Fremen
Louie
Yinette PerezFremen's Guide to Tennis [Swing]
August 4th 2009 06:02
It's time to start talking about actually playing the game. Now, there are so many aspects of tennis to get bogged down in, and so many things to learn that it can make your head spin. I'm not going to lie, the best way to do this is to find an informal teacher or go get lessons, but I hope to be one of the next best things. There are tons of guides out there, and I want to pick out some of the most helpful ones for you to look at when you want to up your game.
Basics:
Most people know what a swing is, but it's a little more complicated than just hitting the ball. Ideally, you'll have your feet set up into a good stance, and you'll involve your whole body into the shot. I want to just cover the simplest things here, since you can get bogged down so easily into the details.
This is a good site for learning some basics.
If you like math and want to learn some interesting things about tennis: Click on this, and look around.
Basically, if you want to learn tennis, the best thing to do is practice. Practice never makes perfect, but in tennis, the closer you get, the better.
Common Shot Vocab:
This is a guide for watching tennis and playing also. If you want to sound smart, you should learn some terms:
Overhead shot/smash: This is a shot played after the serve that looks the same as a serve. Usually a player will finish the point by doing one of these. Basically, Pete Sampras was the king of these. The idea is to hit these as hard as possible so that your opponent can't react fast enough or reach them.
Inside-Out Forehand: Basically, for a righty, this is a forehand in which you are standing on the left side of the court, and you hit it to the right side. The opposite goes for lefties obviously. Here's an example of Federer ripping one against Agassi. This is a hard shot to pull off, and feels weird when you first try it.
Drop Shot: This is a shot, where if employed correctly, will always win you the point. This is a very common shot since it's pretty easy to pull off depending on the situation (like, if you're facing anyone other than Andy Murray or Gael Monfils). What you want to do is slice the ball and hit it as softly as possible to get it in. Federer hated playing these, but he wasn't bad at them at all.
Two Handed Backhand: It's pretty self explanatory. There are a couple of varieties. Lleyton Hewitt has a good one to look at. Other notable current players with two handers: Nadal, Roddick, Djokovic, Roddick, and Safin (he's got a pretty cool one too).
One Handed Backhand: Once again, self explanatory. Roger Federer hits the meanest one handed backhand on the tour right now. It's the more traditional, and less powerful (usually) shot.
Half Volley/On the Rise: This is when one hits the ball while it's rising. It's much harder than it sounds, but if you can pull it off, it is a very powerful and effective shot. Here is a quick three minute guide on how Federer does it.
Spoon Serve: This is EXTREMELY rare among pros, but there is one instance of this that lives on in Tennis History. Here is the most famous Spoon Serve EVER hit. Yeah, I'll post about that later. It was epic.
This concludes my first guide to Tennis Swings. There will be many more after this, and probably a lot of ones that are based off things touched upon in this post.
Sampras on his way down from one of his legendary smashes.
Basics:
Most people know what a swing is, but it's a little more complicated than just hitting the ball. Ideally, you'll have your feet set up into a good stance, and you'll involve your whole body into the shot. I want to just cover the simplest things here, since you can get bogged down so easily into the details.
This is a good site for learning some basics.
If you like math and want to learn some interesting things about tennis: Click on this, and look around.
Basically, if you want to learn tennis, the best thing to do is practice. Practice never makes perfect, but in tennis, the closer you get, the better.
Common Shot Vocab:
This is a guide for watching tennis and playing also. If you want to sound smart, you should learn some terms:
Overhead shot/smash: This is a shot played after the serve that looks the same as a serve. Usually a player will finish the point by doing one of these. Basically, Pete Sampras was the king of these. The idea is to hit these as hard as possible so that your opponent can't react fast enough or reach them.
Inside-Out Forehand: Basically, for a righty, this is a forehand in which you are standing on the left side of the court, and you hit it to the right side. The opposite goes for lefties obviously. Here's an example of Federer ripping one against Agassi. This is a hard shot to pull off, and feels weird when you first try it.
Drop Shot: This is a shot, where if employed correctly, will always win you the point. This is a very common shot since it's pretty easy to pull off depending on the situation (like, if you're facing anyone other than Andy Murray or Gael Monfils). What you want to do is slice the ball and hit it as softly as possible to get it in. Federer hated playing these, but he wasn't bad at them at all.
Two Handed Backhand: It's pretty self explanatory. There are a couple of varieties. Lleyton Hewitt has a good one to look at. Other notable current players with two handers: Nadal, Roddick, Djokovic, Roddick, and Safin (he's got a pretty cool one too).
One Handed Backhand: Once again, self explanatory. Roger Federer hits the meanest one handed backhand on the tour right now. It's the more traditional, and less powerful (usually) shot.
Half Volley/On the Rise: This is when one hits the ball while it's rising. It's much harder than it sounds, but if you can pull it off, it is a very powerful and effective shot. Here is a quick three minute guide on how Federer does it.
Spoon Serve: This is EXTREMELY rare among pros, but there is one instance of this that lives on in Tennis History. Here is the most famous Spoon Serve EVER hit. Yeah, I'll post about that later. It was epic.
This concludes my first guide to Tennis Swings. There will be many more after this, and probably a lot of ones that are based off things touched upon in this post.
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