r/10s Mar 17 '22

General Advice A Bunch of Tips for Beginners and Intermediates. (Generally goes in order from beginner to intermediate/universal)

837 Upvotes

I posted this in r/tennis and several people urged me to post it here.

Addition to the OG post:

a. Playing as many matches as possible will help you a lot.

b. You can DOMINATE doubles matches against beginners and intermediates if you learn proper high school and college-level positioning and movement. Examples: Proper signaling. Australian setup. Net player constantly shifting with the ball. One of my hs coaches was a master at doubles and taught me proper strategy and positioning, which let me easily beat other players that were way better than me at singles.

  1. If you're a TOTAL beginner, your racquet does not matter as long as it works. Just get an adult-size racquet and start playing.
  2. Practice your form and swings on an off the court as much as possible. You can make serious progress by just looking at a mirror while swinging and comparing it to good players to whom you want to match their form. You want to get to the point where you will instinctively get into your form/swing when you see the ball coming towards you.
  3. If you can, get a coach for private lessons where you will learn form, shot selection ... etc for a few months. Practice what you've learned at each lesson as much as you can on the days in between lessons at a court with friends and family. After about several months to a year (depending on how good you are), join a clinic for exposure to as many other players as possible. Do the clinic at least once a week. Since you are not taking private lessons anymore, go to your local court with a friend or family member, a basket of new balls that you got for cheap, and relentlessly do drills that you can remember from your lessons or other drills that will help. Consult YouTube and your clinic coach(es) for drills. A good coach will want you to practice outside of the clinic. Your drilling and point play by yourself and with friends/family is extremely valuable and basically serves as the replacement for the private lesson drills. Hit thousands of high quality balls a day if you are serious.
  4. Get very good at quickness, form, and footwork. You want the tennis footwork to be instinctual. The split step and ready-position are your best friends. Mastering the split step will make it hard for people to hit shots past you since you will be ready to move to any direction. Me tennis split-step made me a good basketball player since could never get crossed-up because of my split-step and good base. Good footwork leads to a good body turn, good form, and good shots. Footwork is king. Practice getting fast and accurate feet on a ladder drawn out in chalk or something like that. Do the same type of off-court drill for footwork as you would hitting shots. Train your footwork by asking coaches for specific methods as well as watching YouTube videos and copying good players.
  5. Get fit. You can beat a ton of beginners just by being faster. Also by being fit, you are less likely to get tired and start doing lazy footwork and swings, which leads you to losing points. Work out with your soccer and basketball friends since soccer and basketball training are safe bets for tennis players' purposes: running, sprinting, leg workouts, fast footwork, endurance...etc. In addition, work out your shoulders, chest, back and biceps. You don't need to go crazy since most of your power will be generated by your form and not just brute strength. Contrary to popular belief, if you try to play matches out of shape, you will fail unless your technique, shot selection, and strategy is insane. You don't see any fat players on tour, do you? You can still be out of shape as long as you are working to get fit. Don't strain yourself since you making progress will be a gradual thing.
  6. Focus on fundamentals, form, footwork ...etc until you are ready to play points. Many players start point play on day 1 and have no idea what they are doing. They end up trying to keep playing points, which is a waste of time if you cannot control your shots properly. Once you are ready to play points, live drills and matches are your best friend. Get comfortable with the entire flow of playing points, games, and matches so that you feel totally calm and comfortable during the ones that really count.
  7. Serve progression. (This is just mine. Everyone's will be different.) First, focus on getting your serves in with high consistency while adhering to the proper form as prescribed by your coach or another credible source. Then, focus on adding a small amount of spin to your serves. This spin should be a combo of mostly topspin with sidespin. You want this to be your default serve (for both serves) as a beginner. Your flat serves should never be 100% flat. Most beginners see good players have a giant flat first serve and then a heavy topspin second serve, try to copy it, and end up with a massive first serve with a 5% chance that it goes in and then a neglected second serve that becomes a free set up for your opponent. Focus on making BOTH of your serves the top-side spin combo. This will help the ball get in and add a little spice for your opponent to deal with. If the beginner false flat serve is 100% power and the neglected second serve is 20% power, you want BOTH of your top-side spin serves to be around 60%. This will ensure consistency and mild speed. You may be thinking, "Why only 60%?" Let's face it, even if you could get your 100% speed beginner serve in, that speed isn't really doing anything against someone who knows how to return well. It is a waste of energy for beginners for a stroke that demands consistency. Consistency is king on every shot. A decent serve with decent spin that you can count on to go in most of the time will be your best friend. Double faults are free points for your opponent and your coach isn't doing his job if he doesn't bust your butt for double faulting too much. Once you get good at serving, add power to your first serve for an 80% first serve and 60% second serve.
  8. Get good at playing against big hitters by predicting shots. Many players who have little experience against powerful shots, end up doing terribly against powerful players because they get caught up in poorly-timed footwork, a lack of confidence on strokes, and a lack of skill on where to predict the ball will go. Practice the true/mid-way recovery position on your groundstrokes and get good at recovering to hit the next shot in a split second. Get good at reading strokes of your opponents so you can have a general idea of where the ball will go and get set up to hit a confident shot off of their bomb forehands. Just because a player hits hard at you, that doesn't mean you should not finish your stroke. You may want to cut down on your backswing to save time, but everything else should be the same, especially the follow-through. You will do well against big hitters if you learn to maintain SUPREME CONFIDENCE in your shots when hitting back fast balls. Big hitters are usually used to hitting winners and not moving much so they will be caught off guard if you use their speed against them and hit confident shots off of their shots that they expect to end the point. Everything in this point (#8) is VERY HARD to explicitly learn. These skills will come from years of practice if you dedicate attention and time to them.
