Jump rope: check
Hitting: check
Juggling: check
Dancing: double check...
you get the idea. Anyway, I get down to "throwing a ball 100 feet" and there is nothing. Blank. Zero. Nada.
Hmmmm...how is it that I passed off EVERYTHING else but somehow missed something as simple as throwing? Not saying that I have a pretty good arm, but I did play a little softball here and there back in the day. (I personally just think the Doc forgot to record my score.)
Emily also did not get it passed off.
We were in the gym because of the cold freezing cold tundra weather of Utah. I grab a tennis ball and do a couple warm up throws with Emily. Then the Doc says, "Alright to pass it off you need to stand at one end of the gym and hit other end high on the wall."
I'm thinking multiple thoughts:
1. I can't believe I have to do this AGAIN.
2. This is cake.
3. I played center field.
4. I can't believe she is making me do this again...and I have to stay late.
SO- I grab the tennis ball. Do a wind-up, a powerful crow hop, and release. Picture perfect...well EXCEPT for the fact that I released WAY to late...which caused the ball to decrease in altitude at an extremely rapid pace.
At this time Emily decides to take a stroll across the court....probably skipping...not realizing that I had just thrown a bullet line drive right at her face.
Point 2 seconds later...WHAM!!! Right square on her glasses which caused the glass lense to pop out and go flying across the gym. She hit the floor like a war vet....moaning.
OH CRAP...what did I just do??? I just knocked Emily out. Me and everyone else that was in class ran over there and she is just laying there, holding her eye, saying OW. I felt like crap....but in my sick humor...once I realized she was OK and not gushing blood everywhere...I started laughing. Luckily she is a REALLY good sport and she laughed it off too.
So now when ever I pick up a tennis ball or talk about throwing or anything remotely close to it...everyone ducks and flinches.
Moral of the story: Stand back when I'm throwing or you could get knocked out. (ha ha...just kidding.)