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.

To learn all the steps needed for a simple and effective forehand, take a look at the complete Step-by-Step Video Instruction series for tennis beginners.

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.

If you’re a beginner learning how to serve in tennis, you’ll find a complete step-by-step video instruction sequence in the “How to Play Tennis” video course for tennis beginners.

Tennis is not a matter of hard-hitting or brute strength. On the other hand, tennis is not a game of dinking the ball over the net.

With our knowledge of strokes and footwork, which we achieve accuracy with, we must add the knowledge that lends us speed, so that we are able to not only place the ball where it will be most inconvenient for our opponent to reach it, but to make it travels so that he will not be able to get into position quickly enough to return it.

Speed is again not by the force with which you hit the ball, but by the weight of your body thrown into the stroke.

This throwing the weight of the body into the stroke is achieved by the pivot. The pivot is simply the turning of the hips as of stroke is made and is the beginning of the footwork in tennis.

For the forehand stroke, shift the weight of the body from the right foot to the left (if you are right-handed) by turning the hips at the moment of making the stroke.

For the backhand, applied the reverse — shift the weight from the left foot to the right.

To learn how to do this firs part of the tennis footwork, and to prove its value for yourself, we will place you on a little stool on the tennis court. You’re feet rest on the ground.

Stand the racket and swing it back and forth from left to right, not holding your arm rigid but permitting the weight of your body to go into the swing. You turn your hips with the stroke. This is the pivot.

It is not the force with which you make the stroke, but the weight of your body coming into the stroke that creates the force. Your body does the work for you, not just your arm. The racket follows through easily with out jerk or pull.

This enables you to keep an easy and even grip on your racket without necessitating the tightening and forcing of the muscles of the arm. The speed or force of your stroke is controlled by the weight of your body. But he use with which you make your strokes comes through your ability to pivot smoothly.

Practice this at home. Make the strokes of forehand and backhand, fast and slow, so that you get used to the transference of your weight from a sitting position.

Golfers can get great distance by using the pivot. No good boxer stands flat footed and hits just with the arm. He edits the weight of his body into each blow whereby he gains force.

If you are a dancer, you will discover that unconsciously, perhaps, you use the same pivot. Try it for your self. As the orchestra strikes up use way to the rhythm of the dance.

You do not dance just with your legs. You pivot from the hips, shifting your weight from one foot to the other. Go more smoothly and rhythmically and could it, the better you dance.

The more smoothly you pivot, the better your footwork in tennis and the better you’ll play. You coordinate the weight of your body to the swing of the arm.

Thereby you add speed to accuracy.

If you get really good at the pivot, you’ll find you won’t have to swing at the ball at all to make a forceful shot and that your footwork will develop more naturally.

Put your weight into the stroke.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.