Basic Tennis Skills

Series Summary

Since ancient times, people have been playing tennis as recreation and sport. The term “lawn tennis” was coined in 1874 by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield and the game was devised from royal tennis which was played in 12th century France. The game has many rules and has been played different ways over the centuries. Tennis games consist of one to five sets, the winner has to meet a certain requirement (ex. one set or three out of five). Most matches consist of three sets, the winner being the player who wins two out of three sets. To win a set, the player has to win the majority of games within the set, ending with six. Each game is made up of points. The winner of the game has to win at least four points and has to have at least two points difference between their score and the other player’s score. Learn the basics of tennis from our expert in these instructional videos. Our expert will tell you what athletic skills you need to play tennis, then demonstrate warm-up exercises to get you ready for a match. Not sure what all of those lines on the court mean? Don't know if it is time to replace those tattered tennis balls? Watch these videos to find the answers to these and many more questions. The series also includes an overview of tennis racket grips.

Video Transcript

"Tennis is a very challenging game. You first have to learn your shots: how to hit a forehand, how to hit a backhand, how to move on the court, how to recover your center. Then you're going to start learning how to hit volleys. The next step is probably going to be how to; learn how to serve, to start out point, even though you don't really need to serve you can just toss it out here, hit it without letting it drop, but it's nice to learn how to serve. Your next step is how to; learn how to move a little better. It's the next step in tennis to learn how to be good at recovering your center. Don't stay there in one place, just recover your center as soon as you can. Be able to watch your opponent’s racket to see where you need to go, that's another step that's going to start helping you. When you have developed good confidence in your shots and good confidence on the way you move in the court you are going to start a better point and your mental game at the same time. What type of points do you need to play on specific point of the court? How do you need to play that player? So, we can summarize tennis in three parts: how you hit the ball; how you move on the court; how you think on the court."