I won a pair of high-end tennis racquets. I’m a fan of the sport, but I don’t play. I can play squash and used to play competitive badminton (for those of you who have only batted the birdie back and forth on the beach, real badminton requires more athleticism than you realize.) Any tips on how I should go about starting out? My partner and I can’t take lessons because our schedules are already too full. There are some free courts just a block away.
So any online resources or tips for beginers would be great. Ditto any useful tips for stringing the racquets or getting a feel for the racquet’s sweet spot. I’m presently looking at the racquets going
Need for clarification: are the rackets already strung? If so, don’t worry about having them restrung particularly if you’re just starting out. If you need them strung, most sports stores or local clubs will do so. The suggested tension can be found somewhere on your racket’s frame; if not, whoever is stringing it should know.
A couple of basic points. Rule number one in tennis is to keep your eye on the ball. At all times. Never forget this. Watch the ball all the way as you make contact and you want to make contact with the sweet spot which is generally dead center.
I always tell beginners to think of your racket as an extension of your hand. Take some dry swings (as if trying to hit an imaginary tennis ball). Go with what feels natural. There isn’t one and only one way to hit any stroke and you can see plenty of variance when you watch the pros.
Start out with ‘short court’ particularly when warming up. So rather than starting out on the baseline go up toward the service lines and try to keep the ball between those lines –allowing the ball to bounce once- and seeing how many times you can hit the ball back and forth to your partner.
Lots more I can add but I’ll let others take a crack at it. Also if you can reconsider working with a pro, I would strongly suggest it. Now with what’s called cardio tennis, you can get a good work out and hone your game at the same time.
Badminton and squash aren’t really going to help you with tennis. Well, ok, I dunno about squash, but badminton is a very “wristy” game. Tennis is not. The strokes are very different. I think the best way to get used to a new racket is probably to take it somewhere there’s a wall you can use, and bang balls against the wall. That will also give you a chance to experiment with spins. Top spin is the first you should master, then move on to backspin and/or slices.
This statement doesn’t make sense to me. If you have time to hit a court together to play, you can take one of those free times to take a lesson, instead. There are tons and tons of coaches out there for private or group lessons, and I think you’ll have more fun with even a little bit of instruction. You don’t need to commit to a ton of lessons, or even a regular schedule of lessons.
That being said, some friends and I enjoyed swatting the ball around a bit before I started taking lessons. I did my best to watch the Tennis Channel to try to emulate the pros where I could. You can actually find some tips at their website here.
Having played all three (to a very amateur, but competent, level), I agree with most of this. Badminton strokes are made using a very flexible wrist, whereas with almost all tennis strokes you need to keep the wrist fairly stiff and swing from the shoulders. I find squash comes somewhere between the two in “wristiness”.
I would say that tennis is probably easier to master than either squash or badminton up to a fairly basic level, but once you get into it then professional coaching, even just an hour every so often, should really help improve your technique, and hence enjoyment.
I’ve moved this to The Game Room, where some more tennis players may see it and respond.
Don’t even trying stringing the racquet yourself. Go to a pro shop and have a professional do it. I don’t know if you string your own badminton racquets, but tennis racquets are strung to a much higher tension. I think it’s about twice as much tension as a badminton racquet - so even if you’re used to dealing with strings you may not have the equipment or experience you need. And a pro will know more about the right tension for the racquet you’ve won since he’s seen it before.
You ideally want to hit the ball in the middle of the racquet but with modern strings and carbon fiber frames and such, pretty much the whole center of the racquet is going to be the sweet spot. If you’re not hitting the ball with the frame of the racquet, you’re probably in the sweet spot.
I practiced by hitting balls against a wall when I was a kid but that’s not really the best comparison for playing tennis. When you’re hitting against a wall you’re not likely to use a full backswing: when you take the racquet back all the way, you have less reaction time. In a real rally from the baseline, you do need to have the backswing. So it’s better to make some time to hit with your partner.
I think it’s great your taking up tennis. Good luck. I would ask, however, what your plans are for tennis? If you hope to play for years and want to try and get better (or at least somewhat competitive) - then I would really suggest getting some private lessons up front. You don’t need a lot - but even just a couple of 30 minute or 1 hour lessons could make a huge difference. If you don’t take lessons, you run the risk of establishing some bad habits which (take it from me) can take years to overcome later.
First off, be forewarned, tennis is a highly addicting sport!! I played as a kid and in high school, then didn’t pick it up again until my late 30’s. Now, I play at least four days a week and would play every day if I could get away with it!
It sounds like you already have pretty good eye/hand coordination so you are ahead of the game when it comes to learning. I have to agree with the other poster who suggested finding the time for a couple of lessons. Starting out with good stroke mechanics will make a huge difference for you. It will also help you to progress much quicker. I also would suggest that you see if there are any clubs offering drill classes in your area. These are usually inexpensive, group classes that just work the different strokes. They are lead by a pro who helps you focus on your weak areas. Then, just practice, practice, practice.
As for stringing, unless you have access to a stringing machine, its best to just have it done at a pro shop or sports store.
I’ve been playing for years and I can give some input: On TV, 99% of players play with a 2 handed backhand and a “Western” forehand.
YOU WANT TO AVOID THIS STYLE OF PLAY.
the 2 handed back hand is very consistent, because you are hitting with 2 hands, BUT it is not versatile. You can only hit with some top spin and flat shots.
It has very poor reach, no slice (or underspin), no heavy top spin, no drop shots. And worst of all it takes twice more energy to hit than a one handed backhand (Just think of throwing a frisbee with 2 hands, how much more energy would that take?)
