The forehand is any stroke made with a racket when the palm of the hitting hand is facing the net. Correctly executed, if you’re a righty, the left foot is advanced toward the ball, bringing the body sideways to the net.

In a previous instruction you have learned to stand sideways to the net when hitting the ball. The rule invariably applies to forehand and backhand strokes. Do not forget it. Do not forget either to keep your eye on the ball.

There are various kinds of forehands: top spin, understand or slice, and flat. They derive their names from the various spins imparted to the ball as it is struck with the racket (continued).

In the topspin forehand the ball rotates forward and hops forward as it bounces. Any understand or slice forehand the ball rotates backwards and drags, rotating against its own momentum when it strikes the court, resulting in a ball that bounces shorter.

The flat forehand

Here the ball is struck so that it travels through the air with the least possible amount of spin. In the perfect flat forehand one is able to read the label on a new ball as it travels through the air. The ball skids or scoots off the court and, as a result, takes a very low bounce.

To begin with, we shall deal with the flat drive only, because once this is mastered it is comparatively easy to learn the others.

The reverse, however, is not true. Should you learn the topspin or slice forehand first, you will find great difficulty in adapting your tennis to the flat forehand, which is the most valuable of all.

The five things to remember during the forehand stroke:

One. Ready position. The ready position, you will discover, is your ready position for all tennis strokes whether whether it’s at the net, behind the baseline, returning a serve, and after each stroke as you rally back and forth during the course of a point.

Hold your act it well in front of your body in midway between shoulder and knee, because this convenient point requires only a quarter turn of the body to prepare for either the forehand or backhand.

Hold Iraqi with both hands gripping with your right hand and balance it with your left. Bend your knees slightly and assume a comfortable crouch. You’re ready for a quick start in any direction.

Now you are ready. Physically relaxed, mentally alert. You see the ball struck by your opponent and projected in your direction. You decide which drug to apply to the approaching ball.

Let us say in this particular case you decide to employ the forehand.

Two. Racquet back. This is the second movement of the forehand. With both hands bring the racket back at the same level as your starting point. At the same time make a quarter turn of your body to the right. It’s a mistake among players and even instructors that footwork should come ahead of the backswing. That is wrong. The backswing of the racket comes first.

Later on, and your dance tennis, you will receive many terrifically fast serves and other fast shots that come toward you and limit your reaction time. You won’t have time to move your feet into position and then swing back your racket. With the racket back first, you’ll be able to these balls without moving your feet.

This is one of the most important factors of the system. It applies not only to the forehand that all other strokes as well.

The backswing is completed and head of the footwork.

Three. Footwork. From a ready position with your racquet back, take one step forward with your left foot. This automatically brings your left foot nearest the ball and turned your body sideways to the net.

Maintaining this sideways position, advanced toward the ball (if it is short and the court) or retreat (if it is deep in the court).

The manner in which you advance toward the ball is of greatest importance. Do not rush at it. Remain sideways. Take little skipping steps, drawing the right foot up to the left foot until you have adjusted yourself into a comfortable hitting position, exactly as you did when you adjusted yourself into a comfortable throwing position.

You cannot take too many little steps. The danger lies in taking too few big ones for the beginner, the ball should be hit over the net so that he is in correct position by taking only one step forward. This will enable him to perfect his footwork in a short time, until it becomes a mechanical process of moving towards the ball.

Four. Hitting the ball. Now you have advanced into a comfortable hitting position. You have made your choice as to the height you want the ball to be at the moment of striking it. This is your choice, not your opponents. The choice depends on your footwork. If you want to hit the ball from a high position, you advanced nearer to it. If you like the ball from a lower height, you gauge the drop of the ball accordingly. Your footwork has been completed ahead of time, and your body is at rest. You’re poised in a steady balance position.

Now hit the ball. Pivot the weight of your body into the stroke and meet the ball with your racket.

Swing into it smoothly, employing timing, one, two. One, swing–two, hit. When you hit the ball your work is over. Remember to watch the ball into the strings of your racquet.

Five. Follow through. The racket points in the direction of the flight of the ball.

If you had to let go the racket when he struck the ball, the racket would have followed the ball over the net. But, as you need your rack at for the next rope, you do not let go of it. You merely allow it to follow the ball into the right arms fully outstretched. This is the follow-through or ending, it completes the stroke.

