Absolute beginner Tennis questions...

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Legendary

Originally posted by: MAME
FOLLOW THIS ONE RULE:
Play with NEW balls. Use the same balls at MOST 3 times. Then toss them. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about here.

Do NOT save old balls, just toss them in the trash.

Seconded.
Playing with dead tennis balls will RUIN your game, especially starting out.

I had no idea...

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: Legendary

Originally posted by: MAME
FOLLOW THIS ONE RULE:
Play with NEW balls. Use the same balls at MOST 3 times. Then toss them. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about here.

Do NOT save old balls, just toss them in the trash.

Seconded.
Playing with dead tennis balls will RUIN your game, especially starting out.

EXACTLY.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Legendary

Originally posted by: MAME
FOLLOW THIS ONE RULE:
Play with NEW balls. Use the same balls at MOST 3 times. Then toss them. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about here.

Do NOT save old balls, just toss them in the trash.

Seconded.
Playing with dead tennis balls will RUIN your game, especially starting out.

I had no idea...

Consider yourself informed. Trust me on this one

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: Koing

Originally posted by: MAME
FOLLOW THIS ONE RULE:
Play with NEW balls. Use the same balls at MOST 3 times. Then toss them. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about here.

Do NOT save old balls, just toss them in the trash.

wtf?

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure that the OP isn't good enough to hit the ball hard and consistently over the net, to have any decent rally's that the ball pressure will matter to him at all. Just play with the same balls. When the balls don't bounce well get some others to play with.

Koing

I've been helping people start playing for a long time now and that's the number one thing I see. Flat balls. It seriously only takes 3 trips even if you hit softly. Especially when you only go once a week.

 

[Koing]

Well the balls I use aren't flat they and play fine to me.

I get enough bounce out of the balls I use. If they are flat I just don't use them anymore. I seriously don't notice the balls I use go flat on me after 3 trips. But I have a bunch of balls though but I must have used them all at least 10x by now. Not affected my game.

Koing

 

[sillymofo]

I can only offer you advice on swing and follow through. I remember when I was an absolute noob at tennis, and my first train sessions involved a quarter and a tennis racket. The object is to put the quarter on the edge of the racket, control your back swing and bring it to front so that you don't drop the quarter.

If you can master that, then come back next week for the next lesson (. This is free service btw.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Go to a tennis pro shop and test out the raquets first! Very important! There are huge differences in raquets even within brands. Heck, even within a specific model. Try out some different raquets and see which ones you like, then search for that model and find where you can get it the cheapest. I've never encountered a good pro shop that wouldn't let you test-play a raquet. They all have demo raquets available.

ZV

EDIT: Personally, I have a very difficult time finding raquets that suit me. Most new raquets are strongly head-heavy and I prefer an equally-balanced raquet, or even one that is head-light. It definitely pays to test a few raquets first.

 

[LordSnailz]

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
I can only offer you advice on swing and follow through. I remember when I was an absolute noob at tennis, and my first train sessions involved a quarter and a tennis racket. The object is to put the quarter on the edge of the racket, control your back swing and bring it to front so that you don't drop the quarter.

If you can master that, then come back next week for the next lesson (. This is free service btw.

hahah ... that's actually pretty good. When I was learning, they told me to imagine hitting through a row of 10 tennis balls ... that did it for me .. =)

 

[gistech1978]

Originally posted by: DeafeningSilence

Originally posted by: gistech1978

Originally posted by: Namuna
Thanks for the replies everyone, much appreciated.

I'll definitely be checking out Walmart and Target and such for some beginner racquets...Something I did read about cheapo racquets though is that they aren't very forgiving as far as dampening the vibration from hitting the ball...Which leads to sore arms/writs/elbows.

If this is true, at what price point do racquets start 'dampening' the vibration? Even at a beginner level, I'm willing to spend a little more if it means less soreness.

...Then again, the shape I'm in, I'm lucky if I can jog 1/4 mile and not keel over in pain. So that whole soreness thing might be a no-consideration thing for me.

there are essentially 'shock absorbers' or string dampeners you can put on your strings, you can pick them up almost anywhere. 5 bucks will get you 2 or 3 of them. they help out tremendously, in fact i would say they are mandatory. you dont get that 'PING' sound when you hit the ball and it really helps your arm.

I agree that they're useful... but a tiny piece of rubber or plastic won't do a thing for serious 'tennis elbow' problems. The root cause is the overall-light, but head-heavy, construction of modern racquets. Vibration of the stringbed is a relatively small factor, IMO.

well, it wont save you from tennis elbow, but they wont hurt anything either.
plus it feels much better with one on when you hit the ball.

i still battled tennis elbow really bad when i started playing everyday in 7th grade. i would go to the courts alone and hit serves for hours a night.
took me forever to get a second serve down. i couldnt make myself just dink it over and get it in.
in one game during a match in 9th grade i had 4 aces and 4 double faults. my old coach apparently still tells his kids now about me doing that, as a lesson to develop a second serve.

 

[MAME]

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
I can only offer you advice on swing and follow through. I remember when I was an absolute noob at tennis, and my first train sessions involved a quarter and a tennis racket. The object is to put the quarter on the edge of the racket, control your back swing and bring it to front so that you don't drop the quarter.

If you can master that, then come back next week for the next lesson (. This is free service btw.

I don't get it, where do you put the quarter?

 

[0roo0roo]

buy a book to give yourself an idea of the basics. there are quite a few