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