It is not possible to think of all these five points collectively when you execute every stroke. Study each point by itself and then learn to blend them together. The process will become smoother mechanical of practice and to your able to coordinate the five points in one continuous sweep. Let us reconsider for a moment one or two points that have already been touched on, because they apply to most of the tennis strokes and particularly to the forehand.

Why do we keep insisting that your body  be sideways of the net as the stroke is made? so that you can see the ball meet the strings of your racquet with both eyes.

If you space the net you can only peek at the actual hit out of one eye. The other I cannot see the contact at all. Demonstrate this for yourself.

The tension of the grip remains the same throughout the entire stroke. There is no tightening of the muscles are squeezing of the handle with your fingers just before the ball is hit. This is commonly known as “pressing” and is, more than any other factor, cause of the faulty stroke. By pressing, you hinder the use of your body weight. In fact, when the muscles of the former type, it is impossible to coordinate the weight of your body into the swing or stroke.

Try it yourself.

Muscle and body weight fight it out on every court. Muscle invariably loses to the great players.

The beginner will notice that the racket often turns in his hand as the ball is hit. He believes that the reason for this is that he holds the racket too loosely, that his grip is not tight enough. This is not true. The turning of the racket in your hand is caused by hitting the ball off center, near or on the wood of the frame, instead of in the middle of the strings.

Keep your eye on the ball. See it hit the center of the racket.

The follow-through of the stroke is made of the same level as the ball is hit.

We have abdicated your hitting the balls about waist high. But, naturally, you will be compelled upon occasion to play balls from every imaginable height, high, low, around your head, around your feet.

With the proper forehand, you can execute your stroke on any ball shoulder high, waist high, and so on, down to the ankle.

In every case, the racket finishes on a level with the actual hit. For high bouncing balls, use your overhead drive. With the single exception, the racket finishes on the same level that the ball is hit on waist high balls the racket finishes waist high.

Exactly the same stroke is employed on the low ones, but the stroke is made from what one might call a sitting position. Crouch down very low, bend both knees.

The tendency is, on low balls, to help lift the ball over the net with a pulling of the motion of the racket, starting at the low point of the hit and finishing high over your head. This helping the ball over the net is the cause of netted balls.

An excellent comparison for the low forehand is the golfer. The inexperienced golfer, facing a bunker, invariably tries to help lift the ball over the bunker by pulling up on the head of his golf club. The champion golfer hits straight into the bowl, the angle of his clubhead making the ball go up and over the bunker. Exactly the same theory applies to tennis.

If you pull up with your racket, the ball will go into the bunker, the net. The angle of your racquet is relative to the angle of the golf club. It straight into the ball, finishing on a level with your actual hit, and the ball goes up over the net.

Get your eye on a level with the ball as it comes over the net, and automatically your guy chooses the correct level at which to make the stroke.

The follow-through of the stroke actually determines the direction of the ball. If the racket were to let go at the moment of hitting, the racket would fall the flight of the ball. Therefore if you steer the end of the racket as the ball is hit, you automatically steer the ball. This steering of the follow-through is the secret of accuracy, because it determines the flight of the ball.

The same stroke makeup is employed for shot down the alley or for shot diagonally across the court except that the ending is in a different direction.

Where you point your racket for the ending is where the ball will go. This changed ending controls the difference in the pit or actual head which is necessary to send the ball on the desired direction.

Check out.

There’ll be times in your four handles seem to go all wrong. You will discover that the fault is not in the entire stroke but is in one factor of the stroke makeup that is not functioning properly.

Check up on all the five points. Use two hands as you did in the beginning, if necessary.

Step by step, work through to your finished forehand.

You will discover your difficulty and be able to overcome it by paying special attention to the imperfect factor.

It is of invaluable benefit to be able to diagnose your own fault. All great players learn to do this. Sometimes during the course of an important match the mentally check up on why such and such a stroke is not working. This faculty of diagnosing your own faults and applying the remedy often spells the difference between victory and defeat.

Practice hints:

Always use a target of some kind at which to shoot. Change its location frequently. Do not try to rally balls back and forth at first. Hit one ball out of time. Hold the ending. Check your stroke. If your weight is on the foot nearest the ball at the finish (the left foot on your forehand) that is a sure check of a good stroke well executed.

Hold your follow-through. Check your strokes.

Here is a 5 star rated ultimate forehand DVD:

The serve is the first stroke in tennis. It places the ball into play.

