Playing Tennis - Practice Makes Perfect!



Posted: Friday, February 17, 2006

by
Tennis-Tipster

As any tennis coach will tell you... practice, practice, practice.

The simplest way to learn the different strokes in playing tennis is to practice. To start, take a dozen or so balls onto the court. Spend a good amount of time just hitting the balls over the net.

Many beginners don't practice when they first start playing tennis and miss out on learning their strokes well. They immediately jump into playing the game and the goal becomes to just get the ball across the net. This creates many problems and bad habits that once learned are hard to break.

Your goal should always be to learn your strokes well first by practicing. Keep in mind that you will have plenty of time for playing matches once you have learned your basic strokes. Not only will you be a better opponent when you are ready to play with partners, you will gain self confidence very quickly as you become more experienced.


Bad Habits To Avoid
Review the list below for habits to avoid that beginners tend to display by playing tennis before putting in the needed practice:

- Doesn't learn to anticipate where the ball will drop, thus the timing of the return hit will be off.

- Rushing your shots which will cause you to over run the ball.

- Not taking the proper swing and position.

- Plays using the easiest strokes necessary to return the ball instead of gaining experience and practice on weak strokes.


Tennis Practice Benefits

By practicing more from the start, you will learn:

- To make your strokes more correctly.

- To judge the ball, at the right time and distance.

- Gain self confidence in correctly made strokes, thus dispelling the anxiety or need to hurry.

- Learning the angles of the court and better control over the ball.

When one is able to place the ball in any part of the court, then it's time to start playing tennis!

While playing tennis one must anticipate where the ball will land and judge what position and stroke is best for hitting the ball.

For the beginner I recommend dropping the ball and hitting it over the net instead of practicing against a wall. The reason being that you learn to get the right height needed for each shot. You also gain practice on getting the ball over the net. You are in a much better position of learning the different angles of the court, not so when hitting against the wall.

Once you've put in a little practice on the court you may want to establish your tennis goals. Use pen and paper to create a journal for your goals. Things to track and document might be:

- your strengths and weaknesses

- Your mental toughness level

- Drill strength training exercises

There are a variety of aerobic and strength training exercises you can do in the comfort of your home, on the court, or at the gym. Be sure to note any progress made in your journal.


Good luck on the court!

Lissy Donovan



Visit http://www.tennis-tipster.com for tips, strategies, and tactics for outwitting your most wicked opponents and winning tennis!

Copyright 2006 Lissy Donovan

This Article has been viewed 798 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.