Introductory Tennis Lesson 

Learn to move first before you learn how to hit

Before you start learning how to play tennis and how to perform various tennis strokes, you need to learn a ready position and a split step.

This will help you react better to the incoming ball, have better balance and be able to prepare for the stroke in a quick and natural way.

1. Ready position

Keep your feet at least shoulder apart (if not a little more) and your knees slightly bent (imagine being a goalie in soccer or handball).

The racquet is in front of you pointing upwards with the left hand loosely holding the throat of racquet.

See picture - it says more than a thousand words.

2. Split step

Split step enables to push off the ground explosively in the direction of the ball. The key to a good split step is to time it correctly.

You need to hop slightly up and land on the ground right when you realize where the ball is going. That way you can store elastic energy in your legs and release it at the exact moment when you need to start moving towards the ball.

You may not find the right timing in the first lesson but keep working on it. You'll get the feel for it after a few tennis lessons.

1. Forehand Tennis Lesson 

4 steps to a great forehand

Forehand groundstroke is the easiest stroke to start with for most people. That's why it's also recommended that you learn it first and become successful with it.

That will give you confidence and motivation to master all other tennis strokes.

Here's what we'll cover in the Forehand Tennis Lesson:

• Grip
  
• Contact Point
  
• Follow-Through
  
• Preparation
  

Forehand grip and contact point 

How to find the correct grip?

Here are some tips:

• pretend that you play (hit) the ball with the palm of your hand and then just put the racquet comfortably in your hand
  
• shake hands with your racquet handle (keep the racquet perpendicular to the ground)
  
• look at the picture ;)
  

Before you start playing from the baseline and make a full swing at the ball it's a good idea to play some mini tennis first. That way you'll develop more touch and control of your racquet.

Play from contact point (no backswing!)

When you play at such short distance you don't need any backswing so just put the racquet in the contact point (in front of you) and bump the ball over the net.

Keep your feet moving with small step and play like this for a couple of minutes.

Focus on gentle hitting and see if you can relax your grip a little bit. Most tennis beginners tend to grip the racquet too hard in the first tennis lessons and thus lose the feel for the ball.

Forehand follow-through 

Over the shoulder...

When you get a little more comfortable playing from the contact point, add the follow-through. A good follow-through finishes over the left shoulder.

I suggest that you also catch the racquet with your left hand.

This will help you coordinate both arms and use more of your body rotation.

Make sure that you extend after the ball first towards the target and then let go and catch the racquet over the left shoulder.

Remember to always split step, move with small steps, play from contact point and finally follow-through over the shoulder.

Preparation and playing from the baseline 

Turn more to hit more...

After a few minutes increase the distance to about 3/4 (stand between the service line and the baseline).

Now you will have to hit the ball a little harder and the key part of the backswing is to turn your body.

Do not move just your arm back but turn the body sideways and that way your arm (and the racquet) will move back too.

See picture for better understanding of the preparation.

Your target should now be around the service line so that you partner can play the ball comfortably back.

Again, when you feel comfortable playing from the 3/4 distance, move to the baseline.

When you need to hit the ball more, just turn more to prepare and then rotate into the ball and complete the follow-through.

Note where your balls are landing (too long, too short, too much to the left, too much to the right) and adjust.

2. Backhand Tennis Lesson 

What are the backhand basics?

This tennis lesson will cover the same technical fundamentals as the forehand lesson:

1. Grip
2. Contact Point
3. Follow-Through
4. Preparation

You will learn the one-handed backhand and two-handed backhand technique.

Backhand grip and contact point 

How to find the correct backhand grip?

a) For one-handed backhand

• With your left hand (for right-handers), hold the racquet well in front of you, with the strings pointing forward. Now with your right hand grip the racquet comfortably from the top.
  
• Hold the racquet with your left hand (for right-handers) on your left hip as if you had a sword there. Then grip the racquet from the top as if you are going to take out the sword.
  
• See picture ;)
  

b) For two-handed backhand (right-handers)

Left hand holds the racquet with an eastern forehand grip and the right hand grips the racquet with a continental grip from the top. Note that the racquet is closer to the body than in the case of a one-handed backhand.

Play from contact point

The same principles apply as with the forehand tennis lessons:
- no backswing
- bump the ball over
- keep your feet moving
- can you relax your grip a little more?