  9. Scare the heck out of pushers. For those that don't know, pushers are usually fast players with bad, but VERY CONSISTENT shots. Their whole strategy is usually to just hit high percentage shots (usually slow with no spin) and wait for their opponent to mess up because most beginners and intermediates are not used to capitalizing on floaters. How NOT to win against pushers: Trying to hit hard and hit winners. Pushers will not miss and they are fast. They will easily get to groundstrokes and be ready for you to mess up. They will also happily just redirect your ball speed right back to you with a low shot with no spin that doesn't bounce higher than your waist. As frustrating as this is, it is THE ULTIMATE tennis strategy (except the bad shot quality). Just ask Andy Murray, who successfully used it on a professional level. There is also a quote from another coach whom I cannot remember his name but he said, "If you can hit 19 balls in during a point and your opponent can hit 20, your opponent will always win" or something like that (I don't remember the exact quote). If you ever find yourself in a pickle, high confidence and consistent shots are your friend and the best way to win matches. How to WIN against pushers: Do not give him any predictable shots. Assume that he will get to any ball that you hit from the baseline because he will. If you can, hit normal groundstrokes or slices with unpredictable spin until you get your chance to rush the net. When I say "rush the net," I mean "RUSH THAT MF NET" off of a good approach shot. You will often get free approach shots from pushers. If you hit your very high consistency approach shot and rush the net, the pusher might panic and give you free volleys that you can put away and win the point. Pushers also usually have no plan when their opponent comes to the net. They don't hit very hard at all so if your approach is good, he will give you easy net set ups. I once had a tournament match where I lost the first set 4-6 and was down 1-4 in the second against a very athletic player with weak and consistent shots, to whom I gave many free points by missing groundstrokes. In the next game, I started trying things because I really had nothing to lose so I mindlessly bum-rushed the net for fun on every point and he had NO CLUE what to do. After that, I rushed the net on every point with good form and good purpose and hit overhead and volley winners on every point. He won maybe 5 points total after I did that strategy and I won the match 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
  10. Racquet choice. For beginners, as I said already, pick up a cheap adult size racquet because the strings and racquet specs don't matter for you as long as it isn't broken since you are learning form and footwork. For intermediates, get 2 good and reliable racquets that you string to your specification. You want to find your favorite string and tension combo because strings make a huge difference. I won't get into that since the whole string type, tension, other specs etc are an entire mathematical research topic that would take way too long to explain. I'd just advise to play around with different types of strings and tensions. For advanced players, you can probably make-do with 2 racquets but 4 is ideal since you will wear the strings down much faster. As long as you don't catch yourself with no racquet, you're probably fine. For intermediates and advanced: pick a racquet that you have demoed and has a good reputation. Look at the big names like the Wilson Blade, Pro Staff, and Burn, Head Speed series, Radical series ... etc. Find one that you like.
  11. Take care of your equipment. Military people often say, "Take care of your equipment and your equipment will take care of you" and they are darn right. Do not take your strings into different temperature environments as they will warp and break. Do not slam your racquet ever. You will just look bad and you will possibly break an expensive piece of equipment. Buy shoes with the 6-month sole warranty so you can get two pairs at the price of one if you go through them. Don't mindlessly move your feet to the point where you are wearing down your shoes and wasting money for no reason.
  12. Keep calm and have fun. If you get mad you will play bad and if this escalates, you will look like a jerk on the court and everyone will dislike you. It's a game. Have fun. When you are having fun responsibly, you are more likely to do a good job at whatever you are doing. If you are angry and throw a fit after losing a tournament that you paid to enter, take that as a lesson to get better before the next one so you can guarantee that your money will go a long way.
  13. Make your opponent suffer. This is the opposite of point #12. You want your opponent to hate playing you so that they will mentally crack and start making a bad strategy or talking down to themselves and losing easy points. If your opponent is a chubbster, you may want to make them sprint back and forth across the court to make them run out of energy during the first 15 minutes of the match. Craft your shots, shot selection, and spin in a way that makes your opponent unable to hit their confident normal groundstrokes (kind of like pushers slicing the whole time and not giving their opponents much speed to feed off of). But you don't want your shots to suck and be all slices and floaters.
  14. Tennis is expensive. Take price shortcuts as much as possible. I mentioned a few already like doing high volumes of practice on your own after lessons with your friends and specifically looking for the 2-for-1 6 month outer sole replacement deals on shoes. More include not entering paid tournaments until you are confident and ready, taking care of your equipment, practicing with whatever resources you have, taking care of your body, and paying the HIGHEST level of attention to your coaches at paid (or unpaid) lessons. You should always be doing that last one anyway. I used to do a clinic at a local tennis club for a few years and I eventually left to go to a much better club. However, I still kept showing up to the first club's free walk-on court times for students since I was good friends with the staff and they all just assumed that I was still taking lessons to qualify me for the court time. You have a high chance of getting kicked out if you try this, though. I usually showed up at low-traffic times so I wasn't realistically stealing courts from players that wanted to reserve a time on them.
  15. Look for AS MANY opportunities to play as possible. Ask all of your friends to hit with them so you get experience not only playing tennis but also learning how different people play. Look for student/member opportunities like the free court time in the above point. Play tons of hours per day with friends and family. I can't tell you how many players I blew past on my high school and college team ladder that talked about their "advanced tennis camps" that they paid $$$$ to attend while I just focused on high volume and VERY PURPOSEFUL practices for free with my friends for free at my local park. During high school, our coach was very smart and a no-B.S. guy. He said he would stay with anyone after practice to work on anything and I capitalized on these free 1-on-1 lessons.
  16. Notice how I said "purposeful" in the above point. Practice with your friends and during lessons WITH A PURPOSE. With no goal, you are not giving your brain a reinforcement pathway for you to get rewards from as you inch toward your goal. Show up to practices thinking "I want to practice serve-and-volleys today so that I can scare pushers better" or whatever you want.