The server, standing behind the baseline, tosses the ball into the air and that’s it diagonally over the net into his opponent’s service court. If the ball falls into the net or falls outside the service box of the opponent, it is the fault. The server may then serve another ball. If the second ball is also a fault, he loses the point to his opponent. This is called a double fault. If a served ball touches the net but still falls into the opponents service box the ball doesn’t count. The server serves again (continued).

The service must be delivered from behind the baseline. The ball must hit before the server can put his foot over the baseline. Otherwise he is guilty of a foot fault, which counts against him the same way as a service fault. An effective service is invaluable to the tennis player.

It is an attack.

The placement of the service more important than the speed. Here again we discover that accuracy is more telling than force. For instance, by placing the service in the far corner, the opponent is pulled out of the court and often has difficulty in getting back into position in time for the next stroke.

It is the one stroke and tennis that can be developed by yourself. The efficiency of your serve depends entirely upon how much time and patience you’re willing to give to it. And imperfectly developed service is the greatest difficulty that an instructor encounters. It takes a long time to break down the players bad serve and replace it with a proper one.

In a subsequent chapter we will deal with the advanced serve. The advanced server can never be mastered unless the player first masters the beginners surf.

Therefore do not be impatient. Learn each step of the beginner serve carefully and painstakingly. In these first steps lie the foundation of the correct serve.

Put down your racquet for a moment. Take an ordinary hammer and a nail. Imagine that you’re going to drive a nail into the wall to hang a picture from. Raise the nail about a foot over your head and then hammer it into the wall. Instinct will force you to keep your eye on the head of the nail; otherwise you will miss the nail into your fingers. The same truism in the same rule applied to the service in tennis.

Put down the hammer and take your racket as though it were a hammer.

In this beginner serve there is no backswing. You place your racket on your shoulder and, swinging from there, you strike the ball.

Hold a tennis ball in place of the nail. Just as you hammered the nail into the wall, hammer the ball, but, to begin with, do not strike the ball out of your hand. Iraqi local back over your shoulder, just as the Hammer did. You’ll keep your eyes on the ball. The face of the racket meets the ball squarely.

You have now learned beginner service stroke.

But the ball is not held in the left hand and struck as though it were a nail held in place. Drop down the left arm with the ball about 2 feet, tossed the ball to the point where you held the nail and hammer it over the net with your racket. The actual blow on the ball is straightahead. You’re driving it as you would drive a nail through a board.

The toss of the ball is as important as the stroke itself.

A proper toss is essential to a proper service. If the ball is tossed too high or not high enough or too far to one side or the other, it will pull you off balance when you strike it, resulting in a fault. Too much time can not be expended in practicing how to toss the ball. The best way to learn how to toss is to make a mark on the ceiling of a room in toss the ball gently straight up to barely hit the mark and have the ball drop back into your hand. The toss has to be absolutely straight for it to fall back into your hand.

As the placement of the service vitally important, place a target in the opponent’s service court and learn to deliver your service into the exact area of the target. Nothing is more useful in tennis. If an opponent has a weak backhand he will be troubled by a service placed to his backhand.

According to tennis rules, the service, as we said before, is delivered from behind the baseline. That, to begin with, stand at a point closer to the net, say at the service line, and gradually move back step-by-step until you are serving from the proper position behind the baseline.

Here’s a good DVD on learning to serve:

When we say timing we mean the gauging of time the precise instant when we hit the ball.

There is a regulation timing to tennis just as there is in music. It gives rhythm to your play, smoothness and gracefulness to your strokes and. It is also your check on your tennis swing. Timing is used on every ball.

Now try this:

• The ball is sent to you over the net.
• When it bounces on the court, count one.
• When it has dropped to the level of your waistline count two.
• On two, hit the ball.

This is the correct tempo and height to use on the great majority of strokes both forehand and backhand. Count out loud at first and make your call a clear, firm command.

By slowing down your timing, you let the ball drop low. Speeded up,  and you can hit the ball at the top of the bounce. You will discover, however, that on the regular one –  two count the ball drops to the most comfortable level for you to hit it — opposite your waistline.

Stick to the regular tempo in the beginning until the regular one –  two count has become your almost subconscious timing.

You cannot employ timing, however, if you lose sight of the ball. Therefore — as always — keep your eye on the ball. Watch it land in the court, one. Watch it bounce up and drop to the level of your waistline, at which precise instant the actual hit is made, two.