The western forehand (ie the palm is under the grip when hitting the ball) is a temptation you should avoid. When you hit with it, you can impart alot of topspin, which enables you to hit the ball high over the net and still land in. The problem is that the flight of the ball is, it goes up first and then down, not across the court. All your energy is used to impart the topspin on the ball, and there is very little energy expended in pushing the ball forward. The result is a ball that has a lot of spin, bounces high, but very little pace on it. Nadal plays with a western grip, Federer plays with an “Eastern” grip, ie palm is behind the grip when hitting the ball. This is a much better style as there is more energy placed in pushing the ball across the court and less in imparting top spin.
The “best ever” players Sampras, Federer, MacEnroe avoided this style of play and were Champions over and above everyone else for years.
Please take this advice from someone who has been playing tennis for decades and actually changed my whole game around when I realized I was playing the wrong style.
It may not be necessary to exchange the whole racquet; if the existing grip is too small, a new grip can be wrapped around the existing grip to thicken it. If the grip is too big, it can easily be removed and a thinner one applied.
This is good advice, but as someone who has played tennis for several years without properly mastering a true “backhand grip”, I think I can safely say that you do not need to worry too much about this at this stage, especially if you are not taking lessons. On the other hand, you could argue that you may as well start off with the right technique from the beginning.
I don’t agree with this at all; the best backhands in the game are double handers and everyone - nowadays - uses the western grip. I do think single backhands look better so the few players who can hit them well - Henin and Federer - are my favourites, but the backhands of a Nadal, Murray, Djokovic, etc. are as functional and all doublehanded.
That being said, if you’re just starting out this won’t matter at all. First you should just try to get used to getting the ball back properly. You’ll probably find this to be quite a bit harder than squash (where the ball will always hit the wall and there is no such thing as too much power) and probably badminton. It seems easy, but getting the ball over the net and inside the court in a reasonable fashion could take you quite some time to master. Off course YMMV…
I’m not a tennis expert, but I have to disagree. However good your double-handed backhand is, there is no way you can achieve as much spin or touch with it as you can with a good single-handed backhand.
Speaking personally, I like the extra flexibility of the single-handed backhand if the ball is coming to me fairly slowly and I have plenty of time to prepare the shot, but I favour the double-handed style if the ball is coming at pace.
Fabrice Santoro played a two handed forehand and backhand and used more spin and variety than anyone else on tour. A two-handed backhand is probably better for a beginner because it’s a steadier shot and you can generate more power. But that’s something for Eats_Crayons to decide after she gets on the court.
Tennis racquets are typically strung using between 50-80 pounds per square inch, depending on racquet head size (the bigger the racquet head, the more tension you need).
Badminton racquets are typically strung at between 15-25 lbs. - there’s much less variance in racquet head sizes, and hence much less variation on string tension. Apart from anything else, a badminton racquet strung at 80 pounds would probably snap in half as soon as you swung it.
Well, 2 handed backhands are OK, the main drawbacks is poor reach, not versatile, and not energy efficient. Yes, plenty of Pros use a 2 handed backhand, but at the same time all the really great players had a one handed backhand. On the womens side Navratilova, Steffi Graff, Billie Jean King.
My one strong recomendation is to stay away from the western forehand. Once you start down that path and groove that stroke, it is very difficult to learn a new way to swing. SO DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.
D.
Please take my comments to heart, but I guess if you don’t really want to play competitively, you can just learn how “everyone else” plays, 2 handed backhand, western forehand.
This is a “nice” style, keeps rallys going, the shots are very predictable. If you want to play a game that’s more agressive and “not nice”, then play with the one handed back hand, and eastern forehand. You can drive your opponents crazy trying to deal with slice, place your shots like lazers into the corner of the court (with pace mind you), or just use the dreaded drop shot.
It’s your choice, the “nice” game, or the “not nice” game.
The reason many past greats used a one-handed backhand is that the two-handed backhand is a relatively new phenomenon. Nobody had a 2hbh when King (or Court) played. Evert was just starting to make it popular when Navratolova played. Graf was geat despite her backhand - because she had a phenomenal forehand. Ditto Sampras, for that matter.
Serve-volleyers needed a 1hbh to hit slice approach shots. But S&V has gone the way of the dodo and isn’t coming back unless some other technology change blunts the return and passing shot. It is simply too easy for today’s players to pass a guy at the net.
Federer has a very pretty backhand, but a) he is the only player in the top ten with a one-handed backhand, and b) he has the worst backhand of any of the top six.
Yes, there is a slight loss of range - but it is not an absolute loss - both one and two-handed players go to the slice when fully stretched. So what one-handed players have is a slight extra range in which they can still come over the ball with topspin. Two-handed players have better control and are more able to handle the high-bouncing ball resulting from the extreme topspin of today’s game. Just watch a Federer-Nadal match and see Federer struggle to handle the high groundies hit to his backhand.
And the western grip is here to stay also. I would recommend avoiding an extreme western, but a standard western grip is good in the modern game for generating topspin.
Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean it’s the best.
Players with 2 handed backhand/Western Forehand have always been the second place finishers to the players that played the classic game. Think Agassi/Sampras, Borg/McEnroe, and Nadal/Federer.
Again, it’s your choice. I know what game I’m playing. In fact, I played someone a week ago who played the 2 bh/W fh, and I beat him 0 and 3. And this is after I’d been away from the game for about 2m.