  17. Hit up. You want several feet of net clearance on your groundstrokes. Your racquet head speed and spin will bring the ball down quickly and let you have power too. This clearance is to make sure you don't hit balls into the net and give your opponents free points. A long baseline miss is better than a wide alley miss, which is better than hitting into the net. Unless you are 8 feet tall, you cannot hit down on a serve or groundstrokes. Think of hitting up all the time (especially on serves) and letting your spin and physics bring the ball down.
  18. Practice unexpected shots if you have extra time. For example, I would always practice viciously-dipping cross-court passing shots during practices in high school because I could mess them up with no consequence and more importantly, opponents during matches would shift to the side of the net toward which they hit their approach shot (as they should) only to get passed by a cross-court shot that they did not expect and that I could land 95% of the time. A well-known trick to easily win beginner and intermediate-level matches is to pound your opponent's backhand because it is the weaker shot of the two groundstrokes for most people. As soon as I learned this in high school, I dedicated all of my groundstroke practice towards my backhand until it got better than my forehand. I would go into matches just unloading on my righty opponents' ad-side and they would feel so uncomfortable because they didn't get to hit any forehands. This is trick #13: make your opponent suffer. I would also practice running back while getting lobbed at the net so it became an easy recovery during matches.
  19. Don't serve too much during practice. Focus on technique and consistency more than anything else during serving practice. The serve motion is bad for your shoulder so if you crank out 300 hard serves at practice, you will go home with an injury.
  20. If you are suddenly playing really badly at practice, it might be because you ran out of energy. I can't even count how many times I went to practice for 4 hours with my friends and absolutely beasted the first two hours and then ran out of energy which made me get sloppy and play bad and leave annoyed and confused why I suddenly got worse. Remember, contrary to popular belief, tennis requires a lot of fitness and you probably can't be swinging, moving, and setting up at full intensity for 4 hours straight unless you are fit.
  21. The sun is powerful. Learn how to hit consistent blind serves if you have to serve right into the sun during a match. If I had to serve right into the sun, I would do both serves at 50% power and close my eyes at contact so I didn't start the point with a bunch of bright moving shapes clouding my vision. Your serve should be so developed that you can hit alright-decent serves with your eyes closed for the second half of the motion. Not only that, the sun can give you sunburn. Dermatologists recommend sunscreen even if you aren't going outside because the UV rays that the sun gives off will happily pass through light fabrics and translucent materials and burn your skin with non-ionizing radiation. You are at a greater risk of cancer and aging if your cells replace themselves a lot, so be smart and show up with a hat, sunscreen, lip sunscreen/balm, appropriate clothing, and water. You may look like a weenie when your friends make fun of you for being "over prepared," but you will be healthier.
  22. Make friends and "collect" hitting partners. In high school, many of my tennis friends were not as motivated and would only want to play once or twice a week with me during the school year so I would get around 4 to 5 friends on rotation so I would have a hitting partner each day. I would also try hard to make friends at matches and events, especially players that were way better than me, so that I could "collect" hitting partners. (That's quite a morbid word to use but I thought it fit the mood.) I would also seek out players that were way better than me so I could get practice against very good players and hard hitters. Most would say no, as expected, because they have nothing to really gain from a practice with a much worse player, but some friendlier ones said yes and after a year or so, I would catch up to their level and be their normal hitting partner.
  23. Have fun. Tennis is a really fun sport and there is a 99.999% chance that you will not go pro so you might as well have fun. The only reason why I was willing to put in so many training hours was because I thought it was very fun and I loved to get into competitive situations with my friends.
  24. Analyze opponents before matches and yourself after matches. My high school coach was a very smart guy and always had the scoop on each player that the team would face and he would tell us in advance so we could prepare. This helped out a lot because for example, I would practice net rushing if I knew I had to play a pusher in a few days. I would also ask my coach, teammates, parents, and friends for anything wrong that they noticed in my matches. I would then practice my shortcomings in practice the next day. This is pretty much common sense in every sport. I once went into a match with no plan because I didn't study my opponent. He was hitting winners off of my groundstrokes with his insanely powerful forehand and I was down 4-6, 1-5 (match point). I noticed that he always missed backhands so I started pounding the ad-side of the court (this is the day that I began using ad-side backhand pounding strategy). I came back for 4-6, 7-5, 6-0 because he missed 90% of his backhands and I completely deprived him of any forehands.
  25. Avoid hitting against walls unless you are doing volleys or something innocuous. Walls rebound the ball much faster than a human and you will shorten your groundstrokes and ruin them if you hit against walls too much. You are better off just doing shadow points and swings or doing drop-and-hit to yourself on a court.
  26. Feed off of jeers and harassment. You can just ignore the crowd if you want to but I always took it as a compliment. In high school, my state had this very talented team that was known for harassing opponents during home games. I had to play-up against a top-10 player while his teammates shouted insults at me. The ENTIRE time I just thought, "They hate me because I am not losing easily." My match ended up in a draw because some crazy wind storm happened at the beginning of the third set and we had to evacuate the courts. lol. It was so satisfying to watch a bunch of immature teenagers get mad at me because I wasn't losing quickly enough.
  27. Be careful before matches so you don't get injured. I was a clumsy person and I had a couple situations where I would trip and hyperextend my knee or get my finger caught in a fence door and rip the flesh open right before practice or a match like a complete idiot.
  28. "I can do this all day." This is similar to making the opponent suffer. You want to bring this attitude of "I can do this all day" to matches. It will demoralize your opponent as they watch you hype yourself up in a great mood during changeovers while they sit and rest with their head down thinking, "I can't keep up."
  29. Eat your losses. You will have matches that you are guaranteed to lose. Just play your best and if you lose, you lose. Be nice and have fun.
  30. If you play a really bad player, practice your worst shot selection on him. During practices I liked to play against players that were several spots lower than me on the lineup and only go to the net. I could serve them two bagels on a platter in 30 minutes with my groundstrokes, but practice has no consequences if you lose so I would just practice my net play on every point. Do not be so cocky that you pass up opportunities to practice against worse players. It is better than no practice at all. Modify your goals for a worse player so that you still benefit.

