How to Play Smarter and Better in Tennis

I really enjoy Tennis. But early on, I used to get frustrated very easily. I’d scream, cuss, or slam my racket out of frustration, not simply I’ve lost a point but usually because I was losing. If you’re winning, a point lost is no big deal, but not so when we are generally losing a game. My frustration ended when I became smarter. I realized that I didn’t need to be the guy who had the biggest forehand or the strongest serve. So, now when I lose, I know that I still played smart and that has resulted in less frustration. But I also win a lot more these days as well.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Tennis Racket
• Tennis Balls
• Tennis Court
• An opponent
• Time
• Patience

1. It’s nice to be able to serve 120 mph and devastate your opponents. But in most cases, most players do not have any control. There just glad when it goes in. Rather than that, work on developing a slower controlled serve. Develop a solid slicing serve that you have some control over. First, consistently get the sliced serve in (doesn’t matter where). Then after you find yourself being consistent, learn to control the placement. If your slice consistently in the same place, turn your body and pretend the service box is in a different place and that should help you get your serve in the right spots. In the end, a consistent slower serve will be much more fun in the long run than a fast serve that goes in only a fraction of the time. It’s kind of like using drugs. Don’t become addicted to the fast cocaine serve. Develop a clean second life serve and you’ll live a less frustrating life.
2. When you’re hitting your ground strokes, move the ball around. Simply hitting the ball back to your opponent is not good enough. You’ve got to work on your angles. That is, hit the ball as sharp left and right as much as possible. This will get your opponent moving his/her feet and hopefully get him/her tired as well. It will also give you opening to come into the net for an easy volley. It drives me crazy when I even see professionals just hitting the ball straight back at their opponents.
3. Conserve your energy as much as possible. If you and your opponent are decent players, you could expend a lot of energy just rallying the ball back and forth. As you become better, try to end each point only after a few strokes by hitting the ball sharply to the corners or with some pace (speed) to finish him/her off. It’s one thing to tire your opponent, but you could tire yourself out too. So, again, as you become better, try to find ways to be creative in hitting winners. It doesn’t have to be a fast ground stroke necessarily, but a well place one such as jamming your opponent by hitting it right into his body; that would make it hard for him/her to respond. It could also be a soft drop shot as well, especially if he/she is not that good at the net. So, be smart and mix it up.