Tennis Tips for Beginners
10 tips for a better start

Here are the usual problems beginners face:

• too much information
• not realistic about tennis demands
• not knowing what is the most important part of good tennis – the feel!
• they are too much concerned with technique and »proper« form (mostly influenced by coaches)
• they beat themselves up because they have unrealistic expectations – which slows their learning
• impatience
• …

Take your time and absorb each and every tennis tip for a beginner and apply the slight change of thinking to your game. It will help you learn at the fastest possible rate.

1. Don't try too hard – whatever you do. Even when your coach tells you to do something it's not an order. What they are really saying is give it all your best and we'll see what happens. Even when you miss you get feedback as to what happened. How did that feel, how does my racquet face determine where the ball goes, …

We are so used to trying harder when things don't go our way. In tennis it usually doesn’t work. When things don't work, try less. Soften your grip and your muscles and hit average shots for a while. Do not try to hid good all the time (while learning new technique!)

2. Do your best to have no expectations. You are improving as fast as you are. The only problem that can arise is in your mind; if you believe that you are not improving fast enough. Nothing changes in reality except you start suffering – and your shots suffer as a consequence of that even more.

3. Focus on your feel and how this affects the outcome. Of course – listen to your coach and do your best to do the correct stroke. But this is not the most important part of a good shot. Feeling for the ball and racquet is. Start looking for that. Many good drills for beginners are in the Inner Game for beginners section.

4. There are no mistakes only feedback. If you hit into the net, hit higher next time. It is that simple. You don't have to complicate things with knees, going under the ball and follow through. It will all happen by itself.

5. Keep moving, dance, jog, make small hops, whatever you do just keep moving. Standing statically on the spot makes your moves even tighter than they already are.

6. My favourite tennis tip for a beginner that you can apply is to wait. Yes, wait, because it takes time for your brain to start making adjustments from all that information coming in. So when a coach instructs you hit in a certain way or aim for certain area of the court, do your best to hit that. And then wait until your body adapts. Don't look for results after 10-20 shots. Wait. The results will come, be patient.

There are of course many more tennis tips for beginners so check back often to see whether this page has been updated. Another way of staying in touch is to sign for the newsletter or RSS feed.

You can also send me your favorite tennis tip for a beginner. I look forward to learning new tips from you.

To continue with tennis tips check out tennis forehand tips. Or you can return back to Tennis tips main page and find other quick tips that will improve your game.

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