7 STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE YOUR TENNIS GAME QUICKLYRACHAEL HESLING

7 STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE YOUR TENNIS GAME QUICKLY

If you’re just starting to learn tennis, you might feel a bit overwhelmed. The sport demands a great deal of technical knowledge and physical fitness that can discourage amateurs from becoming truly invested in the game. However, tennis can also prove extraordinarily rewarding when all those long hours of hard work finally pay off and you’re able to play intuitively, from instinct. To get over that initial learning curve, here are a few helpful strategies that might work for you.

1. TAKE EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO PRACTICE.

It’s just like anything else you’ve ever learned: you’ll only improve if you practice. Especially in the beginning, it can become easy to stop practicing because you lack an opponent who can play at your level. In truth, however, you need nothing more than a wall for some great tennis practice. A wall will reliably return every hit to give you plenty of practice mastering different swings and maneuvering around the court. With regular practice, you’ll begin to see daily improvement, and these little achievements offer the motivation necessary to keep going.

2. INVEST IN AT LEAST A FEW PRIVATE LESSONS.

Even experienced players will book one-on-one lessons with professional players and instructors to refine their skills. For a beginner, a couple of sessions with a pro is absolutely necessary for getting a better sense of the basic techniques for success, from how to hold the racquet to how to think about footwork. Developing good habits from the very beginning can remove many of the barriers that more experienced players face as they try to get better down the line. Watching online videos can help, but nothing is better than an in-person lesson.

3. TAKE TIME OUT TO WATCH THE PROS PLAY.

While it may seem like a rather passive way of improving your tennis game, watching professional matches is important. However, try to think of matches as more than just entertainment and instead focus on their instructional value. If you pay attention to the types of swings used and when, you can develop your own court instinct. To get the most out of the experience, you may want to choose a single thing to focus on for each game, whether it’s shot preparation, footwork technique, or larger game strategy. Paying attention to these factors will help you incorporate lessons into your own game.

4. START WITH FOREHAND SHOTS AND GRADUALLY MOVE TO BACKHAND.

Before you try advanced techniques, you need to lay a solid foundation in the basics. The forehand is the easiest stroke and beginners can typically master the basics of it rather quickly, since it’s directed by the dominant hand. With the forehand, it’s important to ensure that the racquet makes contact with the ball when it’s perpendicular to the floor, in order to send the ball flying in a relatively straight line.  

The backhand requires two hands on the racquet and can be harder to control. With this swing, you need to pay attention to the top hand to ensure that it doesn’t become the leading hand and cause the racquet to turn inward. Throughout the swing, your wrists should stay as straight as possible.

5. PLAY PEOPLE WHO ARE SLIGHTLY MORE ADVANCED THAN YOU.

When you only play opponents who are your same skill level, you probably won’t feel challenged or inspired to get better. Similarly, playing against someone much better than you can feel deflating. The trick is to find someone slightly better who can keep you on your feet. Most players are typically more than happy to share pointers and give brief lessons, so this strategy can really accelerate your learning.

6. KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE BALL THROUGHOUT THE GAME.

The whole point of tennis is to make contact with the ball, which is impossible if you do not train yourself to track it constantly. Some pros even recommend that, in the first few months of learning the game, amateurs should keep their eyes focused so much on the ball that they can actually see the seams on it. While it’s critical not to get lost in the details, this little trick trains the body to keep track of the ball almost as a sixth sense. With this tracking down, you’ll have a much better chance of consistently making contact with the ball in the center of the racquet.

7. LEARN THE LINGO.

Nothing says “amateur” more than not knowing a sport’s lingo, and tennis is full of complicated jargon. For example, scorekeeping can be especially confusing. The term “love” refers to a score of zero, and the word “all” is appended to a score to indicate that it’s currently a tie. When both players tie at 40 points, this situation is called a deuce. To win after a tie at deuce, a player needs to make two scores in a row. The scoring system itself goes from love to 15, then to 30, and finally to 40. Many people play games in sets. To win a set, players must win at least six games and at least two more than the opponent. The term “match” refers to games played in one session and is typically best of three or five games.