Backhand follow-through 

The follow-through for one-handed backhand ends with the arm extended and parallel to the ground at the shoulder height. The racquet is pointing up.

Stay sideways and don't rotate your body towards the net.

For a two-handed backhand extend first towards the target (or follow the ball) and then finish over your right shoulder (as you would finish for a left-handed forehand).

Again, remember to split step, keep moving, play from the contact point and follow-through. You are still playing mini tennis.

Backhand Follow-Through Tip 

Backhand preparation 

It's all the body rotation...

Increase the distance to about 3/4 and you will feel that you have to hit the ball a little more.

The preparation begins with the turn and not just with your arms going back. This goes for one- and two-handed backhand.

If you want to hit more, turn more.

Later move to the baseline and adjust your turn and the speed of the swing. Note where the balls land and adjust with your feel.

3. Serve Tennis Lesson 

Learn the advanced serve...

The technical fundamentals of a good tennis serve are:

• continental grip
  
• correct stance
  
• coordination of the tossing and hitting arm
  
• hitting the ball with slice or spin (brushing the ball)
  
• follow-through with good pronation
  

And the 3 main components that separate a typical "frying pan" or "waiter" serve from an advanced serve are: grip, sideways position relative to the target (service box) and hitting the ball with slice or spin.

Tennis serve grip 

How to find the continental grip for the serve?

With your left hand (for right-handers), hold the racquet well in front of you, with the edge pointing forward.

Now with your right hand grip the racquet comfortably from the top.

This grip is also called the "hammer" grip since you would hold the hammer in the same way.

See picture for better understanding.

Stance and hitting with slice 

If you want to develop an advanced serve you must position yourself sideways to the court.

It's important that you do this in your first serve tennis lesson.

Do not position yourself in a frontal way - facing the other side.

Start on the service line (you will move back to the baseline later) and brush the ball with a slice.

You don't have to do the full backswing, just hold the racquet above your shoulders in front of you, toss the ball about 1m in the air, and brush the ball with slice moving the racquet across the court.

This will help you develop good feel for hitting the ball with slice.

After a few minutes of this serve tennis lesson you can add the follow-through.

Just let the momentum of the serve turn your body towards the target and your arm and racquet will follow-through in front of you.

The racquet finishes on the left side of the body - for right-handers.

The backswing and full serve motion 

How to coordinate both arms

Before you do the full serve, you can practice the serve in 2 parts and at the same time work on coordination of both arms.

Start with both arms in front of you, holding the ball in one and the racquet in the other hand.

Now let your arms fall down to your legs and then separate them - the left arm with the ball goes in front of you and the right arm with the racquet goes behind you.

Imagine both arms as pendulums swinging from your body.

Serve in 2 parts

Toss the ball and catch it back in your hand while your right arm still keeps the racquet behind you pointing upwards.

Now toss the ball again and serve like you did in the previous step.

After a few serves like this try and do the whole serve in one continuous motion.

Gradually increase the distance to the baseline and adjust your serve according to where the ball landed.

In other words; if you served too long, try to hit shorter next time. If you served in the net, aim higher.

Tennis Serve Acceleration Tip 

What is the secret to a powerful serve?

4. Return Tennis Lesson 

The return at the beginner level is basically the same as forehand or backhand.

It becomes a different stroke at more advanced levels, but in this tennis lesson we will cover only the most important parts a beginner needs to know.

These are:

• where to position yourself
  
• where to aim
  

Positioning and Returning 

Where to stand and where to aim?

A general position to wait for return is in the corner. Stay behind the baseline with your outside food aligned with the sideline.

That way you will be able to reach both the wide and the inside serve.

There is one more tip about positioning and adjusting in the How to play tennis videos for tennis beginners.

One interesting thing about return and where to aim it is that your goal is the same at all levels.

Whether you are a tennis beginner or an ATP player you need to aim the return deep down the middle.

This takes away the angles of attack for your opponent and gives you the time to recover to the middle and start the point in at least neutral position.

Your first goal is to get the return beyond the service line but later aim in the last quarter of the court.

5. Volley Tennis Lesson 

A tennis volley is technically the simplest stroke but it requires the most touch to make it an effective shot.

The main parts of a reliable and consistent volley are:

• ready position and split step
  
• the grip
  
• preparation
  
• short follow through
  

One of the main differences between a volley and a groundstroke is that you approach the volley in a more "pushing" way of contacting the ball.

