I play high school tennis. What tips can you give me that would help me work on my game?

Question

Last year I played singles. However this year there is a lot of competition. I want to keep my spot, so what tips can I use while playing that will help me work on my game and win?

Answer 1

The best thing for you to do is obviously hit a ton of balls. Practice your serve as much or more then you do other strokes. It has become a game of serving and returns because of the advances it racket tech.
Try and play USTA tournaments in your section as often as you can. At a minimum one each month. Matches are key. If you do that you will find yourself feeling less pressure then you do when playing for your high school.
Matches are also the best way to identify what you have to work on. Do some off court training as well. Jumping rope, sit ups , push ups. If possible take a private lesson every once in a while. When you take your lesson , know going into it what you would like to work on going into your lesson. Not only practice your weak areas , but work on your strengths also so you can develop a few weapons. The best ones are as I said before Serve, return of serve. Make your footwork a priority . of you are quick it is a major help. Big forehands once you get into a rally are important.

Answer 2

Even if I gave you a very detailed explanation of how to do a serve, you wouldn't learn much until you practice. Take about 20-30 tennis balls and start practicing. Private Lessons are sometimes the best because the teacher can let you use a hopper with almost 100+ tennis balls. As you hit more and more in, you'll start to get a feel of how to get it in. Then just increase the speed; this seems obvious, but it's a long term process. As for Overheads, I'm guessing that you just hit it as hard as you can. For Overheads, start with hitting it slow and hitting it in. Like serves, you can eventually increase the speed. It's better to hit it farther than into the net. You have so much ground ahead of you if you hit it ahead, as in you'll really have to go extremely out to miss an overheard. If you hit it too close, then you have a higher chance of hitting it out to the side or hitting it into the net. Now what I said shouldn't make sense because the farther you hit it, the closer it is to your opponent, and it's better if you hit it closer because they can't get there in time. But all you want to focus on is just getting it IN.

Answer 3

Try to figure out, if you can, this "lot of competition" and the player's strengths and weaknesses, and then practice areas of the game that would thwart them.

For a quick fix, it helps me to watch a quality tennis match on video (especially Federer or Safin) and afterwards my strokes feel a lot more natural and smoother, but this doesn't last for more than a day usually.

But of course, you must practice harder than before if you competition is stronger now.

Answer 4

Learn the moves from a champion pro on a video and try them, then repeat as needed. The right moves are hard to describe with words. Set an obtainable goal for each practice session you have, like ten successful serves in a row for example.

Answer 5

Well first what I do is really hard to do and stay focussed.What I do is I pretend that i'm playing the worst person on the team...But you should only see if this works for you when your just messing around with somebody.

Answer 6

learn to place you shots, with power

it is easier for you to beat your opponents if you tire them out from running. Learning how to place the ball exactly where you want it to be helps so much when playing singles, but not as much in doubles.

Answer 7

practice serving really fast and hard, im in high school too and beat almost all of my singles competetors because i just ace them and win more games.