A Beginner's Guide to
Learning to Play Tennis

You have arrived to this page because you want to learn how to play tennis. Many individuals have started right from where you are right now.

You don't know much about the game but, you have seen others play and maybe they have even become successful at it. You thought, why not me?

 
The first thing that you need to assess is your commitment to learning something new. I'm not referring to your intentions as much as your time limitations that you have to invest into the game.

Tennis in many ways is all about time and/or timing. Time because of the available time that you have to put into it and the right timing as to the timing in your life to devote that time to learn.

I believe that you first have to think of learning to play tennis as a long journey. You may say, "why can't I just go out and purchase or borrow a racquet and start learning or teaching myself how to play?"

The answer to that is, you can; and most people do go that route and some have even succeeded and stuck with the game.

The truth of it is though that most, about eighty percent of all beginners who begin playing, fail or give up and quit within the first year while learning to play.

Now don't misunderstand, there will be numerous hours of time spent alone learning to play tennis and I believe that if you ask most players who have been playing for a while, they will tell you that it does require time and effort learning while being alone.

Either by taking lessons, hitting on a backboard or wall or by using a ball machine.

It is a Journey
Most people if you ask them about taking a journey they wouldn't know what you are talking about. Well, if you are able to read this you have already been on a journey. It stated from the first day that you went to school to where you are right now.

Teaching Young Children How to Play Tennis
I often get parents that come to me and ask me to teach their children when they are 2-1/2 to three years old.

I do not discourage them, instead I encourage them to begin the process at home by giving the toddler a ball and trying to teach them to catch by first rolling the ball to them.

This begins what I believe is the most difficult part for a child and that is the hand-eye coordination.

I can honestly say that this is the most difficult thing for me to teach as an instructor. However, if this is not started early, it will have to be done by the professional tennis teacher.

Proper Stance
Let's begin with the proper stance when on the court. Yes there is a proper stance and it is what is commonly referred to as an "athletic stance". This is where you are standing with your feet about shoulder width apart and your knees slightly bent.

The Grip
The next aspect that we will focus on is the grip or the way that you hold the racquet. This is undoubtedly one the most important steps when first starting.

I like to teach beginners the "shake hands" grip, because it is easier for them to understand the concept of holding the racquet. To get a better understanding of this you may go here.

Mini-Tennis
If you come and take a lesson with me, or many of the professional instructors, you can expect to start off playing mini-tennis or as some people call it short court.

The main objective in mini-tennis is for both you the player and myself to keep the balls in the service boxes.

What this tells me is whether or not you have good control of your strokes or whether you are just hitting the ball without knowing where it is going.

This is important because the court is of a limited size and if you the player cannot keep the balls within the boundaries of the court, you will struggle when playing against an opponent.

So, don't be discouraged if when taking a lesson that your instructor asks you to play mini-tennis, just understand that he has a purpose in mind.

That purpose is to accelerate your goal as you are learning to play tennis in a way that teaches control first and power later.

The Tennis Triangle
In order to achieve consistency in playing tennis, you are going to need three things, Power, Spin and Control.

Power                                  Control Spin

Many players start with power, especially after watching the professionals play. They simply do not understand the time, energy and technique that those individuals have put in in order to get to where they are.

Still others, begin with trying to control the ball by pushing it over the net to where they want it to go.

What we need to understand is that in a perfect world, you want to have all three of these components in order to hit the ball well and ultimately become consistent.

Thus, achieving the final goal, to win!

With that being said, let's take a look at the tennis triangle more in depth.

Let's start at the bottom of the triangle with the foundation, which is spin. The spin that is most commonly used is called "top spin".

Top Spin
What is topspin and what makes it the spin of choice?

Topspin is used to get the ball over the net and because of the spin, it pulls it down into the court.

That is not all however.

When topspin is used is actually causes the ball to accelerate after it bounces on the surface of the court.

Less common spin is called "back spin" or slice and the third spin is achieved by hitting the ball "flat" or with virtually no spin at all.

Practice Partner
Ideally, if you have someone to practice with on a regular basis as you are learning to play tennis, you can both improve your strokes at the same time.

However, you need to be careful when only playing with one particular person as you improve.

Everyone no matter what the skill level has there own style and technique. So, don't be afraid to venture out and hit with other players. It is all just a part of learning to play tennis.

Even when you know that they are a level above or beneath you. There is always something that you can learn from hitting with someone different.

What I tell my students is to try and practice with someone who is better than you, at your level and even with players who you are better than.

This formula gives you the opportunity to explore what you've learned playing against the stronger player and perfect it against the other two weaker ones.

Now, this short overview on learning to play tennis is just a small sampling of my e-course. Get the complete Learning to play tennis online e-course by filling out the form below:

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Learning to play tennis
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