 Serving |
Stand behind the baseline with your body sideways to the court. One foot should be ahead of the other. Your weight should be on your back foot. The ball in your tossing hand should be resting against the racquet strings. Keep your left foot pointed towards the right-hand net post. Your left hand is holding the ball and will be raised into an upright position to release the ball above your head - a good height to throw the ball is about 18 inches above your normal reach. Make sure you don't release the ball too soon - it will fly at an angle towards the net and force you to lean forward to hit it. Ideally the ball should be thrown about 1 foot in front of your left foot. Raise your racquet behind your head. While the ball in the air you need to bring your racket back and up towards the throwing action you will use to hit the ball. You should be ready to hit the ball at full stretch, with your racket arm straight, at the highest point you can reach it. At this stage you are switching the weight of your body from your back foot to the front one to give added strength to your shot. Begin transferring your weight to your front foot. Your hips should be pushing into the court. Let the speed of the racquet head overtake your wrist as you hit the ball. Use your ball arm to keep your balance as your body twists. Make sure that you hit the ball with an "up and over" action - as if you were throwing the racket at the ball. After you hit the ball, follow through with your swing and let the racquet come around your waist. Keep your eye on the ball and watch where your opponent hits the return. Once the serve is successfully hit, the play continues with a variety of different shots. The most common shot you will play is the ground stroke (the name given to a shot that is taken after the ball has bounced once). These can be broken down into the forehand (made with the face of the racket, with the palm of your hand facing the ball) or the backhand (made with the reverse side of the racket, with the palm of your hand facing away from the ball). Hitting these shots successfully very much depends on how you grip the racket. There are two distinct grips for the two distinct shots in tennis - the forehand and backhand - so it important to learn each one to play the shot well. |