I’m on a large blue-green court and I have a basket of neon yellow-green large, bouncy-balls. I grab a club– a special one. I need practice, you need practice– how to hit a tennis ball with superior control with premo hits. Also, “I gotta see that spin!”– Coach Travis Dalrymple Westwood High School tennis coach.Important and Must Be KnownExercise. This is the best sport ever! Only because it involves a lot of exercise, and it is the best sport to lose weight and get healthy! Why? Because you move around a lot, shuffle around a lot, and so that is why tennis is the most healthy sport I know for sure. (When I mean ‘move around a lot,’ I mean that not straight forward, I mean all I OVER THE PLACE!) Oh yeah, if tennis is hard, don’t be discouraged, I used to think the same too! I thought it was like a rip off! (Get it?) Yes! We should know this! I strongly agree. We need to know this so we can improve our strength and health so YOU can stronger and healthier at the same time. (I’m pretty sure you guys don’t want to be unhealthy, am I right?) It is also the simplest way to get stronger and healthier.
Materials:Court Your Racket Tennis balls Tennis shoes Comfortable clothing (which means no big puffy jackets, but you can wear a thin jacket in case it is cold outside)Pants that are flexible (Don’t wear jeans!) OpponentAll right, before we move on, you can go to a sports store (I usually go to Academy to buy my racket) and buy a tennis racket you want, but WAIT! Before you buy your beautiful racket, make sure what size you get! You can’t just buy a random racket that is too big or too small or too heavy or too light! (Goldilocks!) If you are like 4’ 9”- 5’ and above, then you can use the largest racket length, a 26 or a 27. If you are below that, you have to use 25 or below. You can buy these stuff at a store called Academy Sports + Outdoors. You can also buy them online! (Amazon or eBay, for example) Go buy balls.
I think any ball helps, I prefer not to get the red balls because they are too soft. I prefer starting with the hardest (which is the most common tennis ball you see in pictures) if you are eight years and above. If you are below eight, I guess you can still use the yellow-green tennis balls, they would just be too hard to hit and you could get hurt when someone hits it to you. However, I like starting with the hard balls because you have to get used to the pain! Buy like a basket of balls, so you don’t have to waste time picking up balls. (You can by colored balls to help you see the ball spin!)Steps (Setting up)Go to a tennis court and set up your basket of balls, then get out your beautiful, new racket, that you just ripped the cellophane off. After everything is set, tell your opponent to go to the other side of the tennis court. Steps (Ready Position) Your partner is ready, you are ready, no your not, you have to do something to get ready. First, do a ready stance, with your legs. (It should make about a 45° angle)
127 our experts are availableright now
After that, get your racket ready, by holding it up with TWO HANDS, your racket should be up, like you are Thor holding up his heavy hammer, Mjolnir. (Your arms should make about 100°) Bend down, but not too far, I’d say like it has to make a 135-degree angle when you are bending, or bend down about 45°. This is your “ready for the ball stance.”Tell your opponent to feed you the ball. Just use the racket and gently tap the ball upwards, but it has to make it over the net. That Spectacular Spin With Solid Strikes That ball is coming towards your right, fast, what do you do? Turn 90° CLOCKWISE, then extend your arms and hands out and hit the ball. NO, WAIT, why not whack? That seems like the only way to get the ball over?! “Don’t start whacking the tennis ball, brush it!” Coach Dalrymple, again. That is because whacking is out of control, and if you hit it out of control and you will get A LOT of outs! Velocity, from your racket, will make the ball move, just add lots of brush and has to be up, so you can make it over.
Once you turned 90° clockwise and extended your arms out, you brush UP as hard as you can with a semi-closed face of the racket with one hand (right, or left, if you are left-handed). This will cause a spin. This is called a forehand The harder and faster more power and control, the more spin and it will make your opponent “miss” the beautiful, bright, ball. When you do a forehand, also put your other arm in front of your face, that way, you have balance. Wait, but it’s Coming Towards my Left! I know, I know, use a BACKHAND, which is basically using two hands instead, of one hand. Another thing to note is you put your non-dominant hand on the TOP and the dominant hand on the BOTTOM. This is like reversed baseball when you are holding a bat. First, turn 90° COUNTERCLOCKWISE, then you follow the same process as what you did for the forehand in the previous step. Then you “brush up!”– Coach Dalrymple and you just hit a good backhand and a good forehand. Adjusting“Eric, move your feet!”– Coach Dalrymple talking to Eric Gong, a 5th grader at Laurel Mountain Elementary School.
This is where the most exercise comes from. (I know, exciting right?) What if the ball is too close or too far from you? Then you move all over the place and you try to get at about just right. Then you repeat the steps in “That Spectacular Spin with Solid Strikes.” (The instructions are in photos too. At the very end.) Ending With Some Tips This will take lots and lots of practice to get good at this. Remember if you think tennis is hard, don’t be discouraged, just try your best and make extra more progress. Because practice, makes progress.
However, before we “go,” I just wanted to add a few tips about hitting. You can hit the ball with furious force! For a professional tennis player, 60 mph is the “perfect,” amount of force, because that’s how much a professional tennis player hits. You want 60 miles and you want LOTS of brush or spin on the back of the ball. To hit 60 miles, you will need to deliver 500 newtons of force! (a newton is a unit of weight, just like a pound.) What if you don’t know if you had spin? Why not use colored balls. Those help you because they are in different colors so you can EASILY see the ball spinning. Keep brushing UP so your ball will get over the net like a rainbow, but not TOO HIGH or TOO LOW. If it doesn’t get over, keep trying, you’ll get it. Just think “I want to be number one,” then you will find a way, like Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic did. “I want the same thing I’ve wanted since I was 7 years old. I want to be No.1.”– Say’s, Novak Djokovic. I do agree that tennis is the hardest sport, but I kept trying. Work hard and think positive!“I am a positive thinker, and I think that helps me the most in difficult moments.” – Roger Federer (Swiss tennis player).