Good luck.

My playstyle and background for context:

Male

5.0 NTRP and starter on decent D3 College Team

Moderate power high percentage serves.

Powerful groundstrokes with heavy spin.

Confident at net if I need to be, but it's not my first choice unless my opponent sets me up or I am playing a pusher.

Relentless intensity and speed with the intention of pounding the opponent's ad-side and making them feel like hitting a winner is impossible.

A bunch of random niche shots like the cross court dip passing shot that I can consistently land.

Really bad at overheads. lol.


r/10s 3h ago

Opinion Teaching on free courts where it’s prohibited

48 Upvotes

On free courts in Griffith Park, Los Angeles there’s a guy who ties up a court for hours teaching a series of students. The general rule is if people are waiting for a court only one more set can be played and then it’s handed over. There is another sign saying teaching is strictly prohibited. Understandable that teaching isn’t allowed on free courts, it is massively unfair to everyone else. I guess this person has gotten away with it because no one is checking on it.

Do you think this should be reported?


r/10s 7h ago

Court Drama I played a former top 200 ATP Player in a USTA mixed doubles league

98 Upvotes

For the sake of everyone's privacy I'm going to keep it slightly vague.

I had no idea who he was during the match. He looked to be late 60s early 70s. Seemed to be in decent shape (age appropriate). After a couple games it became clear he was like a brick wall. If you hit to him, it was coming back. And the finesse was incredible. The ball was either at your feet, or a beautiful angle.

After the match, I looked him up. Turns out back in the late 70s/80s, he was an All-American in college, won a few ATP doubles titles, and had deep runs at Grand Slams.

Pretty crazy to run into a tour pro in a USTA league!

Have you ran into a former high level player in your USTA leagues?


r/10s 15h ago

Equipment Used the EZONE last night...

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133 Upvotes

Finally took my Ezone 100 Tour on court last night, and oh my god. Feels like I'm seeing colour for the first time. Forehands? Big. Backhands? Also big. Arm soreness? What arm soreness? Felt like I coulda kept hitting all night! The serve? ...Well I'm still figuring it out but the ones I made were also big! I understand why they're nigh on impossible to get now, it's a completely different experience.

