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Mar 29

A Wall. A Ball. Thats All: Your New Social-Distancing Workout – The New York Times

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In a park along the Hudson River in Manhattans Battery Park City, New Yorkers are queuing up six feet apart, of course for their turn to play with a wall.

Its a gray slab surrounded by a chained fence that looks like it might have once been part of a racquetball court. A month ago, the drab-looking wall would have been easily overshadowed by the sleek Equinox or Asphalt Green gyms close by.

But now, its become the belle of the ball. Locals are lining up to have their turn with it.

Christian Jorg, 56, who runs two start-up accelerators, gets there at 7 a.m. There is no system really, he said. Its first come first served.

An avid tennis player, in normal times he would be playing at a tennis club in Westchester. But now that its closed and hes isolating, which means no tennis partners, hes playing against the wall.

I dont have any other choice, he said. But its actually fun. The ball comes back to me quickly, so I can do volleys and backhands. Its also good for concentration. Its such good exercise, he said, that he only needs to use it for about 20 minutes.

Do I prefer playing with a partner? Probably, said Mr. Jorg, who grew up hitting tennis balls against walls in Munich, Germany. But you have to make do for now.

Zara Chadowitz, 35, a senior program manager at Amazon who lives in the West Village, refuses to disclose the location of her wall.

She discovered it last week on a grocery run when she saw people playing racquetball against it. She returned a few days later with her tennis racket and a few balls.

I felt like it was the first day I was sort of winning Corona, she said. I hadnt played tennis in so long. I got the exercise, the endorphins. There was a meditative aspect to it.

She now feels as if shes part of a secret community. There was a cute old guy who was throwing a ball against a wall in his surgical gloves, and a basketball guy playing alone in a surgical mask, she said. It looks like people are using the wall for whatever they want.

For Ms. Chadowitz, hitting balls against the wall is a nostalgic and comforting experience, as she grew up playing tennis this way in Manchester, England. My dad built a wall in the garden, and he painted a line across it where the line would be, she said. I would make up imaginary games in my head, pretending I was playing friends or my brother.

Lauren Wire, 31, a publicist who lives on Manhattans Upper East Side, has never given much thought to the brick walls that line her buildings courtyard. Ive definitely never touched these walls before, she said.

Now theyre part of her daily routine.

Everyday she sets up her yoga mat against one to do exercises she would normally do at CrossFit. Sometimes she does wall-sits and headstands. Other times she focuses on stretching. She even ordered a weighted ball so can squat, throw it against the wall, catch it, and return to a squat.

Before Coronavirus I would have felt awkward doing this in public, she said. Now I am putting music on with my sports bra and crushing it.

Some neighbors even cheer her on when they see her.

Shelly Eichas, 33, a personal trainer and registered dietitian who also lives on the Upper East Side, said shes been amazed at how New Yorkers have incorporated various city objects into their workouts.

Ive seen people using statues, stairs, benches, she said. I saw somebody the other day in the park using a tree. He was just scaling the tree up and down, up and down. I was pretty impressed.

She also understands the draw to the wall and is encouraging her clients to find one to use for resistance in doing burpees or push-ups. I could go on forever about what you can do on a wall, she said.

Walls are also doing their part to help parents entertain their children, too. Noah Coslov, 38, a freelance sportscaster, introduced one as a new playmate to his five year-old daughter, Eden. Two weeks ago they went to an empty basketball court in Midtown East with tennis balls. There they found a wall, not in use. So they summoned their imaginations.

We probably made up eight different games, throwing the ball against the wall at targets and passing it to one another, he said. I certainly wont forget the memory, and I hope she wont either.

He didnt consider possible infection at the time, he said. I didnt even think through the tennis ball touching the wall, and then us touching it.

But he did come to worry about other people. He said that he and his daughter left the basketball court once another person arrived who wanted her time with the wall.

Some New Yorkers are hooked, they said, and intend to keep playing with their favorite walls, even when the city becomes fully operational.

I am going to keep doing this, Ms. Chadowitz said. In New York, its hard to get a tennis court, and its hard to find someone to play with who is the right level not too good and not too bad, she explained.

With the wall you can go anytime you want, you dont have to book or rely on anyone else, she said. I think this is going to be my weekly ritual.

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A Wall. A Ball. Thats All: Your New Social-Distancing Workout - The New York Times

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