learning to play

Learning to play doesn’t have to be intimidating. Who among us wasn’t at least a little bit apprehensive when they first picked up a racket? Well, have no fear because we’re right here to tell you how to start, why it is a great idea to start, and the benefits you will receive as you begin to learn tennis.

As you learn to play tennis, it’s best to start with the basics as a tennis beginner. Then, once you learn to play tennis with this more rudimentary knowledge, you can study some more advanced techniques.

The Scoring

To begin to learn to play tennis, you need to understand its unusual scoring method. Scoring doesn’t start with 1 or 0 — it starts with the term “love”, equivalent to zero. The first point is then 15 followed by the next point, 30, and the next point, 40. The following point is the winning point and it’s called game point or set point or match point — depending on which you are playing.

The server’s score is always announced first. So, for instance if the server has two points and his opponent, the receiver, has none, the score is 30-love. If a game is tied at 40-40, it is called “deuce”. If the server gets the next point, it’s called server advantage (announced as “Ad In”); if the receiver gets the next point, it’s called receiver advantage (announced “Ad Out”). Note: Some use the more casual terms of “My Ad” when it is server advantage or “Your Ad” when it is the receiver advantage. It’s advantage because the player who has it only needs one more point to win. Should they not make this one point the game goes back to deuce. Scoring is perhaps a bit complicated, or more complicated than it really needs to be (let’s be honest) but necessary to understand as you learn to play tennis.

The Tennis Court

A tennis court is 78 feet long by 27 feet wide, and divided in half length-wise by the net. At each end of the court, there are white baselines — it is here that the serves are taken. These are also the out-of-bounds lines — a ball must not bounce beyond them or it’s “out” and the player who hit the ball loses the point.

Each side of the court is lined with two white marks to indicate the width of the court for singles play and the larger width for doubles play. The short white line extending from the net to halfway down the court is the service court.

Singles

A tennis beginner can play a singles or doubles game with either one or two players on each side of the net. The game — and, each point — begins with a serve taken from behind the baseline. The ball must bounce into the diagonally opposite service court. (Your serve may be your most difficult stroke as you learn to play tennis.) The play — or point — continues until one player fails to hit the ball back or hits it out-of-bounds.

Doubles

With doubles, the serving position rotates across teams and partners. For instance, if team partners A and B were playing doubles with team partners C and D, partner A would serve first and then it would rotate to partner C and then back to partner B and finally to partner D.

Also important to know when you learn to play tennis: At the end of the odd-numbered games in a set, including the first game, the players exchange ends of the court. This is true in both singles and doubles games.

Tennis is a Lifelong Sport

If you learn to play tennis, it can be your first step toward a lifetime of fitness and pleasure. And now that we’ve discussed how to learn to play tennis with the basics, you’re ready to get out on the court. There’s no better way to learn to play tennis than with practice; with practice, you’ll not only learn to play tennis, you’ll learn to play tennis well.