TLDR: That Yonex EZONE is a pretty nifty racket.


r/10s 3h ago

Opinion Finally tried the Aero 98 (2023)

10 Upvotes

After almost a year of being fearmongered by the internet and avoiding the Pure Aero 98 2023, I finally said YOLO and got one on sale for around $230, since it was quickly running out of stock everywhere and I always wanted to play with it (in my country racket demoing is not a thing).

HOLY CRAP do I wish I had gotten it sooner, it feels like my shots now come out exactly as I imagined them, and I cannot understand how everyone says it "destroys your arm" or "ruins your wrist", I felt no pain at all after 2h of hitting.


r/10s 4h ago

General Advice Just started playing tennis

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12 Upvotes

I’m 27 and just started learning how to play tennis. Here is a little video of my backhand. Any tips and tricks are welcome :)


r/10s 10h ago

Equipment Initial thoughts on the Defyer 98 Pro, coming from a Pro Staff 97 V14 user.

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30 Upvotes

I apologize for my English, it is not my first language.

So, I've been using the Pro Staff 97 V14 since the start of the year. For context, this is how it is set-up: 315g unstrung + 5g for Wilson Pro Performance Leather Grip + 10g for two Wilson Pro Overgrip + 5g for Luxilon Legacy Dampener Black + 15g Head Lynx Tour 17 strung at 50 lbs mains/crosses. However, since June, I've been experiencing wrist, elbow, and shoulder pain every time I use the Pro Staff. Thus, I decided that I needed to change from a heavy, 350g racket, to a lighter racket.

With Wilson announcing the Defyer, I bought one right away. The Defyer comes at 305g unstrung. My set-up is 305g unstrung+ 10g for two Wilson Pro Overgrip + 5g for Luxilon Legacy Dampener Black + 15g Head Lynx Tour 17 strung at 50 lbs mains/crosses, total of 335g set-up.

I used the Defyer today in practice, and here are my thoughts:

  • Balls went long. In order to generate depth with the Pro Staff, which is really heavy on the arm at 350 g, I have to prepare early, swing fully, put my weight behind the ball while completely following through till the end of the swing. This is not entirely the case with the Defyer. The balls are flying long if I swing the Defyer with the same swing style I have as the Pro Staff. With the Defyer, I have to reign in my swing and just feather the ball and not fling the racket violently in order to control it.
  • Slightly more forgiving. In terms of forgiveness, the Defyer still rewards proper form and technique. In late shots, you will still feel it in your arms if you missed the sweet spot. Although I would say, the drop-off in power for out of sweet spot hits with the Defyer is less when compared to the drop-off in power for out of sweet spot hits with the Pro Staff. The forgiveness aspect is more noticeable in late shots. With the Defyer I can still keep the ball in play since it is much easier to swing as compared to the Pro Staff which I feel like Thor's Mjolnir.
  • Less feel. In connection with the forgiveness aspect of the Pro Staff, there is high drop-off in feel with the Defyer. This is because the Pro Staff feels raw and connected, while the Defyer has a lot of technology for power and dampening. Although there is a drop off in feel with the Defyer, I feel that I am still connected with the ball and I can still control where I want to place the ball, albeit not in the same degree as with the Pro Staff. With the Defyer, it didn't seem that Wilson sacrificed feel for power and spin, which is important for me since it's easier for me to control the ball flight when I feel connected to the ball.
  • More access to spin. The Defyer has a more open mains string pattern towards the center whereas the Pro Staff has a more tighter mains string towards the center. Moreover, the string I've used with the Defyer and the Pro Staff is a shaped string. Thus, its easier to access spin with the Defyer. With the Defyer, I noticed that the ball might fly long but it will dip at the last second due to spin.
  • Less stable at the net. In terms of volleys, it still is the Pro Staff that is better when you play around the net during doubles, or if you play a serve-and-volley playstyle. The Defyer feels less stable when I volley. I don't want to add additional rackets to the 3 and 9 to mirror the PWS system of the Pro Staff, as it will be counterintuitive to my switch to a lighter racket if I add any additional weight for how heavy the Defyer is.

Note that these are my personal, initial experience with the Defyer 98 Pro. I could be wrong that I could have solved my physical issues with proper strength and conditioning, and that I have merely given myself an excuse to buy a new racket (hehe). But, so far, I am loving the Defyer 98 Pro as someone who switched from Pro Staff 97.


r/10s 6h ago

Equipment Moving from 98 to 100?

13 Upvotes

A week ago I just realized I had no reason to use 98 when most pro/high level players use a 100. I mean 100 offer more benefits than a 98 especially if you are just a recreational player.

More power? Nice.

Bigger sweetspot? Nice.

