Techniques to Help You Master Tennis

Have you thought about becoming a tennis player? If you already play, do you want to improve? Do you watch professional tennis and wonder how the stars make great shots? By reading this article, you will at least learn how to hold your own on the court. We will discuss the techniques you must use to master tennis.

Playing at the Net: Stand a few feet away from the net when your doubles partner serves. While you wait for the ball to come from your opponent's side, you must use the "continental grip" - this means you must hold your tennis racket by the handle with your elbow bent to the side away from your body while your racket head is up. If the ball comes toward your head or higher, come straight down on the ball as hard as you can or dump the ball inside the inner line of the doubles alley. If the ball comes toward your waist, lower your racket head sideways to block the ball back over the net. To avoid losing a point, never touch the net during a play.

Charging the Net: You must leave the baseline and charge the net when you make your opponent run toward a corner. The reason why you should do this is your opponent will likely hit the ball softly and you need to be at the net to cut the ball off and put it away. Once you decide to charge the net, keep coming and do not go back.

Preparation and Footwork: Always stand with your knees bent and hold your racket up with both hands as you wait for the ball to come. As soon as the ball leaves your opponent's racket, turn to the side with one foot out in front with both knees bent. If you are right-handed and the ball comes to your right side, or forehand side, turn toward the right with your left foot out in front. If you are right-handed and the ball comes to your left side, or backhand side, turn to the left with your right foot out in front.

Swinging: When I started playing tennis, I hit a lot of balls long or over the fence because I would hit them with my racket pointing to the sky. As I started to hit the ball with my racket head angled toward the top of the net, I could keep the ball on the court but had nothing on it because I was still not using the proper fundamentals and hardly anyone would hit with me. When you take a swing to hit the ball on your forehand side or backhand side, you must raise your racket over your head, then bring the racket head toward the ground and then bring your racket head toward your shoulder.

Making Contact: You must guess the speed of the ball and meet the ball at the right spot. You don't want to meet the ball all the way in front of you and you don't want to let the ball jam you or get past you. You need to meet the ball with a full arm extension at a northeast angle.

Lobbing: When your opponent rushes the net after hitting the ball to you, try to get the ball over her head. If you get your racket head under the ball and lift the ball with plenty of force to the point where your racket head arrives between the point of being flat and the point of being straight over your head, you can hit the ball over your opponent's head while not hitting the ball past the baseline. Charge the net if your opponent chases the ball.

Overhead Shots: If the ball comes at a height over your head, raise your racket head over the ball and come down sideways. The best way to hit overhead shots is to slice through them.

Line Shots: To hit the ball down the line with power, roll your front hip forward and swing over the side of the ball with all your might while rolling your back hip forward. Use this approach on your backhand side too.

Slicing: It is useful to slice the ball when you want to give your opponent a shallow shot or throw his timing off. To slice the ball, raise your racket head over the ball, come down the side of the ball and yank your racket head under the ball. You can help develop the ability to use a backhand slice by improving your hand-eye coordination. You can do this by touching tiny marks with each finger.

Drop Shots: It is a good idea to drop the ball over the net especially when you are close and do not want to hit the ball out of bounds by hitting it too hard. To hit a drop shot, bring your racket head under the ball and come up the side lightly.

Building Speed: It is important to develop speed to reach more shots. Run sprints or take up speed walking. You can walk quickly by walking like a penguin in a way. Walk at a brisk pace and swing your arms while rolling your hips back and forth.

Hitting on the Run: If you must run to a corner to retrieve a shot, hit the ball into the air to give yourself enough time to get back to the middle of the baseline.

Cover Your Doubles Partner: If your partner is playing near the server's line and runs to your side to hit a shot, move over to the other side. Be prepared to chase a ball hit over your partner.

Serving: To serve successfully, lean forward, toss the ball up high with your racket already held up and come down on the ball before it drops too low. To avoid making a foot fault, do not lift a foot over the baseline.

First Serve: On the first serve, you should hit the ball as hard as you can. A great way to put a lot of spin and movement on the serve is to toss up the ball and come straight down the side as hard as you can.

Second Serve: It is imperative to make sure you do not make a fault on your second serve; therefore, you must ease up when serving the second time. I like to toss the ball up while spinning my hand and hit the ball lightly while leaning forward on my second serve. Try to place your second serve inside the line on your opponent’s backhand side.

Strategy: Do what it takes to outsmart your opponent and create discomfort. Exploit his weaknesses. Hit the ball away from her. Change speeds. Hit the ball lightly or hit a lob after hitting the ball hard several times to upset your opponent's timing. Hitting the ball down the middle of the court often works in doubles because both players on the other side wonder whether they should retrieve the incoming shot.

Follow these techniques to master tennis!