5 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Became a Tennis Player

By: Joey Hanf Everyone picks up tennis at different stages of their life. For me, I was 14 and wanted to play another sport competitively in high school. For others, you might not hit a tennis ball until much later in your adult life. Regardless, there are a few things I think all new players could benefit from knowing. We're not gatekeepers here at CDT! Here's my top 5 things I wish I knew before I started tennis. Embrace Low Compression Balls: when you try to rally for the first time with a normal tennis ball, it will be flying all over the place. I highly recommend low compression balls (red, orange or green) for players of any age. We obviously use them with junior players a lot, but I also encourage adults to embrace them as you will have more success and learn to play with better technique. What happens for beginners with normal balls is that you compensate by just pushing/blocking the ball, rather than developing good strokes which will necessary long term. So don't be afraid of low compression balls - embrace them! Get Coaching Sooner Rather Than Later: look, you can teach yourself to play tennis for a while. I did just that - there's a lot of good stuff on Youtube and you should absolutely use that! But if you truly want to improve, you will need to take lessons or join a group for clinics. If you wait too long, you will develop bad habits that become harder to break when you do eventually go to a professional. The only way to get objective analysis on your game is by getting somebody who knows what they're doing to watch you, record you, and help you. Community is Key: this might be the most important one on the list, and also the hardest, simply because you NEED community to keep playing tennis and having fun. The key to finding the right community is based on a couple of factors. Most importantly, you should be looking to find other players at your level. If you are a beginner, you should look for clubs, courts or clinics that have other beginners. It is not fun to play tennis with players at a significantly higher (or lower) level than you. The next factor is lifestyle. Can you play in the middle of the day? Do you work and need to play in the evenings? Find the community that fits your lifestyle, and then go all in and help to build that community. Control Comes in Many Forms: this one is a little more layered, but I find that controlling the tennis ball is a real art that can be learned even if you are new. Simply bouncing the ball on your racquet at home over and over is a form of controlling the ball. Short court is AMAZING for learning to control the ball. Don't rush to get to the baseline, grab a friend and play games inside the service boxes. Learn to soften your hand, absorb pace, and manipulate the racquet face as much as you can. Finally, control is not always about swinging "softer". Often you will have more control by swinging faster and getting the necessary spin on the ball. Regardless, control is crucial and it all comes down to reps. These reps can happen on or off the court. Don't Be Afraid of Competition: playing matches early in your tennis journey can be daunting. You might not even know how to serve - and that's okay! Get out there and play competitively, even if it is in a social setting. When you start to improve, you will realize the hardest thing is translating your game from practice into matches. It's almost like two different sports. We work with tennis players who have played for decades who still struggle to play as well in matches as they do in lessons/clinics. The best way to overcome these nerves is to play matches early and often.