How to Return a Serve in Tennis

Video Transcript

"Now your 2 basic shots when you're returning a serve or playing gin, the middle of the game are your forehand shot and your backhand shot. Now, if you're beginner like I was at one point, the backhand shot is going to be way more challenging for you. What I would like to show you right now, we'll get into the shots in a little bit, is positioning. Proper positioning on the court when you're waiting for a serve and even when you're playing. You always want to be kind of moving. You want to be ready. If you watch tennis, you see the pro athletes bouncing back and forth a bit. They're ready for the ball. Now, hopefully you won't have balls coming at you 120 miles an hour like they do, but I still want you in the right position. What that means is crouch down and your knees bent and your racket kind of facing the other way and you're ready, and you're anticipating the ball. When the ball comes you can get there, either get in the backhand position or you can come and get yourself in a nice forehand position, and you're ready to hit the ball. The thing about the positioning is if you're in forehand position, you want to be comfortable. You want to be as if you're sitting down. You don't want to hit the ball too far out here or too far back here or inside. What you want to do is you want to get yourself in a position where you're anticipating the ball, bouncing, and you're hitting the ball out in front of you, but this way, not this way. We'll go over a little backhand position next."