It is interesting to note that the champion golfers swing never varies its timing. The swing therefore is smooth and accurate. The champion, never under any circumstances, hurries it.

This is equally true of the champion tennis player.

Timing: Count one, two.

Here is a 3d view of how to time your swing:

For the moment let’s not worry about your tennis racket.

Instead, pick a straight stick, about half the length of a broom handle. A child’s baseball bat may be used. It’s helpful that the state be about the same weight as your racket.

Take your position back of the service line. Stand sideways to the net so you are looking down the service line. We will pitch slow, underhanded balls to you. It only the ones that come between your knee and your shoulder. Do not hit the ball hard. Just tap it over the net. Now you are ready. The ball is coming.

The stick goes at once to your shoulder similar to the way he would hold a baseball bat. That is the natural place to swing from. Why? Because the bat is on a level with your eye.

Relax as you wait for the ball. Do not squeeze the stick too tightly. A firm but not frozen grip makes you swing smooth and easy. Pretend you’re holding something delicate like a banana. The moment your stick comes in contact with the ball, the hit is made. The stick has done the work. It should, if done properly, point directly at the pitcher.

Now throw away the stick and pick up your racket. Take it in two hands just as you took the stick. Hit the ball with a flat face of your racket, swinging slowly so that you see the actual contact with the ball on the racket strings. Tap the balls gently over the net exactly as you did with the stick. This should be a bit easier than it was with a stick.

In tennis, however, the racket is held with one hand and not two. Therefore let go of the racket with your non-dominant arm. Slide your main hand down to the butt of the handle. This is where you should hold a tennis racket.

Hit the pitched balls low over the net with your main hand. This is the forehand stroke. If correctly executed, your racket finishes in the direction of the flight of the ball.

This pointing of the racket is called the follow through. A tennis ball cannot be accurately off the ground without it.

In his first training we get you to hit the balls back to the pitcher. We know if you can hit the ball back to him now, later on you will be able to send them away from him. That is tennis.

Grip:

No two tennis players in the world had the same exact grip. This may seem strange, but it is very obvious when you consider that no two human hands are exactly the same.

A tennis player creates his own grip.

You have already created yours. You created it when, raising her racket to the shoulder, you took away your non-dominant hand and slid your main hand down to the butt, and hit your one-handed forehand. It is your natural grip. Without thinking about it, you used it throughout your batting practice.

Any time that you are in doubt about your correct natural grip, place the racket on your right shoulder, make the swing as though you were going to hit a ball with a stick, and automatically you re-create the correct forehand grip.

A backhand grip is created in precisely the same manner. Reverse your position , reverse your various actions. And you have it.

With both hands on your racket, raise it to your left shoulder. Take away the nondominant hand and that pitched balls low over the net with your main hand only. This is the backhand stroke.

The preparation, execution, and follow through of the swing are identically the same as in the forehand stroke. You have now created your automatic backhand grip. You need to get yourself when you took away your nondominant hand to that main handed only.

If you are ever in doubt about it, placed a racket on your left shoulder, make the same hit a ball with a stick swing, and you automatically re-create your natural and correct backhand grip.

What has this done for your tennis?

• You learned to stand sideways to the net, hitting both forehand and backhand.
• You learn that the natural place to hold the racket while waiting for the ball was on your shoulder.
• You discover that the correct forehand and backhand grips are natural, automatic grips.

The rubber meets the road or your hand meets the grip. Using an over grip to keep your sweaty hands from slipping is key to ball control. This is one of the best inexpensive investments you can make. A great choice:

The basic strategy of tennis is accuracy and not strength. If it were a matter of hard-hitting and brute strength it stands to reason that the heaviest and strongest player would win, while actually quite the reverse is true.

Accuracy — the ability to return the ball to any desired portion of the court — that is the secret  of  tennis.

There is a player who is able to place the ball, with any of the strokes, within 2 feet of the spot where he wants it to go. He isn’t a hard hitter. It doesn’t have to be. But he is a champion. He is an exponent of developed accuracy.

The speed of the ball a secondary, for the very simple reason that without accuracy speed results   in netted balls and errors and ultimately wasted energy.

Accuracy is achieved by keeping your eye on the ball.

This is the first and most important step of all: learning how to keep your eye on the ball.

