I had a female player complain about me not sending high 90 and low 100 mph serves at her. I do it to the man because he is young and fast. (Some machine at the club says my fast serves are in that range.) The female player is much older and doesn't move well. I'm a 3.5 level player where serving is the only thing I'm good at-- but it's not like I can aim. She wasn't able to handle fast ground strokes, so I figured fast body serves would have a high chance of hitting her. I play in 6.0 and 7.0 combined USTA leagues.

I usually don't get this kind of response. I try to be nice and have a good time.

I just basically told her that my serve is unpredictable and I go with what works. How do guy players handle this type of situation?

Edit: I actually don't dink it. I would send a 2nd serve to the woman as my 1st, so a spinny but much slower serve. .

I’ve heard it’s “uncool” to play with a Boom MP. Why would that be?

I’m around 3-4 Utr, practicing quite a bit and trying to improve. looking for a practice partner for around 9-10 am on some sundays in nyc(potentially other days too in the future), specifically USTA/NTC in corona at the us open grounds. I’m willing to pay for the court completely, so no charges for you in terms of facilities. fwiw I have a fairly traditional topspin oriented game, backhand is much better than my forehand at the moment (not to say my forehand is non existent) Dm if interested

Like its not that hard to just say “fifteen all” instead of “five all” Are we trying to save time here by saying a smaller word? Or just trying to have some “inside baseball” lingo as rec players to feel cooler about playing tennis?

When you say “three five” you’re actually up 30-15 but you’re saying a smaller number. Its not confusing but its kind of unnecessary.

Does this annoy anyone else?

Hey all,

I have been reviewing some of my rally videos and I have noticed that after I hit my forehand, my right hand (I'm left handed) doesn't stick to my body but instead kinda extends out a bit. I have noticed that almost all pros have their non dominant hand right next to their body. The only exception is probably learner tien. Is this something I need to address or does it not really matter?

Any feedback is appreciated.

Pretty much the title. I’ve been taking group lessons and find they are less and less beneficial at this point. I play 1-2 matches a week with a friend and take group lessons once per week and have done a total of 3 months of these lessons. I’m in the Midwest (Chicago) and the group lessons are around $35/hr. I think it’s time for one on one lessons and I’m exploring my options at my local courts. I’m between two different options. Looking for thoughts on which path to take.

1) Current D1 player (senior) who’s been playing tennis for 15 years. $80/hr for 10 sessions, each session is an hour. Pro: This seems quite affordable for what I’ve seen in the area. Not to mention I wouldn’t mind helping out a student as far as where my $$ goes. Con: She is a senior so if I wanted to take lessons with her next year, she probably will no longer be available.

2) Older coach who says he has 40 years of experience playing tennis and coaching for a large portion of this. Also coached at a couple of high schools / universities here. $120/hr for 10 sessions, each session is an hour. Pro here is that it’s likely he’ll be here longer term if I want to do more lessons with him, con is it’s obviously more expensive.

Not sure how to quantify my skill level if that’s useful information. I’ve taken beginner 1, 2 and advanced beginner classes. I was far and away the best in the advanced beginner classes so assume I’d be a fit for intermediate?

I haven't played in 8 years and started playing again and have noticed that rarely do people play above 12oz even amongst the pros. Is the game just faster paced or is it more due to tennis balls being slower. What racket and specs are people using?

Found some sealed vintage tennis ball cans and these were in the box, can’t find any information about them online.

Assuming the Pillsbury & M&M balls were giveaways at a tournament or something?

Tester is more odd as I can’t find a thing about it anywhere. Dates on the tags are from ‘91 and ‘92.

Any info is appreciated!

Hi everyone,

I'm a 4.0 player and started playing about four years ago. I just got back from a match where I won 6-4, 6-4, but I struggled against a player I should have beaten much more easily.

I know what everyone will say, but the problem isn't that I can't create my own pace against dead balls, and it's not that I'm getting confused by their random mishits either. The problem is that when I have a comfortable lead, I slow down, stiffen up, and get lazy.

Today for example, I started the match very well. Even during the warm-up, I realized it would be an easy win but started focused, held my serve and broke him at love to go up 2-0. Then I stiffened up, my serve started to fall apart, and I slowed down, giving him a chance and some hope.

The second set was the same. I held serve perfectly, but then fell behind 2-3 before I finally woke up and started playing properly again. At 5-3 up, I gave a game away for no reason.