Easier to play? Nice

But its only 2 sq difference, does it make that much of a difference? Should I just go buy ezone 100 and replace my 98 or stick with what I have.


r/10s 3h ago

Equipment Battle scars

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5 Upvotes

Took a tumble while playing the other day and scraped my racket pretty badly. It's now scuffed like this all around the frame. I think it's just cosmetic damage, don't see any cracks or anything.

Is there anything that can be done about this or does my racket just have some battle scars now?


r/10s 5h ago

General Advice I’ve never played doubles but….

8 Upvotes

I’m a 3.0 and play 2x a week with my much more skilled husband. He plays doubles in standing for-fun-only meetups with neighborhood friends …and they want me to sub. What do I need to know to hang with them? Basic etiquette wise, strategy wise- anything you yourself would have wanted to know as a doubles newbie.

Note: not all of them are in fantastic shape so their games tend to be slice-a-thons to compensate for reduced mobility lol.

If you want to include hard-learned lessons that you can look back and laugh at for the rest of us to be entertained by- I encourage that.


r/10s 22h ago

Equipment Bought a new racquet after getting roasted by a court owner

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162 Upvotes

According to the court owner my old racquet is fully dead, he cant understand how I was hitting anything, that my strings are begging for mercy and the frame would be too light even for a little kid lol. Now I got myself the pure drive 2025, and oh boy the owner was right


r/10s 39m ago

Technique Advice forehand help

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Upvotes

Played everyday for the last month, now need to help to see improvement. 6 months into tennis and my forehand has hit a roadblock. Any advice is helpful, finding myself missing many in the net. TIA!!!!


r/10s 20h ago

General Advice I'm biased because I share this philosophy, but a former UK top 10 junior shares what a Spanish coach told his dad...

65 Upvotes

Video here.

Full text: "Carlos Alcaraz’s junior coach watched me hit for 10 minutes at 14 and what he said to my dad afterwards I’ve never forgotten.

He’d flown over to Edinburgh to run a few sessions with some of the best juniors in Scotland.

I was 14, ranked top 10 in the UK, and I’d been preparing for this session for weeks.

I hit my best stuff for 10 minutes, big forehands, clean backhands, sharp footwork, the whole show.

He stopped the session, called my dad over to the side of the court, and said something I’ve thought about every week since.

He said your son hits a beautiful ball, he moves well, he competes hard, but he’s been trained to look like a tennis player not to win like one.

He explained that in Spain they don’t train juniors to have textbook strokes, they train them to figure out how to win the next point against the opponent in front of them.

British juniors get rewarded for clean technique in lessons, Spanish juniors get rewarded for ugly winners in matches.

By the time you’re 18, the British junior has a beautiful game and a losing record, and the Spanish junior has scrappy technique and a draw of opponents he’s already figured out how to beat.

That session reframed how I see development at every level.

The point isn’t what the stroke looks like, the point is whether the player wins the match in front of them"

END

I can imagine the push back, that this guy was already good, so you need to focus on technique in the beginning. Not totally wrong. But as a kid (10 to 17), me and friends just played so many matches. We were too young to think of drills and ways to constantly tweak technique, we would just play matches. I think Karue said he was the same way. I don't know. Just something to think about if you want to be a good tennis player as opposed to somebody who can hit well.


r/10s 7h ago

Technique Advice Advice or Drills for hitting through the ball with spin

4 Upvotes

Hello! I am a 2.5-3.0 player and I've recently started taking lessons to try and actually improve my game.

My back hand is somehow better than my forehand. With my forehand, I struggle immensely with hitting in front of me and "through" the ball.

My coach had me change my grip to a more western style to help with spin but I can't seem to get the windshield wiper motion AND hit through at the same time. So, I either have a spinny weak shot or a blasted flat shot that goes long.

Do you have any tips or drills I can use to make sure I'm hitting in front and still creating some spin?


r/10s 14m ago

Equipment Racket change advice wanted?!

Upvotes

My current set up: 2021 Babolat pure drive. 100 sq inch. 300g. All stock. Strung with poly pro tour 51-53lbs.

I’ve been using pure drives for nearly 20 years.

Me: I’m 34YO now and currently rated 9UTR at doubles at 10UTR at singles. I stopped playing singles 4 years ago in open tournaments… I’ve however got the bug. Oops.

So I’ve played a little recently and been playing ok beat a couple 11UTRs and a 12UTR. I feel like i could be getting more from my rackets, everyone at the tournament I played seems to be using an aero 98, vcore 98 or ezone 98/100.

I’ve tried the two yonex bats at the ezone felt like a plusher pure drive while the vcore seemed to launch the thing with so much height. I felt like I got more but missed more… will I find the court more with it if I persist? Anything else I should look at?

I’m a baseliner that comes forward a bit but not loads, hit with decent RPMs on the forehand.

Advice on rackets welcome. I’ve been on PDs since I was 13 or 14 and haven’t tried much else.


r/10s 9h ago

Shitpost Post-season performance and ratings

5 Upvotes

How does a solid performance at state/sectionals affects one's USTA/NTRP rating?

This question is likely to trigger those who judge people who ask questions about ratings.

