What you need to play tennis

Where

Well first of you need a court. These can be quite expensive to build so I just use my local court. I am sure if you do some research into where your nearest local tennis court is you can find loads. Most tennis courts are owned by a tennis club so you may have to pay membership. I pay £5 a year for a key to the tennis court which is very reasonable.

Equipment

Of course you need a tennis racket. Tennis rackets can be expensive and if you are a beginner I recommend a bog standard racket which you can probably buy for around about £20 - £30. This is relatively cheap compared to other tennis rackets which can reach the thick end of £100. I don’t advise beginners buying a racket over £100 as I believe it would be a waste of money. The racket that I use at the moment is the babolat aero prodrive cortex. This is a very good racket which I bought for £150. I would recommend this to experienced players who have a good standard of playing. I would also like to say that my racket suits baseliners who like to put a lot of topspin on the ball.

You also need some tennis balls. With tennis ball you basically get what you pay for. If you buy a pack of four tennis balls for £2 you can expect them to be bad. The makes that I would recommend are Slazenger, Wilson and Dunlop. I use these brands of tennis balls regularly and they have a good quality and good bounce. You can buy a pack of four for around about £8 - £12. I highly recommend ebay as you can find some really good bargains. I bought 100 tennis balls for £50 which is very cheap.

Tennis trainers

Some tennis clubs only allow you to wear tennis trainers on their court. I would recommend tennis trainers to those who play a lot of tennis because with ordinary trainers they wear away easily due to toe drag when playing tennis. New tennis trainers have protection to stop this wearing away from happening.  But if you’re a beginner I wouldn’t recommend buying them as they are quite expensive for another pair of shoes and it doesn’t seem worth it for you if you’re only playing occasionally. Tennis trainers normally cost between £35 and £80.

Tennis t-shirts and shorts aren’t a must but I would only recommend to people who play a lot.

Serving

There are many different stages to get your serve perfect.

There is the

-          Service stance

-          The toss

-          The swing

-          Knee bend

-          Trophy position

-          The leg drive

-          Swing and the follow through

You can find links to videos that specify each stage

Service stance

The first step of the tennis serve is the stance. The stance is how you position your body at the beginning of your service motion. The stance is important because it allows your body to move correctly during the course of your service motion.

The toss

The second step of the tennis serve is the toss. The toss is arguably the most important part of the serve. You need to be able to put the tennis ball in a specific location above you head every single time you serve. In other words, you need a consistent toss to be an effective server.How you hold the tennis ball, when and how you release the tennis ball, and what to do with your tossing arm after you've tossed the ball.

The swing

The third step of the tennis serve is the backswing or swing. The backswing is how you take the racket back during your service preparation. You're backswing needs to position your arm and the tennis racket in a way that allows you to swing forward correctly later in your service motion. The relationship between your arm and the tennis racket that allows you to do that is called the "L" position.

Knee bend

The fourth step of the tennis serve is the knee bend. Your weight transfer and knee bend will help you "get your legs" into your serve later in the motion. The weight transfer (rocking from the front foot to the back foot to forward into the tennis court) will also help you time your serve and develop some rhythm. The key to this particular part of the service preparation is to have your weight equally distributed on the balls of each foot by the time you reach maximum knee bend.

Trophy position

The fifth step of the tennis serve is the trophy pose. The trophy pose is the completion of your service preparation. From this position, you are ready to swing forward and hit the tennis ball. Getting to the correct trophy pose requires that you complete the toss, backswing, and knee bend at the same time. Also, you want to time your preparation so that you are hitting the trophy pose at the same instant the toss (the tennis ball) reaches its highest point.

Leg Drive

 It's the "other" part of the racket drop.. The key to this step is that you want to be fully pushed off your legs  (both legs should be straight) at the same instant the tennis racket is pointed straight down behind your back. Every single good server gets to this body position, as we demonstrate in the video. It's a critical element of an effective serve.

