How to Master Tennis Shots

Tennis is a fun but very complicated activity involving strength, stamina, flexibility and strategy. It’s a sport that can be played a lifetime, keeping you in far better shape than golf or walking. It’s amazing for stress relief, since few things purge frustration as effectively as beating up on a ball. Unlike team sports, you only need one partner to play. A major way to enhance your enjoyment of the sport is to master the basic shots.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Take lessons. I had been playing for decades before I took my first lessons. Since they were group lessons, they were quite reasonably priced and became as much as social event as a serious aerobic workout. The best thing about taking a lesson is that an experienced instructor will replace the dialog in your head with her own. Sometimes, you’ll be making mistakes simply from force of habit that nobody has ever pointed out to you. Perhaps a quick refinement will be added to one of your shots. I’ll share some of those insights here, beginning with the truism, “Always keep your eye on the ball.”
2. Practice your serve. It’s the most complex shot in tennis, but like doing free throws in basketball, you don't need anybody else to practice. Bring along a bucket of balls, head to a public tennis court in its off time and fire away. First, hold your racquet in the backhand grip with the palm of the hand along the top of the handle. Don’t stand in the middle of the baseline. Find a comfortable spot that will give you good position to respond to a return. Practice the toss which should consistently place the ball in the same relative position to your body. If it’s wrong during a game, you don’t have to hit it. You can let it drop without penalty. Just apologize and toss again. You should hit the ball just as it starts to fall. Most of the power in the shot is from your shoulder with a final snap of the wrist at the end to give your serve pop. Some players use a slice for a second serve but it’s more important when beginning to work on serve consistency and placement. When I’m practicing serves, I’ll aim for both the forehand and backhand parts of the service court so that my opponent doesn’t get comfortable in expecting the ball in the same spot.
3. Use a wall to practice your shots. A wall will give you a great chance to work on your footwork for both backhand and forehand strokes. You can finish your practice with volleying which will get nearly everybody’s heart pumping. My favorite wall is on the back side of the local handball courts. If I haven’t played a while before a match, I’ll warm up there.
4. On the forehand, the quickest way to get into the correct hitting position is to turn your body sideways to the ball. As you hit the shot, remember to scoop the ball. By drawing the racquet head from below the ball on top, you’ll add top spin that will let you drive the ball with power while keeping it within bounds. A well-hit top spin will drop suddenly and bounce high. Remember to hit through the ball.
5. On the backhand, the ball is stroked from your non-dominant side. Remember to reverse the grip and turn the opposite side of the body to the ball. Again by drawing the racquet head from beneath the ball to the top, you’ll add top spin
   
   The backhand is the easiest side to first do a slice, an absolutely devastating tennis shot that is the opposite of top spin. The racquet starts on top of the ball and drops along its back side. The shot requires more of a scoop or lift just to get it over the net, because when it lands it can die and in extreme cases bounce back towards the net.
6. Lobs are a great way to throw off your opponent’s timing. You should practice a couple during warm up and mix them in during a game. They can be especially frustrating in the middle of some hard hit shots.
7. When playing at the net, you are hitting the ball while it's in the air. Remember to use very short strokes and step into the ball as you hit.

Tips & Warnings

• While warming up with your opponent, don’t reveal the depth of your arsenal. Use pre-game practice as a way to get your timing down, but save your best for when it counts.