Tennis Paper

There are several different aspects of playing and improving your tennis game. Different strokes, rules, boundaries and many other aspects make up the game of tennis. Over the next few pages, I will do my best to explain the forehand and backhand stroke, the serve and volley, the rules of tennis, and without a doubt the grandslam.

The forehand stroke is the most popular in tennis. Stand facing the net, knees slightly bent, weight evenly distributed and forward on the balls of your feet. The racket is held in front of your body, elbows in close and parallel to the ground. The racket is supported with your free hand. From the turn position, the racket goes back until it is parallel to the ground- the angle between forearm and racket still remaining the same. The butt of the racket is pointing toward the net and the racket is on edge. The ball is contacted opposite the left leg, approximately waist high; the arm is relatively straight and the wrist firm. The follow through is a long, continuous sweeping motion finishing high with the racket butt opposite the left eye, (for right handers).

The backhand is for the most part very similar just reversed. Tilt the face of your racquet down more on your backswing. Your racquet face naturally opens up (tilts upward) as you swing forward. You need to start your swing with it facing somewhat downward in order for it to end up at vertical as it meets the ball. Hold your racquet face vertical at the point where you normally meet the ball, then, without turning your wrist(s), pull the racquet back to your normal backswing position. It should face somewhat downward, and that's the angle you want at the start of each swing.

The serve is, to me, the best way to take advantage of your opponent. For players of average height, hard, flat serves have to just barely clear the net, or they will go long. Only very tall players can get hard, flat serves in consistently enough to make them pay off. Adding some topspin will increase your margin of clearance over the net to several times larger. The most preferred power serve among advanced players has a mix of topspin and slice. On the serve, the feet are flat, the ball is tossed slightly over the head and out in front of the body. The forehand motion is used only straight over the top of your head.

The volley becomes most important when playing the net. If you step or turn your shoulder first, you will always hit the ball late. Volleys hit in front of your body use very little effort and most of the time are winners. Prepare quickly with a compact back-swing. Flex your body and knees to get down to the shot and stay there through the stroke. Move the racquet head smoothly to lift the ball over the net. Let your racquet continue naturally in the direction of the ball. The whole point of the volley is to move your opponent from front to back court. In turn, you will have a better chance of placing the ball as far away from your opponent as possible.There are a few basic rules to playing the game of tennis. Though rules can change a little with singles and doubles match-ups, the rules are for the most part fairly general. The Court shall be a rectangle 78 feet (23.77m.) long and 27 feet (8.23m.) wide. When a combined doubles (see Rule 34) and singles Court with a doubles net is used for singles, the net must be supported to a height of 3 feet 6 inches (1.07m.) by means of two posts, called "singles sticks", which shall be not more than 3 inches (7.5cm.) square or 3 inches (7.5cm.) in diameter. The centers of the singles sticks shall be 3 feet (.914m.) outside the singles Court on each side. For the Doubles Game, the court shall be 36 feet (10.97m.) in width, i.e. 41/2 feet (1.37m.) wider on each side than the Court for the Singles Game, and those portions of the singles side-lines which lie between the two service-lines shall be called the service side-lines. In other respects, the Court shall be similar to that described in Rule 1, but the portions of the singles side-lines between the base-line and service-line on each side of the net may be omitted if desired. Scoring is another big part of the rules of tennis. If a player wins his first point, the score is called 15 for that player; on winning his second point, the score is called 30 for that player; on winning his third point, the score is called 40 for that player, and the fourth point won by a player is scored game for that player except as below:-

If both players