Ground strokes on the other hand are more hitting types of strokes where you accelerate the racket towards the ball.

Ready position, split step and the grip 

When you play at the net you have less time to react.

That's why your ready position needs to be lower and you must feel that you can quickly react and move to the ball.

Keep you feet wide apart and try to time the split step and the right moment.

When you succeed you will feel that you can explosively move towards the ball. If this doesn't happen in the first few tennis lessons, keep working on it and and you'll soon get the right feel.

You goal is also to come close to the net which will enable to play the ball at better angles.

The volley grip is the same as the serve grip - continental.

Try holding the racquet at the throat at the beginning since that will give you more control and stability.

Preparation and the follow-through 

As soon as you see the ball coming to you turn your body slightly and your racquet will of course follow.

Now just add that little extra of preparation and point the racquet towards the ball. Note that there is almost no backswing.

Instead play the ball with a block type of shot. If the incoming ball is slower add some extra push and guide the ball towards the target area.

Follow-through is also short and finished on the same side of the body.

Try and impart a little bit of slice on the ball (even in this first tennis lesson) since that will give you better control of the shot.

After the volley quickly recover back to the middle and close in on the net. If you come too close to the net it will be very easy to lob you though ...

6. Overhead - Smash Tennis Lesson 

How to develop a killer smash

The overhead is a shot that needs to be practiced a lot. Although it looks simple when a pro smashes the ball, it's not that easy to time the ball well.

The main challenge of the overhead is the fact that the ball is coming at an almost 90 degree angle related to the racquet face and the timing of the shot must be near perfect.

The key components of a good overhead are:

• grip and footwork
  
• preparation and follow-through
  

The Overhead Grip and Footwork 

The grip is the continental again since an overhead shot is basically an abbreviated serve. Refer to the serve tennis lesson above for more info about the continental grip.

Before you even start thinking about hitting the ball, you need to get in the right position.

The most common mistake is that you may try moving under the ball while you are facing the net. This will prevent you from using body rotation when you actually have to hit.

So the key is to turn sideways immediately and move under the ball with quick steps.

Ideally you would be able to transfer the weigh forward to your front foot when you are about to hit the ball.

Preparation and Follow-through 

While you are moving under the ball prepare your racquet behind you in an upward position - also called trophy position.

Left arm (for right-handers) should be pointing upwards towards the ball for better timing and balance.

Finally, when you hit the ball, avoid leading the shot with your elbow. This will produce many smashes in the net.

Instead, try to go down with the racquet head first and aim deep into the opponent's court to avoid the net.

If your opponent is able to get to your smash, they will usually only block the ball for a slow floater so make sure that you close in on the net after the smash to finish the point with a winning volley.

Learn How To Play Tennis Quickly And Correctly 

With Step-by-Step Videos for Tennis Beginners

These tennis lessons are short excerpts from the full How to play tennis video instruction guide which includes 49 videos that cover all the major strokes:
- forehand
- backhand
- serve
- return
- volley
- overhead

and 10 additional bonus videos that will speed up your learning process.

More Tennis Lessons And Tips 

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Tennis Readers Feedback 

What do you think about these tennis lessons?

Howie1129 Love the lens- I love the fact that you have all this info in one place - saves me having to search myself. If you get the chance, check out my How to Serve Tennis blog. Posted September 22, 2008

RedSportNiac Wonderful lens. I wish I hard a coach when I played tennis back then. I practiced on my own but manage to almost beat the top player of one university in my country. I only started playing tennis while I was studying in the US. Sports is actually my passion so I kind of sad that I never become sportsman. Anyhow I hope someday I will have a chance to play in an age group and winning one tennis tournament once. That would definitely make me very happy. Anyhow thanks for sharing the tennis lesson. Posted June 28, 2008

RedSportNiac Wonderful lens. I wish I hard a coach when I played tennis back then. I practiced on my own but manage to almost beat the top player of one university in my country. I only started playing tennis while I was studying in the US. Sports is actually my passion so I kind of sad that I never become sportsman. Anyhow I hope someday I will have a chance to play in an age group and winning one tennis tournament once. That would definitely make me very happy. Anyhow thanks for sharing the tennis lesson. Posted June 28, 2008

ToddScott Good stuff, bud! How ya been? Posted February 15, 2008

Her-Motorcycle Great, informative lens! Posted November 06, 2007

 

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