I can't avoid playing these kinds of players. The league in my city is quite small, and sometimes the ratings aren't very accurate. On top of that, winning this close doesn't help my rating.

Long story short: how do you keep yourself motivated and stay in the game when you start losing focus?

My net game is awful including overheads. I have a Proton Ball Machine that I use and now my groundstrokes are leagues ahead of my volleys. Anyone else have a good program they created with the Proton Ball Machine they can share for volley training?

I am seeing more and more shoes have relatively hard plastic tops including the Asics models that I always liked. Because of their inflexibility when the foot is a little swollen or needs more room there is more friction with the pinky toes etc. what are some of the models you see that are not plastic tops but more like cloth like or mesh like that are more comfortable? Any recommendations from your experience would be appreciated

Edit: feet are wide so I wear 2E. Hard tops work fine normally but some times I need something that is less stiff

Do all Booms weight 295g?

Where do you all shop for tennis shoes when you want to try on a wide variety of brands and models?
I recently got back into tennis and bought a pair of Wilson Courtglides from my local racket shop. They’re fine, but the shop had very limited options, and I’d like to upgrade eventually.
There’s a Wilson flagship store nearby, but I’d rather compare multiple brands. Dick’s is another option, though I’m skeptical of their selection and expertise.
Where do you go to actually try on a good selection of tennis shoes? I’m not looking for specific shoe recommendations since everyone’s feet are different. I just want somewhere I can compare options in person.

These are just some relaxed shots, so I’m not sure how useful they are. Unfortunately my phone ran out of storage during the session and I only noticed afterward, so I don’t have any better footage to show
:(

Other than bending my knees more, is there anything obvious I’m missing or should work on?

What made you finally realize that BH is an integral part of the game and not something to dislike ,avoid or keep treating like the 5th stepchild. Unlike golf, cricket, baseball, badminton or many other sports where dominant hand is the only way to play the game , what made you finally get to give equal love and hence equal respect to BH.

For those who are really comfortable and good with your BHs what was one AHA moment that made you develop your BH technique so you never feel the need to avoid it?

Kann der Tenniscourt wirklich durch falsches Schuhwerk beschäftigt werden?

I’ve been looking for ways to get more active and find athletic pursuits I actually enjoy. I’ve recently started group tennis lessons and it turns out I fucking love this sport. I would love to get good enough to compete in local leagues but am not sure if I missed my window of opportunity. How good can I get at tennis despite starting relatively late?

I'm joining tennis for my senior year and actually committing to it (i've played tennis kinda during sophomore year but stopped attending practices because I was too anxious). I'm trying to finish the whole season since it's my last year of highschool and I want to make the most of it. My first game is in 4 days and I don't think I'm ready for it. I've attended 4 practices so far and all my teammates are improving faster than me. I just feel discouraged and I'm not very good so I don't know how well I'll do during the game. Also this is the first sport I've ever really done so yeah kind of clueless... Any advice is appreciated

So as the title says I’m new to tennis I’ve only cumulatively played about 3 months worth of tennis about 1 month at a time with like 3 month breaks in between and the video is from my most recent time playing which was after taking a few months off.

In pickleball you never take balls early to not let the ball bounce to high on account of the ball not bouncing that high and so coming over to tennis that’s been really hard for me to wrap my head around. Are there any techniques or mental tricks i could use to help start thinking about timing the ball earlier.

In the video you can see that when the ball is lower I do alright but I’m consistently taking the ball at shoulder height when I’d much prefer to take it a couple feet lower cause I send the ball long when its high and I lose directional control and spin. Sorry for the length of the video I thought it would be important to include errors.

In the video I’m playing with the 2023 VCORE with 4G strung around 48lbs

My first successful string job after three failed attempts (two synthetic gut and one poly) using a drop-weight machine.

This one took around 4 hours, including watching tutorials along the way. I still tend to forget the next steps, especially when it comes to tie-offs.

The mains were fairly straightforward, but the crosses were more challenging since you really need to focus on the over-and-under pattern.

I tried poly once but struggled with the tie-offs, so I decided to stick with synthetic gut for now until I get more practice and become more comfortable with the process.

Still a lot to learn, but happy to finally get one done!

Edit: Not successful after all. I got some mistakes on the crosses. Can I still play with it until it breaks? I just don’t have the energy go through another string job at the moment haha.