The easiest way to learn how to keep your eye on the ball is to learn how to properly catch the ball.

So put down your racket for the moment and take a position about 5 feet behind the baseline. Place your hands on your knees, as a baseball player does,  and assume a comfortable crouch, ready to start off quickly in any direction.

Tennis balls are now hit to you easily from the other side of the net. Keep your eye on the ball sitcoms over the net, bounces in the court; watch it and watch nothing else until it is safely in your hands. You should actually see the ball into the fingers or hands.

Now do the same thing with only one hand, the right-hand (or the left, if you are left-handed). Once the ball, catch it, see it actually enter the fingers of the hand.

When you succeeded in doing this, you have learned how to keep your eye on the ball. Never forget it. Never stop keeping your eye on the ball. Make this a subconscious action.  Make it your tennis law.

Now, having caught the ball, throw it directly back to the server. You’ll discover immediately that in order to make an accurate throw must be on balance, and not off-balance. You’ll discover that, as the throwing motion is made, there is a tendency to topple over sideways. Also, you’re apt to overrun the ball. The slightest extra movement, causing you to be off balance, will result in an inaccurate throw.

With little quick steps, however, always maintaining your balance, you can adjust your catching position so that it fits in smoothly with the throwing motion.

This, the quick little steps you take to adjust your position, is called footwork. It is the second most important factor in tennis. In fact, footwork or adjusting one’s position constitutes the real exercise of the game. It’s not our of what we’re doing out here?

This footwork naturally must be done ahead of hitting the ball. If you get to the ball in time, your swing or stroke, will be smooth, graceful, and accurate. If your footwork lags you’ll still be chasing the ball when you strike at which means of the off-balance and you’ll probably make an error with your stroke.

Summary:

1. you have trained your eyes to watch the ball.
2. You have become used anticipating the direction of the balls hit to you, and to the different kinds of bounces to come off the court surface.
3. You have learned how to adjust your position while still  retaining your balance
4. you’ve discovered that from a  comfortable position it is easy to throw back the ball. The same rule applies to hitting the ball with a tennis racket.

The time it takes the average beginner to learn these two most important factors in tennis

• how to watch the ball
• and how to adjust one’s position

is approximately 7 minutes.

Naturally, and only seven minutes, you cannot expect to have mastered these two points. That will come only with time and patience.

Effects of tennis practice on the coincidence timing accuracy of adults and children.: An article from: Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport

Don’t play with dead balls.

The same argument that applies to rackets applies equally, in fact more so, to tennis balls. It is not possible to hit old, light, worn-out tennis balls of any degree of accuracy. Play with new balls. The  fuzz on the covering of a new ball keeps it in true flight in the same way that feathers keep an arrow in true flight. Pressure in a new ball will deliver the correct and  consistent bounce.

Children that are learning to play the game especially in the three four and five-year-old bracket might want to start with the new beginner tennis balls: Kids balls: Prince Play & Stay Stage 1 Tennis Ball Can

… Should not be a beginner racket.

Many beginners believe that a cheap racket is good enough to start with. This is not so, because no degree of accuracy can be obtained with a poorly strung, badly balanced racket. Purchase the best racket of a nationally known make that you can afford. It is advisable to select just the frame  and have it freshly strung in order to achieve the best  bounce.

The following specifications are suggested:

for women and children:

• handle, 4 5/8 inches in circumference
• balance, slightly light in the head

for men:

• handle, 4 7/8 inches in circumference
• balance, slightly light in the head

Find kid’s rackets at Amazon.com
Although we don’t recommend it here are beginner rackets at Amazon.com
Here’s what we recommend: intermediate rackets at Amazon.com

Generally there are no rules for what you need to wear, but it is important to wear loose comfortable clothing as well as shorts or pants that contain pockets deep enough to hold two balls comfortably. Unless you’re playing in Wimbledon you can wear any color combination you like.

Once out on the court, there must be no fussing or adjusting straps, belts or anything else.

Wear a flat sold rubber sneakers. Flat soles enable one to grip the ground firmly with the entire foot, and to start and stop quickly. Heels from running sneakers, no matter how low, cause twisted and sprained ankles. When trying on tennis sneakers pay attention to how far off the ground sneakers elevate you. You should try to find sneakers that keep you as low to the ground as possible for fastest side to side movement.

Check out tennis gear at Amazon.com