I'm not obsessed with my rating. But I do enjoy trying to understand the sphinx that is the USTA algorithm. I realize this is lame. I should only love the game for the game and not care about ratings and algorithms. I know, I know.

Also, I do not think I am awesome at tennis. I am objectively not awesome at tennis.

Just curious if anyone has a sense of how one's post-season record factors into the overall rating formula.

Thanks in advance for not dragging me or judging my lame questions!! 😆


r/10s 6h ago

Equipment Gravity 2019 query

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3 Upvotes

Bought a head gravity pro 2019 from ebay. It plays good, feels good, Font etc checks out, but the color looks washed out on the red side if i compare it to my gravity tour 2019. Has anyone seen this before or is the raquet fake etc. How to know for sure?


r/10s 11h ago

Equipment Time for a new shoes?

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7 Upvotes

r/10s 39m ago

Tournament Talk Are you registered on tournament software

Upvotes

r/10s 8h ago

Equipment Shoe Recommendations to replace Vapor Pros?

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5 Upvotes

I’ve used the Nike vapor pro 2s for years and stockpiled a backlog of them. After burning through them all, I finally “upgraded” to the vapor pro 3s. After two matches, the eyelets holding the bottom laces ripped through. One small design change and now these won’t work for me at all.

I play on hard courts and slide frequently. I love the feel of these shoes, so I’m looking for something similar, but will hold up better like the vapor pro 2s did.


r/10s 7h ago

Equipment Alternative racket recs

3 Upvotes

Casual Rec player starting tennis again (~ 6 months now) from a 15 year hiatus. I play tennis for fun, I am not playing ranked matches but strive to constantly improve.

My ideal version of tennis is rallying with friends - hitting around 8-10 shots between us and then trying to finish the point from there. Occasional doubles points as well along with weekly tennis clinics (drills and games such as king of the court, etc).

Bought an Ezone 100 for myself and content with the performance with poly tour pro at 52lbs. I am able to hit deep, powerful shots (that often go long) and have a lot of confidence at net. Of course, I would love more control. However, after playing with it for a few months, I find myself really missing the joy of being able to feel your shot - something that makes me addicted to tennis. Currently, when I hit the ball I can barely even feel any connection. After hitting it’s so hard to tell from feedback whether the shot was good or not - I need to visually watch the ball to see where it ends up.

I am asking for any recommendations for either strings for my current Ezone or other rackets that may provide me with that joy of actually feeling connected to the shot again. Nothing is wrong with the ezone performance but just missing that raw connection to hitting. I know 15 years ago I had a prince racket that felt amazing that way.

Below is some information about rackets I had demoed before buying the ezone 100 and other string setups. The caveat being I have no control or knowledge of the string setups for these demos, so I understand they may behave differently than my opinions:

Pure drive 100: loved it! But at least the way the demo was strung (tried both rpm blast and hyperg) after 1.5 hr of play I definitely felt some arm soreness. Decided not to push my luck

Wilson blade 100 v10: absolute gem and so whippy and maneuverable. Felt more connected to the ball than the ezone but could barely get ground strokes past the service line. Could be a string issue with overly high tension.

Speed MP: felt sluggish in comparison to the other rackets. Shots felt kind of dead like hitting the ball with a board. Again could be a dead string issue with the demo. I think it was rpm blast.

Ezone 100 with hyperg at 54lb: way too high of tension for me. Felt no ball pocketing whatsoever in comparison to my now content 52lb PTP

Below is a list of rackets I have on my shortlist:
Retrial of head speed MP
Prince tour 100p
Prince tour 100 (either 290 or 310)
Technifibre Tfight 300

What are others that I should add for a trial to feel more connected? Any alternative string recs for the Ezone 100? Perhaps higher tensions multi or synthetic gut?


r/10s 9h ago

Equipment Wrist and arm pain after re-stringing

4 Upvotes

Hi all,

I am a complete newbie (mid 30's Male, 174 cm) to the world of tennis. I started my classes a month and a half ago. I got myself a Kuikma Graphlite from Decathlon (106 in2, 265 g unstrung) - https://www.decathlon.in/p/8807657/adult-beginner-tennis-racket-tr-easy-graph-lite-blue, which I thought would be a good beginner's racket. After playing a while, I realized I was not improving my game/accuracy/power etc, and when I tried one of the trainer's racquet (Fischer make, 295 g, string - Babolat RPM Blast 47 lbs tension), I felt my play improved tremendously. I had a similar experience with another racquet of similar weight with Solinco Hyper G string. Based on this observation, a junior trainer offered to do stringing for me with the RPM blast set to 48 lbs. After playing today with the restrung racket, I have started feeling pain in my wrist and upper arm joint. I initially thought perhaps this is due to a new string. However, upon closer inspection, I noticed the string which he actually used was rather the cheaper one - Babolat Pro Last. I am quite annoyed he would do this, perhaps to pocket that extra money? leaving the money aspect, can the kind people here tell me how can I go about choosing a more appropriate string for the racket that I have now? Its only in the last two weeks, I realized the 265 g unstrung racket is probably not giving me enough power, and want to upgrade myself to a better one soon. But for the next 3-6 months, is there any use extending the usage of this racket if I change the string to something more appropriate?


r/10s 5h ago

Equipment Racket and strings recommendation

2 Upvotes

Hi! Been lurking this sub a little recently and thought it might be nice to get some recommendations because up until now my setup has just been based off the preferences of friends that also play.