Swing and the follow through

From the racket drop, swing up "on edge" at the tennis ball. It should look like you are, initially, trying to frame the ball with the side of your tennis racket. Just before contact, you will pronate with your forearm and wrist.  Also, in the racket drop your body is sideways to the net, but as you swing up at the tennis ball you will rotate so that, at contact, you are more or less facing the net.

From contact, continue to pronate and point the tennis racket down at the court. From here, bring the tennis racket around to the other side of your body. Also, you need to land so that all of the weight is on your front foot and you have your back foot kicked up. From this position, bring the tennis racket around to the other side of your body in a smooth and relaxed motion. This is the completion of your service motion.

Links

-          Service stance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=460AXj7qSAQ&feature=channel

-          The toss

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhqDwrbeSU0&feature=related

-          The swing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF6N44CBG8U&feature=related

-          Knee bend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdaMb96OhNA&feature=channel

-          Trophy position

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-0rCKLFaG4&feature=channel

-          The leg drive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjowDdidasU&feature=channel

-          Swing and the follow through                              
       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OFxUSOYVuc&feature=channel                            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBjeAmaEkRE&feature=channel

Tennis racket grip and spins

Tennis racket grip

This is a really important aspect of how you play tennis and the way you hit a tennis ball.

There is a video at the bottom of this page which explains to you how to grip. I found this video really helpful with everything and helped me improve my tennis skills.

The way you grip a tennis racket determines how you swing through the ball whether you put lots of topspin or hit it really flat.

Grips help to determine what player you’re going to be either  a aggressive player or conservative player hitting with lots of topspin to make the shots more consistent.

Grips are EXTREMELY important.

 They are the foundation for every single shot you hit in tennis.

 For each particular shot there is a range of grips you can use.

 Choosing a grip should not be taken lightly because how you hold the racket affects how you swing up to the tennis ball. This, in turn, affects the type of ball you hit and, consequently, it can influence your style of play.

For example, Roger Federer has a conservative grip because he is an attacking player and that grip lets him swing through the ball more easily (than an extreme grip).

On the other hand, Rafael Nadal plays with a very extreme grip because that makes it easier for him to swing up on the ball and hit with heavy topspin. So make sure you spend some time thinking about your grip and how it fits into the larger framework of your style of play

There are 2 main different types of spin

-       

             Topspin

-          Backspin

You can learn how to do these spins in the links below.

Grips - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr2f8dmiwpU

Topspin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDJTxYFbfsI

Backspin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMCzECUjfLU

Scoring

Well first of all you need to know the basics so here we go.    

Scoring Ok where do I start???

The score system comes from medieval France where they used the clock to score. So one point would be 15 then the second point 30 then 45 and 60 would be a game. The modern day game has changed it slightly so that you have to win by 2 points.

In the modern game the point system is 15, 30, 40, deuce, advantage then game. In one set there are 6 games and in a match there is either the best of 5 sets or the best of 3 sets.  You have to win a set by 2 games but if the 2 players are drawing 6 all then they play a tie break which is the best  out of 7 and again you have to win by 2 points. In the final set you don’t play a tie break you keep going until one play wins by 2 games.

Ok I will now try and explain the scoring in a game situation.

I will use 2 players player A and player B

 Let's say A wins the first point. At the start of the next point, he must announce the score, his point total first: 

"15 - love." (Love = 0.)

B wins the next point: "15 all."

B wins the next point: "15 - 30."

A wins the next point: "30 all."

A wins the next point: "40 - 30."

If A wins the next point, she wins the game.

If B wins the next point, the score is "40 all," which is called "deuce." At deuce, one player must win the next two points to win the game. If, at deuce, A wins the next point, he has the advantage, and the score is called "ad in," which means server's advantage. If B had won that point, the score would have been "ad out." If the player having the advantage wins the following point, he or she wins that game. If the player with the advantage loses the point, the score returns to deuce.

 Hopefully this should be all you need to know about scoring