I am a recreational player that would self rate around 3.0-3.5 for women. I try to hit 2x/week 1:1 with a couple different women and 1x/week 1:1 with a guy friend. Worth noting the guys I’ll hit with are significantly better than me and tend to hit the ball with a lot more pace than the women I hit with. I think it’s helped me in incremental improvements with generating more pace myself.

I learned to slice fairly recently and my overall game play is more diverse now. I use western grip and generally hit pretty spinny shots that have a lot of net clearance but I’ve been working to flatten that out more.

Anyway that’s just some context to say I think for a casual female hitter I hit with decent pace and ball positioning. I currently use an Ezone 100 and Yonex poly tour rev strings 17g at 53lb.

AI was saying I should consider lower tension and a hybrid string setup. I’m wondering what you guys would recommend?


r/10s 1d ago

Look at me! Playing on grass at the court of dreams

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296 Upvotes

On Sunday, I had the honor of playing a match on the grass court at the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club. It was an incredible and surreal experience.

So I just turned 40 and my partner and I were hoping to celebrate by flying to London and joining the famous queue at Wimbledon. However, a series of circumstances made this impossible. My partner found the next best thing: a chance to play on grass.

As far as I can tell, the All Iowa Lawn Tennis Club is one of only two grass courts within a days drive from Minneapolis. The other is a country club resort in wisconsin. But this was more than just a grass court.

Mark Kuhn is a remarkable Iowan farmer. He was obsessed with Wimbledon as a kid. Later on, he had an idea: bring Centre Court to Iowa. You can learn about his incredible story that has now been told on podcasts, books, and even ESPN. Eventually his quest led to an internship with the grounds crew at Wimbledon. 

The court has hosted tournaments and VIP visits, including from midwestern native Madison Keys. I was incredibly excited to see it for myself.

It was a two and a half hour drive, ending on a gravel road near Charles City, Iowa. As you pull up, you're greeted by a Union Jack flag. When we arrived on Sunday afternoon, a group was just finishing up a day of intense doubles.

Mark greeted us: "welcome to the court of dreams."

The beautiful grass court is bordered by a picket fence, painted white on the outside and green on the inside. Violet umbrelllas shade the two players benches, and is completed by the eigh foot umpire chair in the middle (with its own small umbrella).

Flower boxes surround the outside perimeter, as well as a row of corn on one side - this is iowa after all. The grass felt incredible underneath my feet and I couldn't wait to play.

I have never enjoyed losing in two sets so much. The grass immediately suited my partner's game, with her low flat shots and immaculate slices. Her serve rarely bounced more than half a foot in the air before it skidded out of my desperate reach. At one point one of my errant balls flew out the side of the court and was caught - by the leaves of a cornstalk! 

My serve never really came together, but I did make a comeback in the second, diving for a ball that would have made it 5-5. But alas. 1-6, 4-6. But so much fun.

We played a consolation set since we had the time. Mark came out and asked if he could ascend the umpire chair and watch. We happily obliged. I tried to give him some entertaining points, but I was pretty gassed at that point. It was a sunny 85 degree day. But I was honored to have him watch - he even made a few line calls for us from his perch.

Afterwards, Mark invited us to visit the Queen's Box - the breezy back porch of the Kuhn farmhouse overlooking the court. This was perhaps the highlight of the day, hearing Mark's stories from Wimbledon. I won't give away his stories, or the nature of the one-of-a-kind souvenirs that adorn the Queen's Box. You will have to visit for yourself.

We finally made our way home, but I will cherish this experience. And hopefully get back someday.

I urge anyone who is interested to try to visit for yourself, or even make a donation. Mark is hoping to ensure the future of the court for generations to come as he gets older. "Father Time is undefeated" were his words. The family farmhouse can now be rented for overnight stays. Go play the court of dreams!


r/10s 3h ago

General Advice Advice for Absolute Beginners

1 Upvotes

I have been playing for about 2-3 months now. I have a friend who’s been helping me and we play consistently with a small group probably 3+ times a week. I am 9 months post op from a knee injury(so this was a slowww start into tennis) and there is a ‘timer’ for how often/how long I can play, although it has gotten better.
Anyways- Does anyone have any advice for absolute beginners? I have a Wilson racket I found for free and been relying on youtube videos.
What’s worth the money in the beginning? I can serve probably 1 good one out of every 20 tries, any advice on getting more consistent? Also, any advice for anyone playing with bad knees on what helps them with recovery after tennis?